A NEW, larger contract to provide children and young people living in Surrey with greater mental health and learning disability support has been won by Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

The trust, which is the current provider of these services in Surrey, was one of five mental health and learning disability providers to bid for the £12.9 million contract put up for tender on behalf of Surrey’s NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups and Surrey County Council last year.

As part of the new Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) contract for Surrey, an extra £2.3 million of funding – a 30 per cent increase - has been awarded to the trust to strengthen and develop the delivery of mental health and learning disability support services across the county.

The new arrangement will take effect from April and will lead to the creation of new clinical posts.

Surrey and Borders Partnership will use the funding to increase access to services, resulting in more out-of-hours support, and to also broaden the range of services offered. There will also be an increased drive to reach vulnerable and under-represented groups.

To help achieve this, the trust will lead a partnership of both national and local voluntary, statutory and private providers, who have proven track records in delivering services to children and young people.

Fiona Edwards, chief executive of Surrey and Borders Partnership, said: “Our team put together a compelling and innovative submission to win this contract and we are delighted that our plans to build on what we have already achieved with this service have been rubber stamped by the CCGs.

“The new partnership model of care will help us deliver greater support to more children and young people with the aim of reaching them before they become seriously unwell.

“This approach fits with the trust’s core strategy, which is to focus on prevention and early intervention, and to build excellent working relationships with the right partners to achieve this.”