Maternal, Newborn and Infant Clinical Outcome Review Programme / Perinatal Mortality Review Tool

the Maternal Newborn and Infant Clinical Outcome Review Programme (MNI Corp) and the Perinatal Mortality Review Tool (PMRT) are going to be amalgamated into one contract.

Currently MNI Corp is delivered for publicly-funded care in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man, and PMRT is delivered for NHS-funded care in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland.

Due to the amalgamation of the projects the name of the project may change from premarket engagement to the tender going live.

The initial contract is anticipated to be for a period of 3 years, at a maximum total budget of up to £4,470,624 excl VAT and 5,364,748.80 with VAT. Bids exceeding this limit will be rejected. Due to the unknowns in advance of holding the premarket engagement session, it is currently expected that the extension value will be a 2 year pro rata of the core 3 year funding, estimated at £2,982,416 excluding VAT.

There is potential to include other Devolved Nations and/or Crown Dependencies, and aspirational measures (which will be defined in the service specification).

In the UK, maternity care is generally safe and the vast majority of women and babies experience positive outcomes. However, when things go wrong, the impact can be devastating, and the death of a mother or baby during pregnancy, birth or the postnatal period is a life-changing event for families.

Around 200 women a year will die during pregnancy or in the year following pregnancy from causes related to or aggravated by pregnancy. Although maternal mortality in the UK remains relatively low, the maternal mortality rate in the UK exceeds that of many European counterparts. Significant inequalities also persist, with maternal mortality rates remaining disproportionately higher among some ethnic minority groups and women living in areas of greater deprivation.

In relation to perinatal mortality (stillbirths and neonatal deaths) thousands of families across the UK are affected each year. While rates of perinatal mortality have reduced over time, significant inequalities in outcomes remain, with babies born to women and families experiencing health inequalities continuing to face higher risks of adverse outcomes. This suggests there remains considerable opportunity for improvement.

The UK is one of only a small number of countries with an established national system for reviewing maternal and perinatal deaths. Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths have been undertaken since the 1950s, with the programme expanding in the 1990s to include perinatal mortality. The overarching aim of the programme is to support safe, equitable, high-quality and patient-centred maternal, newborn and infant care.

The programme undertakes national surveillance of maternal and perinatal deaths across the UK and conducts confidential enquiries to identify opportunities to improve care and reduce preventable deaths and serious complications. Findings from the programme, including evidence relating to socioeconomic and ethnic inequalities, provide critical intelligence to support national policy, quality improvement and the monitoring of government ambitions and targets relating to maternity and neonatal outcomes.

The overarching aim of the programme is to support improvements in the quality and safety of maternity and neonatal care by enabling clinicians, managers, commissioners and policy makers to learn systematically from maternal and perinatal deaths and serious adverse outcomes. A core focus of the programme is to support reductions in inequalities and disparities in outcomes relating to ethnicity, deprivation and other characteristics.

The scope of the programme is also expected to include the ongoing delivery and development of the Perinatal Mortality Review Tool (PMRT), a national standardised review tool designed to support high-quality perinatal mortality reviews across NHS maternity and neonatal services in the UK. The PMRT supports structured local review, national learning and parental engagement following stillbirths and neonatal deaths and is intended to align with and complement the wider maternal and perinatal surveillance and confidential enquiry functions of the programme.

The successful provider will be expected to deliver the programme in collaboration with commissioners, funders, clinicians, women and families, professional bodies and wider stakeholders. The provider will be expected to demonstrate robust methodological and analytical expertise, effective stakeholder engagement and the ability to translate findings into national learning and improvement activity that supports safer, more equitable maternity and neonatal care.