Antenatal and Postnatal Baby Feeding Support service

This notice relates to the process set out in Regulation 10(9) of The Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023.

Following the completion of a standstill period at midnight on the TBC 2025 London Borough of Hounslow intend to appoint Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, via the West Middlesex University Hospital, to lead the provision of Antenatal and Postnatal Baby Feeding Support Service in Hounslow for 12 months delivering a range of Local Authority commissioned infant feeding support services to support delivery of these objectives and priorities:

• Reduce the maximum number of hours between any two postnatal infant feeding drop-ins by more than half, to a maximum of 24 hours;
• Increase the provision of out-of-hours postnatal drop-in sessions by 200% to allow for increased attendance from mums who are not comfortable speaking English, families with limited transport options, working families etc.;
• Increase the number of postnatal drop-in sessions in or within walking distance of Core20 areas to ensure breastfeeding support provision for families from the most deprived backgrounds;
• Reduce the number of families presenting at A&E with babies under 28 days old with feeding issues by establishing a daily coverage of a postnatal drop-in offer.

Services to be delivered as part of the contract: Since 2022, the Infant Feeding Team working from West Middlesex University Hospital in Hounslow, part of Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust, have been delivering antenatal classes and postnatal baby feeding support drop-ins. This work is mandated by the Start for Life and Family Hubs project, which resources the service via the Infant Feeding strand.

Project delivery is for a fixed term within the scope of the Family Hubs project to supplement the cost of the delivery of the Start for Life objectives, including the Family Hubs minimum and go further standards, and the Hounslow Baby Feeding Plan objectives. In Hounslow we have high breastfeeding initiation rates, which have seen an increase since 2022 and continue to increase over the past year.

In Q3 of 2023/24, the breastfeeding initiation rate in Hounslow was 93%. Despite this high rate of mums wishing to breastfeed their babies, there is a drop off in the rates of breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks. In Q2 of 2023/24, the breastfeeding rate at 6-8 weeks in Hounslow was 61%.

This decrease of 32% indicates that although almost all mums try breastfeeding, around a third of them stop breastfeeding before they want to and before the WHO recommends.

The central government Departments for Education and for Health and Social Care have pledged to continue to fund the Family Hubs programme for another 12 months, giving us opportunity to continue current provision, and focus on the postnatal period to address the drop-off. The current postnatal infant feeding drop-in offer is made up of seven drop-in sessions, including four NCT Baby Cafes and three maternity infant feeding team drop-ins.

The current maximum number of hours between any two drop-in session totals 47 hours. This is between Monday's infant feeding team drop-in and Wednesday's NCT Baby Cafe.