WOL— South Asian Community Support Service — 2013.

Descriptions

Wolverhampton City Council is seeking to purchase the delivery of a South Asian Community Support Service within the City of Wolverhampton. The service will be delivered over a three year period from 1.4.2014 to 31.3.2017 with an option to conditionally extend up to a further two years. The service will aim to provide a preventative community service that south Asian people can access, who are at risk of developing or are recovering from ill mental health.Nearly 6 400 000 people in England belong to ethnic minority communities. This figure represents about 1 in 8 of England’s population. The ethnic minority communities in England share a number of features. Disadvantage and discrimination characterise their experiences in this country in almost all walks of life. This is particularly true in the area of health and health care. The National Mental Health Needs Analysis found that women from south Asian ethnic groups experience the highest rates for any common mental health disorder, suicide rates are also higher among this group (aged 25-39) than their white British counterparts.The service will be accessible to adults aged 18-65 who are Wolverhampton residents. The service will work in line with key agendas by delivering an accessible safe space that will enable service users to become independent, improve their well-being and ultimately ensure service users are enabled to access mainstream provision. This will include community resources for education, employment and leisure opportunities.The direct support hours with service users shall be a minimum of 1 470 hours per annum (30 hours per week). This allows 7 hours of administration and travel time based on a 37 hour per week. Opening hours will be flexible in order to meet the identified needs of the service users. It is expected that the service will signpost to evening activities to ensure service users have a choice of activities they can engage in.