Charity awarded £15m contract for drug and alcohol services

A charity-led partnership has been awarded a £15 million contract to provide drug and alcohol recovery services in Brighton and Hove.

The Pavilions Partnership, led by Surrey charity Cranstoun, beat three other bidders to win the three-year contract, which has a potential two-year extension.

The winning bid was evaluated on price and quality, with price being given a 30% weighting.

The decision - made by the Brighton and Hove Health and Wellbeing Board - was to be ratified at a meeting of the Brighton and Hove City Council Policy and Resources Committee.

The Health and Wellbeing Board is mostly made up of representatives of the council and the Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

The contract decision is also subject to the director of public health Tom Scanlon being satisfied with the arrangements being made by the Pavilions Partnership.

The partnership is made up of seven organisations in addition o Cranstoun. They are: Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Equinox Care, Brighton Oasis Project, Brighton Housing Trust (BHT), SMART Recovery, Cascade Creative Recovery and Mind in Brighton and Hove.

The decision to award the contract to the Pavilions Partnership was criticised at a meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Nick McMaster, branch communications officer for the union Unison, said that the service was being taken away from 'an established and confident local NHS provider'.

He said that it appeared to be 'a risky proposition with little impact assessment on the local health economy'.

Council leader Jason Kitcat, who chairs the Health and Wellbeing Board, however, defended the process and said that the new contract involved a move from harm reduction to focusing more on recovery.

Cllr Kitcat said: 'It will represent a significant service shift. We do not set the national laws of contracts (but) it's been an exemplary process.'