NHS children’s community health services and the inpatient adolescent mental health service in Bristol & South Gloucestershire are in the process of being recommissioned. In the next few weeks the commissioners will announce their ‘preferred bidders’ to run a one-year interim service from April 2016 ahead of a decision about which provider will be awarded a longer-term ‘substantive’ contract. We know private companies are planning to bid to run these services.

There are two reasons why this campaign is vitally important:

Firstly, children and young people in Bristol and South Gloucestershire need to get the best possible care and treatment. This means having services which are integrated and can work together, provided by people who are interested in delivering top quality care, not making maximum profit.

Secondly, every time an NHS service in the UK is privatised we are a step closer to a US-style health system which would mean the end of free-at-point-of-need healthcare. The government has just proposed an inquiry into moving to a ‘pay NHS’ – further evidence that this government is not fully committed to a future publicly-owned health service.

We are a group of concerned local people, including service users and NHS staff, who understand how damaging the consequences of moving these services to a private provider could be. We think the principle of ‘people before profit’ in the NHS is fundamental in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and the rest of the UK.

Join our campaign at

or search ‘Protect CCHP’ on Twitter for more information.