Decision details

The report seeks approval to re-commission three social cafes in Sheffield to support the recovery of people with low level mental health conditions for three years.

That the Director of Strategic Commissioning and Inclusion is authorised, in liaison with the Directors of Commercial, Legal and Financial Services, to run a re-procurement process for 3 social cafes, as described in the report, and to award contracts for running the cafes.

The cafes are a proven means of supporting people with low level mental health conditions. The current geographic split of the cafes works well. The proposal is to refine the current model, ensuring recovery stays central and spreading the training offer into the communities around the cafes.

A number of alternative options were considered:

Cease all funding for cafes – this would save money but remove the means for the Council to support people with low level mental health conditions. In all likelihood this would lead to an increase in those requiring statutory mental health services from health and social care with the associated costs. This option does not fit with the city’s commitment to prevention of poor wellbeing.

Commission a greater number of cafes – this option is not financially viable. However  the proposed option includes further development of the training offer to those involved in other volunteering activities and will embed the principle of the mental health recovery ethos to a wider audience

Commission cafes giving each responsibility for training – this would require each organisation to develop expertise leading to a duplication of effort and different standards across the cafes

Commission café training separately – commissioning the training offer separately to the three cafes could lead to them being delivered by a provider not involved in the operation of the cafes and thus not informed by the experience of involvement in the cafes.