Nottinghamshire County Council's leader has denied claims of "silencing" Labour over the recommissioning of a safeguarding service for new-born children and mothers. The authority said in a report last month that the current contract for the Nottinghamshire Healthy Families Programme was due to expire next March.
The programme provides care to children and families from before birth to late teens, with services including child development assessments and keeping children safe. The service is currently run under a contract with the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT), the sole bidder for the contract when it went out to tender in 2017.
The council says beyond March 2024, it wants to enter into a 'co-operation' arrangement with NHFT to deliver the service. This means that a competitive tendering process is not required.
