ISL have been providing this service since April 2022 when funding was made available form the ICB for Crisis Bed provision within the West Cheshire Footprint.
There are plans to go out to tender of this service within this financial year. As this procurement exercise will take time there is a need to extend this contract the current contract so there is no break and we can maintain continuity of care for Patients.
The Trust recommendation is that the contract with the provider is extended as all outcomes and contractual obligations are currently being met and achieved. The provider has established and is maintaining positive relationships with stakeholders and other providers of mental health care. This includes the Trust First Response teams such as Home Treatment Team, and Crisis Line who regularly refer patients to the service.
CHESHIRE AND WIRRAL PARTNERSHIP NHS FOUNDATION TRUSTNorth WestWAC-582431
The Dementia Resource Community, on behalf of Age UK, have been commissioned since January 2021, to provide two memory assessment nurses, who work alongside the WMAS, to reduce the waiting list and waiting times for access to memory assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. The two nurses work at the first stage of the pathway which is the initial memory assessment phase before the referral is discussed at an MDT
CHESHIRE AND WIRRAL PARTNERSHIP NHS FOUNDATION TRUSTNorth WestWAC-433751
Koala North West are a local third sector charity organisation.
Our partnership has directly improved the maintained Breastfeeding for families in Cheshire West and Chester due to Koala's management and delivery of a group of skilled volunteers who support infant feeding and early relationships.
The evidence base (Best Start in Life 2022) shows us that early relationships build lifelong benefits both physically and emotionally.
Koala's volunteer model in unique, and well respected in the area.
Patient feedback in September 2025 highlighted the positive impact that Koala's groups, phone calls, and social media have delivered to our families when they need it under delegation with effective governance.
The commissioner of Starting Well 0-19 services endorses the service level agreement between CWP and Koala recognising both the clinical benefits but also the social value - the opportunity for local people to volunteer, retrain, and support their communities.
The cost of the agreement with Koala is the average cost of one specialist nurse a year, one nurse could not cover the same level of advice and guidance, group delivery and overall breastfeeding support on such scale. The specialist nurse time of those in post is more available for other targeted and specialist delivery that is not appropriate for skill mixed delivery due to the support of this partnership.
As incumbent providers, Koala possess the necessary human and technical resources and experience to perform the contract to an appropriate quality standard.
CHESHIRE AND WIRRAL PARTNERSHIP NHS FOUNDATION TRUSTNorth WestWAC-540976