Breastfeeding Peer Support Service

We want all children and young people in Portsmouth to get a good start in life, be happy and healthy, ready for lifelong learning and to go on to have successful opportunities in adulthood. The evidence is unequivocal that early intervention is the best way to support this, whilst tackling health and social inequalities. A good start in life lays the foundations for better outcomes for children at school, and improved life chances.

To achieve the vision set out above, the Council is intending to commission a Breastfeeding Peer Support Service, to work alongside the Integrated Public Health Nursing and Prevention and Early Intervention offer to families. In particular the Health Visiting Service, Early Intervention Service and Family Hubs, plus work with wider system partners e.g. Maternity, Voluntary Sector etc. With seamless pathways and a common set of outcomes around infant feeding, delivered through a holistic family centred, strengths-based approach.

Key principles include:

• Focus on prevention and early intervention within a whole family approach.
• Building community capacity, through training and upskilling community members.
• Empowering families to seek support and work to find their own solutions (where relevant).
• Supporting the building of resilience and positive infant-caregiver relationships.
• Evidence-based, flexible and consistent, messaging and support.
• Integrated and seamless across all pathways.
• Simple and proportionate, positively impacting on health inequalities.

This is a short-term contract to allow for insight-driven sustainable affordable transformations, to inform long-term planning. The aim is to discover how to optimise resources across the wider system (i.e. both within and external of this contract) to improve the quality and reach of the infant feeding support going forward. Delivery during this transformation period will require working in collaboration (commissioner, provider and system partners), undertaking service reviews and primary research throughout the contract period and working with the successful provider to set meaningful measures both in the short and longer-term.

The estimated value over the lifetime of the contract (including total extension period) is £148,000.00. The funding for the services is the anticipated total value, based on the current funding available.

The lifetime contract value includes:

• Funding through core Public Health funds (£40,000 per year).
• Guaranteed uplift of £28,000 from September 2025 to March 2026 via a national funding stream and is subject to changes in guidance and priorities linked to the First 1,001 days agenda.