Infant Feeding Peer Support Service

Overview

Hartlepool Borough Council was successful in securing Family Hubs funding from the Department of Education as part of the initiative to help improve health and education outcomes for children and families in England. Infant feeding was identified as one of the key priorities. HBC used the allocated funding to commission NCT to deliver an Infant Feeding Peer Support service to local families (OPEN06062025103119). NCT staff have been working in partnership with local community groups to promote breastfeeding and they now have Peer Supporters attending North Tees hospital wards. The service has been well received and is having a positive impact on feeding rates for the town. The current contract is due to end on 31st March 2026 as this aligned with the original Family Hubs funding term. Further grant funding via Family Hubs has been secured. This contract serves as an extension to extend the existing contract with NCT for a further 12 months, until 31st March 2027. This will enable families to continue accessing support services thus improving Hartlepool's breastfeeding rates. It will also allow us time to prepare key documents to re-tender the service for a longer period, incorporating the revised DHSE / DfE expectations once this has been determined (expected around April 2026) leaving no time to conduct a procurement exercise to cover this extended contract period. This contract is exempt from HBC's Contract Procedure Rules.