Decision details

Approval to continue to deliver the health visiting service and the Family Nurse Partnership.

The Section 75 agreement will provide value for money and lead to an improvement in the way in which this function is exercised based on the timeframe of the agreement. It is recommended that the Section 75 is a one year agreement with an option to extend for a further year enable synchronisation with the commencement of the proposed Healthy Child Programme 0-19 procurement strategy.

The Health Visiting service and the Family Nurse Partnership is a fundamental part of the Healthy Child Programme 0-5. The HCP provides a framework to support collaborative work and more integrated service delivery. The HCP 0-5 aims to:

·         Support parents to transition into parenthood and support their journey through the early weeks of their infants life including maternal mental health and perinatal depression as well as support with breastfeeding initiation and sustainment;

·         Safeguarding children and families including ensuring the child is a healthy weight, well nourished, engages in physical activity and supports parents to manage minor illnesses and reducing hospital attendance and admission; and

·         Working to promote health and development in the ‘high impact’ areas for early years development though supporting the health, wellbeing and development of the child up until the 2-2.5 year old review ensuring they are ‘school ready’.

The Council will retain responsibility for the functions, with the scope of activities to be performed by each partner being clearly defined, together with the provision for management and monitoring.

To do nothing. This was rejected as the Council has a statutory requirement to maintain the continuity of the Health Visiting service which is required under the Council’s mandated responsibility for Public Health. Responsibility for this service was transferred to the Local Authority under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

Competitive procurement process – this was rejected in the interim as the Health Visiting service and Family Nurse Partnership will both be included within the long term procurement of the Healthy Child Programme 0-19 (HCP). The HCP will combine many health related child services across Peterborough and Cambridgeshire resulting in vast efficiencies and economies of scale. It would therefore not represent value for money to carry out a procurement process for these service alone at this time.

None.