Purpose

The current Hospital and Community Navigators contract (contract reference GMCA 496) should be extended from the current end date of 30/06/2026 to 31/08/2026, to enable the completion of a competitive tender process. This contract is delivered by Oasis Community Partnerships.

The total value of the existing contract is £2,223,058.50
The value of the contract extension is: £100,310.68
The total value of the contract once this extension has been completed will be £2,323,369.18

Decision

The Hospital and Community Navigator Service has been delivered since May 2021, and to date has received over 2500 referrals of young people age 10-25. Approximately 30% of these young people have engaged with longer term bespoke support to help them with mental health, relationships, education, employment, housing and integration with services and their communities.

The GM Navigator approach is unique in early adoption of community referrals and engagement rather than a hospital-based team approach. This allows for a wider reach and upstream prevention activity and covers all three tiers of primary, secondary and tertiary intervention.

The Youth Endowment Fund highlights A&E Navigator programmes as a high impact intervention.

A competitive procurement exercise has been undertaken for a new contract for this service. It was anticipated that the new contract would come into effect on 1st July 2026, however unforeseen technical issues relating to the central digital platform mean that the new contract will not be in place by 1st July 2026. A short 2-month extension is therefore required to ensure continuity of service whilst the competitive tender process is completed.