Perinatal Immunisation Services in Dorset

This notice is published as a Prior Information Notice in order to determine the level of interest from providers in delivering Perinatal Immunisation Services within Dorset.

Perinatal Immunisation Services being commissioned include Pertussis, Flu and COVID-19 vaccinations for pregnant women, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccinations for newborn infants, and the roll out of the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccination programme for pregnant woman over 28 weeks.

The Commissioner seeks Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from providers who have the capability and capacity to deliver Perinatal Immunisation Services within Dorset.

The aim of Perinatal Immunisation Services is to offer vaccination to pregnant women alongside existing planned antenatal appointments, to facilitate improvement of vaccinations offered to newborn infants on a targeted basis (BCG, Hep B as required), to improve data quality, improve uptake and reduce inequalities in access to immunisations across the perinatal pathway. To support the understanding of requirement, the service specifications and sample reporting requirements relating to the individual vaccination programmes have been provided in Atamis.

To co-ordinate delivery of the improvement programme in the system of Dorset, in partnership with the two maternity providers. The programme seeks to

• increase uptake of maternal vaccinations
• improve timeliness of the BCG vaccination programme
• Improve quality of data on uptake and inequalities
• Take steps to address inequalities in accessing these programmes

Further information on this can be found in the Transformation funding outcomes provided in Atamis.

The contract will start on 1st September 2025, it is anticipated that the contract term will be 3 years with a 2 year optional extension.

No changes are foreseen across the life of the contract, other than demographic changes, and increase in income should uptake and activity increase.

We do not believe that TUPE would apply in this award.

The total contract value will be £130,000 per annum plus variable income arising from vaccinations administered for RSV, pertussis and flu. At present this is estimated to be in the region of £120,000 per annum.

Providers who wish to express their interest will need to log into the e-procurement system, Atamis, to access the market engagement questionnaire. Click on 'View our Live Opportunities' from the home page, available on the following link:

health-family.force.com/s/Welcome ↗

Once you have found the opportunity (via the search function, using the title or reference number), to gain full access to the relevant information and market engagement questionnaire, you will need to click on 'Register interest' - this will take you to the log-in page.

If you are not already registered on the system, you will need to do so before gaining full access to be able to submit your expression of interest / completed market engagement questionnaire.

Expressions of interest / completed market engagement questionnaire must be received by no later than 12 noon on Friday 6th June 2025.

This exercise is being carried out by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) on behalf of the Commissioner.