Procurement description
The North London Forensic Collaborative (NLFC) commissions and delivers forensic adult secure inpatient and specialist forensic community services for the population of North London. This includes people with a learning disability and/or autism in inpatient and community forensic services. The collaborative is formed of five NHS Trusts and one Independent Provider. North London Foundation Trust (NLFT) as the Lead Provider, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL), East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT), North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), West London NHS Trust (WLT), and The Priory Hospital, working in partnership to improve services for patients, families, carers and staff.
There are currently 700 low and medium secure inpatient beds across the provider collaborative, and provision for 600 community forensic service users provided by three Specialist Community Forensic Teams (SCFT)’s, each aligned to one of the Integrated Care Systems (ICS) in North London.
NLFT as part of their lead provider responsibilities are required to establish and host a delineated commissioning team, known as ‘The Commissioning Hub’. The commissioning hub is comprised of clinical, operational, experts by experience and corporate staff, and the governance structures provide a framework through which providers can hold each other to account in a fair, transparent and constructive way (Diagram 1). Clinical networks are comprised of staff from across the collaborative, and the patient council is comprised of current patients from adult secure inpatient services, placing co-production, and staff and patient engagement at the centre of quality and service improvement.
The NLFC will be publishing the Co-production and User Involvement Strategy in September 2025, which reaffirms the Commissioning Hub’s commitment to working in partnership with people who use services, their families, and carers. Underpinned by five strategic priorities, the strategy aims to further strengthen and elevate the role of people with lived experience within the commissioning hub, ensuring people who use services can meaningfully shape, influence, and assure how services are designed, delivered, and quality assured.
To achieve this, the Commissioning Hub is seeking to partner with an organisation that brings proven expertise in co-production and developing a lived experience workforce. This partnership aims to strengthen and build upon the existing model, which currently includes:
• Peer Engagement Workers (PEW): Six peers with lived experience recruited into paid positions to work alongside clinical quality managers in quality assurance roles, which includes one peer with a learning disability (Appendix A)
• The NLFC Patient Council: A patient council comprised of 12 members, with representatives from all the inpatient providers, established to co-create and co-deliver system wide quality improvement and service development initiatives. (Appendix B)
• Community Connectors: A group of community forensic service users, with representation from each of the SCFT’s, established to co commission provision delivered through the NLFC VCFSE Grants and Access to Employment programmes. (Appendix C)
In addition to maintaining the existing model, the appointed provider will be required to strengthen and expand it by developing new roles for people with a learning disability and autistic people, and by supporting the engagement of families, friends, and carers. The provider will also deliver strategic expertise and a comprehensive training programme; both aimed at embedding meaningful involvement at all stages of the commissioning cycle and governance structures.