Soft Market Test for a 0-19 Healthy Child Programme (HCP)

Sefton Council is conducting a soft market test in order to gather information about developing a 0-19 Healthy Child Programme (HCP) for young people in Sefton and inform any subsequent procurement process. Following the Soft Market Test, The Council plans to hold a provider day on the 6th April 2016 to give providers a chance to understand the key elements of the future service provision, prior to commencing a competitive Tendering exercise in May 2016. The new contract is likely to commence on the 1st April 2017.
Background
Sefton’s vision is “to give every child in Sefton the best start in life and help and support young people to make healthier life choices”. The Healthy Child Programme provides a framework for early intervention and prevention public health programmes that lie at the heart of universal services for children and families to promote the best health and wellbeing prevent ill health and provide early intervention when required.
Sefton has an age 0-19 population of 58,700; and of those 14,500 are under the age of 5 years. Public Health services are currently provided to the 0-19 age group through 3 separate contracts, which include Health Visiting, Family Nurse Partnership and School Nursing.
The Programme
For children aged 0-5 years the HCP aims to keep children healthy and safe, encourage healthy eating and increased physical activity contributing to a reduction in childhood obesity, the prevention of some serious diseases through promoting the uptake of immunisation programmes, increased rates of breastfeeding, improved readiness for school and improved learning. The HCP will also deliver mandated developmental checks for children including antenatal checks, new baby review, 6-8 week assessment, 1 year assessments and 2-2.5 years.
For children and young people aged between 5 and 19 the aim is to improve sexual health and see a reduction in rates of sexually transmitted infections in young people, reduce the number of teenage pregnancies, improving learning and educational outcomes and promote the prevention and awareness of alcohol and substance misuse.
The programme also incorporates the mandatory function of the National Child Measurement programme (NCMP).
There will be a specific focus on early intervention and prevention with bench marks in place for monitoring this. Robust timely systems, policies and procedures will be in place for safeguarding, clinical governance, information governance, and evidence based reporting.
The overall indicative budget will be in the region of 5.5 million.

Interested Providers
Providers interested in bidding for the contract are required to compile and submit a short narrative of no more than four sides of A4 providing the following information:
1. A brief summary of any existing service models that your organisation provides at the moment in relation to the above topic.
2. Information about existing staff, including a brief description of their roles and the level of training and experience.
3. Details of service delivery models that you would propose within the indicative budget to meet the needs of the population stated. Proposals should be based on robust evidence.
Responding to this market test is not conditional and not responding will not to preclude you from bidding for the contract, however you are encouraged to take this opportunity to influence the specification.

The closing date for submissions is Thursday 31st March 2016 at 12:00 hours.