NHS England Specialised Commissioning Specialist Inpatient Mother and Baby Units within the Perinatal Mental Health Services

NHS South Central & West Commissioning Support Unit wishes to identify on behalf of NHS England Specialised Commissioning provider(s) for 4 additional 8 bedded Perinatal Inpatient Units (also known as Mother and Baby Units) and is looking for applications for providers for the following areas:

Lot 1 North West (Cumbria and Lancashire)

Lot 2 South West (Cornwall, Devon and Somerset)

Lot 3 East Anglia (Norfolk and Suffolk and Cambridgeshire)

Lot 4 South East Coast

Bidders may bid for one or more lots

Women who require specialist treatment for mental health problems in the perinatal period need different facilities and service response from those provided by general adult mental health services.

The objectives of the service are:

• To ensure that women and their families have timely access to the right level of recovery focused care.
• If admission is required, to ensure that this will be to a Specialised In-Patient Mother and Baby Unit without delay so that no woman is unnecessarily separated from her baby.
• To safely and effectively meet the special needs and requirements, both emotional and physical, of mothers and infants.
• To provide specialist medical, nursing, psychological and statutory social care for mother and infant.
• To provide supervision, support, assistance and guidance in the care (both physical and emotional) of the infant whilst the mother is ill.
• To respond in a timely manner to emergency requests for assessment and advice.
• To ensure the integration in a seamless fashion of all components of care through access to discharge from the Service.
• To achieve the earliest resolution of the maternal mental illness whilst promoting the care and developing relationship with the infant.
• To assess and proactively manage high risk women with a prior history of serious mental illness to prevent avoidable recurrences in pregnancy and the postpartum period.
• To ensure that women, partners/significant others and families are able to make informed decisions about care and treatment, where they are able, including through provision of appropriate information and signposting to other relevant support

Further information can be obtained at: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/scwcsu/aspx/Home