Market Engagement Notice - HMPPS Mother and Baby Unit at HMPYOI Eastwood Park

HMPYOI Eastwood Park will shortly be competing a requirement for Pregnancy, Mother and Baby Unit Services via the Probation Dynamic Framework. Suppliers must be onboarded onto the Women's Specific Cohort Category in order to bid.

The National Prison Framework and Guidance for Pregnancy, MBUs and maternal separation in women's prisons Policy Framework can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pregnancy-mbus-and-maternal-separation-in-womens-prisons-policy-framework

The supplier will be expected to deliver a range of services which:

- Provide an Ofsted accredited pre-school child care facility.

- Provide an opportunity for mothers to actively engage with their parental responsibility within a service that will improve the outcomes for the women and the children who reside on the Unit, and give the children a head start for their life back in the community.

- Improve parenting skills of the mothers which will therefore impact on their role as parents of their other children and contribute towards the reduction of reoffending.

- Provide appropriate care and parenting interventions for all pregnant women in custody.

- Assist women in developing their relationship with other agencies in custody and in the community which will support the whole family as mothers resettle into the community.

- Demonstrate that the provider creates and develops links and relationships with wider relevant community services.

- Identify, engage and share information with a range of statutory and non-statutory partners, for the purpose of safeguarding children

Market engagement

HMPPS will be holding a virtual market engagement event on 13th March via Microsoft Teams, to register for this event, please fill out the following Microsoft Forms registration: https://forms.office.com/e/H1H922Crry

Additional information: The strategic aims of the service are:

- To prevent separation between mothers and babies eligible for an MBU placement where this is in the best interests of the child, which in turn reduces the risk of reoffending

- To identify and respond to individual needs of pregnant women, mothers and babies, including any barriers for specific groups in relation to protected characteristics

- To promote and support mothers in their parental responsibility, by delivering routine and targeted parenting support and guidance

- To enable pregnant women and mothers to continue to engage with the prison regime whilst caring for their children, including contributions to wider care planning and information sharing and recording in relation to women's progress

- To raise awareness and support prison staff to deliver effective support to pregnant women and mothers when in custody

- Ensure the safeguarding and wellbeing of pregnant women, mothers and babies

- Ensure liaison and engagement with community support services such as healthcare services and children's services and continuity of this on release