Where Care Excellence Meets Business Success. Transform your operations today - 0333 577 0877
We are here to help 24/7.

Awarded· 11 Mar 2025

Specialised counselling for pregnancy-related bereavement and baby loss across Suffolk and north east Essex.

NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board · Ipswich, East

NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board has awarded this contract. It is a contract for other health and social care in Ipswich.

Source: Find a Tender, published 20 May 2025. Details are refreshed every 30 minutes.

Key dates

  1. 2025

    Contract awarded

    Petals - the Baby Loss Counselling Charity

  2. 2025

    Award notice published

    Award Notice · 09:21

    View notice
  3. 2025

    Tender notice updated

    Tender Notice · 07:52

    View notice
01

About this tender

In brief

NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board has awarded this contract. It is a contract for other health and social care in Ipswich. The contract went to Petals - the Baby Loss Counselling Charity. It was awarded on 11 March 2025. The contract value is £286,800.

It is run as an award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition. Find a Tender published it on 20 May 2025. The notice number is 022944-2025. The OCDS ID is ocds-h6vhtk-050765.

Summary of the contracting process

The NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board is seeking to deliver a specialised counselling service for pregnancy-related bereavement and baby loss. The service will be available in Suffolk and north east Essex, targeting health services as the main procurement category. Officially awarded on 25th April 2025, the contract period is slated to run from 1st October 2025 until 31st September 2028, with no option to extend.

The direct award process was employed, under the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023, reflecting an award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition. This contract aims to serve women, birthing persons, and their partners experiencing mild to moderate mental health distress, with services accessible through both professional and self-referral.

The successful bidder, Petals - The Baby Loss Counselling Charity, exemplifies how SMEs can contribute valuable services within the integrated care system. The requirements entail providing flexible counselling sessions with parent choice in delivery mode, which could encourage innovations in virtual and face-to-face mental health services. This contract focuses on quality over cost, indicating the importance placed on service effectiveness and safety in delivering mental health support.

The notice in full

Intention is to commission a specialised bereavement counselling service that meets the needs of women or the birthing person and their partners, who are experiencing mild to moderate mental health distress because of pregnancy-related bereavement or baby loss. Access to the service will be provided via professional referral and self-referral.

The service is accessible following a stillbirth, second trimester miscarriage, terminations for medical reasons, recurrent miscarriages, neonatal loss, birth trauma, pregnancy after loss, and early miscarriage (by professional referral only). A fixed number of counselling sessions will be provided either virtually or face-to-face based on parent choice.

Lots (1)

  1. 01

    Lot 1Cancelled

    The counselling service focusses on supporting women, birthing people and their partners who are experiencing mild to moderate mental health distress following a stillbirth, second trimester miscarriage, termination for medical reasons, recurrent miscarriages, neonatal loss, birth trauma, pregnancy after loss or early miscarriage (accessed only via professional referral). Access will be by professional referral or self-referral basis.

    The delivery model will involve a triage session followed (if required) by a fixed number of counselling sessions. Patient outcomes will be captured using Core10 as an assessment method, with a minimum key performance benchmark of 50% for Reliable Improvement. By providing support for mild to moderate mental following pregnancy-related loss support, this specialist service will become embedded in the commissioned perinatal mental health pathway within the integrated care system.

    Contract period will be 01/10/2025 to 31/09/2028, there will be no option to extend the contract. NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board are awarding the contract named within this notice under the Direct Award C process which is outlined within the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023.

    The provider named in this notice is an existing provider and has been reviewed through a Key Criteria assessment to ensure the awarding body is satisfied with current performance and reasonably expects the provider to be able to satisfy the contract which is the subject of this notice.

    The contract which is the subject of this notice has not changed considerably when compared with the existing / previous contract delivered by the named provider. The ICB may wish to introduce additional services during the lifetime of the contract ("Contract modifications"). Such contract modifications will be contemplated where additional requirements are similar and or complementary to the services already included in the Specification, at any given time.

    Such expansion would be by the addition of services commissioned by the Authority as named in the Contract Notice. To this end, after the award of contract, there is a possibility that the contract may be varied as allowable in accordance with the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023.

02

Key facts

Every field the notice carries. Anything it leaves blank is listed under its table.

Contract

Service
Other health and social care
Procurement type
Standard
Category
Services
Contract period
Not specified - Not specified
Lots
1
Awarded to
Petals - the Baby Loss Counselling Charity
Number of suppliers
1

Procedure

Notice type
Tender Notice
Procurement method
Limited
Procedure
Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
Current stage
Award
Stages so far
Tender, Award
Published on
Find a Tender Service
Awardee scale
SME
Buyer's portal
In-Tend

Values

Contracts value
£286,800

Not stated in the notice: tender value, lots value, awards value.

Status

Tender
Complete
Lots
Cancelled
Awards
Active
Contracts
Active

References

Find a Tender notice
022944-2025
Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-050765
CPV code
85100000 - Health services
CPV division
85 - Health and social work services
03

Location

NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board is based in Ipswich. The area the service covers can be wider, so check the notice and the lots.
Local authority
Ipswich
Town
Ipswich
Postcode
IP1 2BX
Electoral ward
Gipping
Constituency
Ipswich
Delivery area
Suffolk CC, TLH34 Essex Haven Gateway
Region
East
Sub-region
Ipswich
Area
Suffolk
Country
England
04

Buyer and supplier

Contracting authority

Organisation
NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board
Category
Services
Contact
Caryn Akers
Address
Ipswich, IP1 2BX · East · England

Not stated in the notice: phone.

Awarded supplier

Supplier
Petals - the Baby Loss Counselling Charity
Awardee scale
SME
Number of suppliers
1
Awards value
Not stated
05

Documents and links

Official sources for this notice. The tender pack itself sits on the buyer's portal.
06

Questions about this tender

Who won the Specialised counselling for pregnancy-related bereavement and baby loss across… contract?

NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board awarded the contract to Petals - the Baby Loss Counselling Charity on 11 March 2025.

How much is the Specialised counselling for pregnancy-related bereavement and baby loss across… contract worth?

The contract value is £286,800.

Who is the buyer for Specialised counselling for pregnancy-related bereavement and baby loss across…?

NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board, based in Ipswich, East. The named contact is Caryn Akers.

Get ready for the next round

Contracts like this come back. We help care providers build the evidence, policies and case studies a buyer scores, so you are ready when the re-tender opens.

What to do next

  1. This contract has been awarded.
  2. A re-tender usually follows near the end.
  3. Build your evidence and case studies now.
  4. Keep your policies and training records current.