PRJ-806 - Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP) AND/OR Maternity Peer Support Service

NHS Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG's) wish to commission a provider to deliver our Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP). MVP's give women and their families the opportunity to feedback on their recent maternity experience and to influence service changes in local maternity services through direct partnership working. NHS Newham and Tower Hamlets CCG's also wish to commission a maternity peer support service that recruits, trains and matches up volunteer peer supporters, who provide practical and emotional support to vulnerable women during pregnancy, birth and the early weeks of motherhood. Tower Hamlets and Newham, Women's Health and Family Services have been commissioned to provide the "Maternity Mates" project. This project recruits, trains and matches up volunteer peer supporters, or Maternity Mates, who provide practical and emotional support to vulnerable women during pregnancy, birth and the early weeks of motherhood.

Because the contracts for these services are coming to an end, we now have to go out to the market to invite interested providers to bid for new contracts. As our CCG's have historically commissioned similar services from the same providers we are now formalising these joint commissioning arrangements. We expect that this approach will provide joined up services working more closely with our one shared hospital trust, Barts Health NHS Trust. We also think this approach will enable us to commission a model that meets the needs of women and families, particularly our very mobile population and women who live, work and use services right across our patch. The procurement will be advertised via OJEU and Contract Finder, providers may bid for one or both of these contracts

Additional information:

The services are covered by the Light Touch Regime are set out at Schedule 3 (Social and Other Specific Services) of PCR 2015. If the value of the Contract is over 615, 000 GBP the Contracting Authority must advertise it in the OJEU, although there is flexibility as to the design of the remainder of the Procurement Process the Commissioner is not voluntarily following any other part of the Regulations. The procedure that the Commissioner is following is as set out in the Invitation to Tender. The Process will be similar to Open Procedure process under the Regulations but, for avoidance of doubt, the commissioner is not running the Process as though the Open Procedure under the Regulations applies and so reserves the right to depart from that procedure at any point. The procurement will be advertised via OJEU and Contract Finder.