St Helens Healthy Child Programme, 0 to 19 years - Soft Market Testing

Please note that this is not a call for competition. This is a soft market testing exercise undertaken on behalf of St Helen’s Council under the provisions of the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023 .

Purpose: The service delivers the Healthy Child Programme, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) national delivery model for public health nursing. It is led by specialist community public health nurses and structured around two age-based phases, health visiting for ages 0 to 5 and school nursing for ages 5 to 19.

The aims of the programme are to:
? ensure a healthy start to life.
? identify and address health needs early.
? prevent health problems.
? support school readiness and learning.
? protect children and families.
? promote health equity.

St Helens Council are undertaking a soft market testing exercise to fully understand what the market can offer and the challenges in procuring and setting up this service. It is hoped that this will be an opportunity for us to obtain an insight of how participants might approach delivery of the service, and how they might address circumstances that may impact on the service. It will also help us to further understand the market.

We anticipate that should a tender exercise be undertaken, the maximum annual value for the contract might be in the region of £4,192,701, and the duration to be 5 years, with the option to extend by up to a further 2 years.

We are therefore seeking expressions of interest from participants with the relevant expertise and experience to assist us in determining the feasibility of this project by answering the questions in the attached documentation.

Please refer to the attached documentation for full details.
Please also note that at this stage, the scope and the budget are indicative only and are subject to confirmation.
Note that any contract awarded following any future tender process will be subject solely to St Helen Council’s Terms and Condition.

Deadline for submission: 12 noon on 1st Sept 2026.