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

2026-11-03

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 reporting. As part of the pre-market engagement, Commissioners are seeking input from providers on the following: •How to deliver a safe, equitable, and sustainable 0–19 public health nursing offer across a large rural county •Workforce availability, recruitment, retention, supervision, and skill mix in the context of national shortages •How the refreshed Healthy Child Programme guidance can be implemented in a practical, outcomes-focused way •The role of locality delivery, open-access models, digital approaches, and family hub integration •How providers would work with partners across maternity, primary care, education, early help, safeguarding, and the voluntary sector •How services can reduce inequalities and meet the needs of vulnerable groups, including children with SEND, rural communities, and families with more complex needs •Data, outcomes, performance monitoring, and how providers would demonstrate impact and effectiveness •The affordability and financial assumptions needed to support a viable model, including estate and mobilisation requirements •How the voice of the child will be embedded and systematically captured. For more information about this opportunity, please visit the eSourcing portal at: https://www.delta-esourcing.com/tenders/UK-UK-Shrewsbury:-Health-services./89BS9K23YQ To respond to this opportunity, please click here: https://www.delta-esourcing.com/respond/89BS9K23YQ

United Kingdom (UK)

2026-09-21