Public Health Community Nursing Services

Concepts

• health services
• hove
• health
• parent and child mental health
• health and wellbeing needs
• public health community nursing services
• community midwifery
• nurse
• community
• nursing

Location

HOVE

Description

*This is an Intention to Award Notice for a Direct Award C process under the Provider Selection Regime* Brighton and Hove City Council intend to award the contract for an existing service, namely the Public Health Community Nursing Services contract, to the existing provider for a period of up to 5 years (3 years plus potential extension of up to two years). The service consists of the Health Visiting Service and a School Nurse service whose combined offer covers ages 0-19 yrs. The services are provided in line with the national Healthy Child Programme model with universal, targeted and specialist levels provided according to the needs of babies, children and families. Health Visitors are based in the city's Family Hubs and work closely with the wider early help system and with community midwifery to provide integrated support. They deliver 5 nationally mandated reviews to all families with babies before their child reaches 2.5 years old and support with a range of health and wellbeing needs including infant feeding, child development and communication, safe sleeping, parent and child mental health. The School Nurse team provides a named school nurse for every maintained, academy and free school in the city delivering a range of health and wellbeing support and advice to children and young people, parents and carers. In primary schools the School Nurse team delivers vision and hearing screening and the National Child Measurement Programme. This decision has been made by full Cabinet at a meeting on 26th September 2024. This notice is now being published following the end of the call-in period. The standstill period begins on the date following publication of this notice. The name of the provider and address and the estimated lifetime contract value are detailed below. A statement explaining the relevant authority's reasons for selecting the existing provider with reference to the key criteria is included in this notice in Section VI. No conflicts of interest were declared.

Total Quantity or Scope

This is a proposed award under Direct Award C of the Provider Selection Regime. A statement explaining the relevant authority's reasons for selecting the existing provider with reference to the key criteria is included in Section VI.

Award Detail

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 85100000 - Health services

Indicators

• Award on basis of price and quality.

Legal Justification

This is an Intention to Award Notice under PSR.

Other Information

Brighton and Hove City Council: Public Health Community Nursing Services Statement explaining the relative importance of the key criteria that the relevant authority used to make a decision, the rationale for the relative importance of the key criteria, and the rationale for choosing the provider with reference to the key criteria Criterion 1: Quality and innovation Weight: 50% Rationale for weighting Good patient outcomes and a service that consistently delivers to a high quality and within the latest evidence-based approaches as set out in the Health Child Programme has the strongest weighting of the 5 criteria. Rationale for choosing the provider The Provider is a well led organisation that demonstrates effective working in line with the Healthy Child Programme model with a safe, responsive, and personalised service that meets the needs of the population from the universal to an enhanced offer for families with vulnerabilities. It is accredited at Stage 2 of the UNICEF Baby Friendly standards of infant feeding; provides a clear and comprehensive school nurse offer to all maintained, academy and free schools. Patient surveys for both the health visiting and school nursing services evidenced a high proportion of those using the service were very satisfied with the service. Criterion 2: Value Weight: 10% Rationale for weighting This service requires NHS qualified staff to deliver to the standard required for patients to be safe and thrive. Salary costs of qualified staff make up a high proportion of total costs, which means there is a negligible risk of poor value for money as these roles are paid at the standard band grades agreed in the national NHS pay settlement each year. This is a standstill contract value across the 5 year lifetime of the contract which means annual increases in salary and other costs will be accounted for within the fixed annual contract value. Rationale for choosing the provider The Provider is an established community NHS Trust with good integration into the wider Early Years and Family Help services and effective pathways to specialist health services. It delivers a good proportion of clinical role to administration and infrastructure and evidenced consistently high performance above and beyond regionally and national performance against all 5 benchmarked indicators for the Health Child Programme. Criterion 3: Integration collaboration and service sustainability Weight: 10% Rationale for weighting The health visiting service must be delivered in close collaboration with the city's Family Hubs programme. Health Visiting teams work from Family Hubs as do separately commissioned community midwifery teams and there is no other delivery model that would provide the same level of joined up services delivery with a whole family approach. The services are required to refer to specialist health services and wider CVS services as part of the HCP delivery model. At the specialist level (Previously known as Universal Partnership Plus) this service is required to work closely with specialist health services and Children's Social Work Services to national and local safeguarding standards. This is an important criterion that supports quality and innovation, however the room for varying delivery and therefore impacting on this criterion is limited due to the mature landscape of co-located and delivered services within which the Health Visiting and School Nursing services sit. Rationale for choosing the provider The Provider delivers services in partnership with Family Hubs, schools and with a wide range of key partner services in the city. It operates effective pathways to services supporting the wider determinants of health and to specialist services. The Provider has an excellent programme of support for specialist nurse trainees and provides progression well with both the health visiting and school nursing teams which supports good recruitment and retention in the context of national pressures on the SCPHN workforce. Criterion 4: Improving access, reducing health inequalities and facilitating choice Weight: 20% Rationale for weighting This service works to the model of community, universal, targeted and specialist levels of service which is delivered through clear assessment and planning processes that identify and respond to the needs of individual babies, children, young people and their parents and carers. The refreshed specification will include additional monitoring that supports an understanding of the experience and outcomes of families with a focus on Black and Racially Minoritised children and families and on families facing the greatest financial hardship. The service is required to work within NHSE health inequalities frameworks such as the Children and Young People Core20Plus5 programme and the Perinatal Equity and Equality of Access action plans. This is an important criterion which is supported by the requirements and standards that govern delivery as outlined in criteria 1 and 3 above. Rationale for choosing the provider The Provider delivers an innovative model of enhanced support for a range of families with additional needs through the Healthy Futures Team. There is a focus on delivering services in communities facing the greatest financial hardship in order to reduce health inequalities in areas such as infant feeding. Access to the service is provided in person, online and via text and telephone options with the emphasis on face to face for core mandated checks with safeguarding informing the offer. Criterion 5: Social value Weight: 10% Rationale for weighting This is a service contract in which the primary output is health advice support and information to families in the city. To ensure access this requires a mixed offer of online, Family Hub, hospital and or home visits. Offering community-based face to face spaces ensures reductions in travel times costs and environmental impacts. This service is delivered by a community NHS Trust which brings considerable social value in good quality jobs paid to a national standard with attendant working conditions, progression routes and employment entitlements. NHS providers are required to deliver within NHS Carbon Zero action plans which aim to reduce the carbon footprint in the delivery of NHS services and to reduce the negative impact of waste in health supply procurement. This is an important criterion, and these health services are accountable to national standards in terms of carbon zero actions and in their design and delivery contribute to local employment and to the local economy. Rationale for choosing the provider The Provider as a community NHS Trust is an anchor employer in the city providing high-quality well-paid employment. The Provider has an ambitious Green Plan with clear targets and actions across service delivery, procurement for instance in relation to reducing journeys and pollution, PPE supplies, site energy use and contributing to a circular economy.