0–19 Public Health Nursing Service (PHNS) Healthy Child Programme

This early market engagement to support decisions for Shropshire Council’s future commissioning intentions for the 0–19 Public Health Nursing Service (PHNS), including health visiting, school nursing, and the Family Nurse Partnership, and up to age 25 for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
It provides potential providers with background information on the service requirements, the current policy context, local needs, and the key lines of enquiry commissioners want to explore through market engagement.
This is not the start of a formal procurement process. The Council is seeking market views to inform service design, delivery expectations, affordability, and future commissioning.
The commissioned service includes health visiting, school nursing, and the Family Nurse Partnership, providing universal, targeted, and specialist public health nursing support across the 0–19 pathway and up to age 25, where relevant, for young people with SEND. The service is expected to deliver the mandated elements of the Healthy Child Programme and associated public health requirements, while also contributing to wider local priorities and integrated pathways.
Commissioners’ preference is for a provider that can deliver the whole service, rather than separate elements of it. Commissioners will expect any future model to demonstrate how it will safely and consistently deliver, monitor and evaluate core programme requirements; respond proportionately to need; support early identification and intervention; contribute to safeguarding and early help pathways; improve access and outcomes for vulnerable groups; use population data to target support; and work effectively within Shropshire’s locality and family hub model.
Providers will also need to demonstrate a clear workforce model, strong governance and clinical leadership, effective partnership working, and a practical approach to digital access, estates, rural delivery, and performance...