Healthy Child Programme 0-19

This notice is a Prior Information Notice under the permitted procedure for social and other specific services, as provided for in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 - Regulation 48. In accordance with Regulation 32(b)(ii) of the Regulations, interested parties should note that the contract for the services may be awarded without further publication and interested parties should express their interest in writing by following the instructions in this document and responding to all questions accordingly.

Service Description

Walsall is seeking a responsive service to support families both universally and when needing extra support. It will work across partnerships (including Family Hubs) to ensure that children and families receive the support that is required.

The 0 to 5 element of the healthy child programme will be led by qualified health visitors and the 5 to 19 element will be led by school nursing practitioners. Together they will provide place-based services and work in partnership with education and other providers where needed offering a universal service from early in a child's life to identify families that may need additional support and children who are at risk of poor outcomes.

The team will;

• help parents, carers or guardians develop and sustain a strong bond with children
• support parents, carers or guardians in keeping children healthy and safe and reaching their full potential
• protect children from serious disease, through screening and immunisation
• reduce childhood obesity by promoting healthy eating and physical activity
• promote oral health
• support resilience and positive maternal and family mental health
• support the development of healthy relationships and good sexual and reproductive health
• identify health and wellbeing issues early, so support and early interventions can be provided in a timely manner
• make sure children are prepared for and supported in all childcare, early years and education settings and are especially supported to be 'ready to learn at 2 and ready for school by 5'

Being ready for school is assessed as every child reaching a level of development which enables them to:

• communicate their needs and have good vocabulary
• become independent in eating, getting dressed and going to the toilet
• take turns, sit still and listen and play
• socialise with peers, form friendships and separate from parents
• have good physical health, including dental health
• be well nourished and within the healthy weight for height range
• have protection against vaccine-preventable infectious diseases, having received all childhood immunisations

It will also involve:

• continued support through school age years to help every child to thrive and gain maximum benefit from education, driving high educational achievement
• identifying and helping children, young people and families with problems that might affect their chances later in life, including building resilience to cope with the pressures of life

The Public health nurses (health visitors and school nurses and wider team), will use strength-based approaches to:

 Build non-dependent relationships, enabling efficient working with CYP and families

 Support behaviour change

 Promote health protection

 Keep children safe

 Promote family wellbeing

Health visitors and school nurses will use their clinical judgement and public health expertise to identify issues and determine potential risk, to prevent escalation. They will be an integral part of child safeguarding processes in Walsall.

As part of the wider system, they will be 'responsible' for:

 Child health surveillance

 Health promotion,

 Health protection

 Health improvement

The evidence-based interventions provided by health visitors and school nurses will be tailored to meet individual and family needs. The Healthy Child Programme team will use a needs assessment to determine targeted interventions which can be met within the services or the need for more specialist interventions that require referrals or clear signposting. Whilst receiving specialist support health visitors and school nurses will still provide the universal offer and work in partnership with other agencies. Additional information: To access the premarket engagement documents please register on In-Tend: in-tendhost.co.uk/walsallcouncil ↗