---
title: "Specialised counselling for pregnancy-related bereavement and baby loss across Suffolk and north east Essex."
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-050765"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-050765"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-050765.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-050765.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "NHS SUFFOLK AND NORTH EAST ESSEX INTEGRATED CARE BOARD"
published: "2025-05-20"
---

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

Buyer: NHS SUFFOLK AND NORTH EAST ESSEX INTEGRATED CARE BOARD  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-050765

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## Summary

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.

This tender presents significant opportunities for businesses in the health and counselling sectors, particularly those with expertise in perinatal mental health and bereavement support services. 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. Businesses capable of offering specialised support in this sensitive area can explore further collaboration possibilities as the contract progresses, potentially expanding services within the prescribed framework. This contract focuses on quality over cost, indicating the importance placed on service effectiveness and safety in delivering mental health support.

## Notice

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.

### Lot Information

Lot 1

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.

### Procurement Information

This is a Provider Selection Regime (PSR) intention to award notice. The awarding of this contract is subject to the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 do not apply to this award. The publication of this notice marks the start of the standstill period. Representations by providers must be made to decision makers by 8th May 2025 (8 working days following publication of intention to award notice). They should be submitted in writing to procurement@snee.nhs.uk. This contract has not yet formally been awarded; this notice serves as an intention to award under the PSR. Award decision-makers: Richard Watson, Executive Director on the recommendation of the Mental Health Multi-Disciplinary Team. * No conflicts of interest, or potential conflicts of interest, were declared by any decision makes. The decision to award this contract in line with Direct Award Process C was based on evaluation against the five required key criteria as follows: * Quality and Innovation - Assured - SNEE ICB are assured that the provider is delivering a safe and effective service as required by the specification and contract they are currently delivering. This criterion was reviewed in line with the Quality Impact Assessment. * Value - Assured - SNEE ICB are assured that the provider is delivering value to the integrated care system and the cost of change would not be outweighed by the potential benefit of a new provider. * Integration, Collaboration and Service Sustainability - Assured - SNEE ICB are assured that the provider is positively impacting on the integrated care system through their integration and collaboration delivered as a requirement of the specification or alternative elements linked to the delivery. * Improving Access, Reducing Health Inequalities and Facilitating Choice - Assured - SNEE ICB are assured that the provider is meeting needs of the population to ensure equitable access and choice as required by the specification and contract. This criterion was reviewed in line with the Equality Impact Assessment. * Social Value - Part Assured - SNEE ICB are partly assured that the provider is delivering in line with the SNEE Green Plan, supporting with the implementation of carbon reduction and increase in initiatives which positively impact on the wider determinants of health. This criterion was reviewed in line with the Sustainability Impact Assessment.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/022944-2025 |
| Notice type | Tender Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Limited |
| Procurement method details | Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition |
| Tender suitability | Not specified |
| Awardee scale | SME |
| All stages | Tender, Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 20 May 2025 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 11 Mar 2025 |
| Contract period | Not specified |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | £286,800 |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Cancelled |
| Awards status | Active |
| Contracts status | Active |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | NHS SUFFOLK AND NORTH EAST ESSEX INTEGRATED CARE BOARD |
| Locality | IPSWICH |
| Post town | Ipswich |
| Postcode | IP1 2BX |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLH East (England) |
| ITL 2 | TLH6 Suffolk |
| ITL 3 | TLH62 Ipswich |
| Local authority | Ipswich |
| Electoral ward | Gipping |
| Westminster constituency | Ipswich |
| Delivery location | TLH14 Suffolk CC, TLH34 Essex Haven Gateway |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | PETALS - THE BABY LOSS COUNSELLING CHARITY |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 85 - Health and social work services

### Codes

- 85100000 - Health services

## Release History

- 20 May 2025 at 07:52 - TenderUpdate - Tender Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/022944-2025
- 25 Apr 2025 at 09:21 - Award - Award Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/016941-2025

## Notice URLs

- https://in-tendhost.co.uk/snee-icb/aspx/Home
- https://suffolkandnortheastessex.icb.nhs.uk/

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-050765. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-050765.json.