Saving Babies' Lives Care Bundle Version 2 Evaluation

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The Authority is looking for a Supplier for the Implemented the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle Version One. In 2015 the Government announced a national ambition to halve the rates of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths and intrapartum brain injuries by 2030.This announcement was followed by 'Spotlight on Maternity' which sets out how this ambition can be achieved. In 2017 the target date was brought forward to 2025, with a 20% reduction by 2020. This has been further developed in Safer Maternity Care: next steps towards the national maternity ambition published in 2017, where the Government made it clear that 'we will not achieve the national Maternity Safety Ambition [to halve the rates of stillbirths, neonatal and brain injuries that occur during or soon after birth by 2025] unless the rate of preterm births is reduced' and set an additional ambition to reduce the national rate of preterm births from 8% to 6%. The ambition is included in the NHS Long Term Plan (2019). NHS England and Improvement (NHSE&I) implemented the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle Version One in 2016. An independent evaluation, SPiRE study, was commissioned by NHS England in 2017 to 2018 of the hospitals which have implemented the Care Bundle, demonstrated a 20% decline in stillbirth rates meaning an avoidance of 161 stillbirths. This is a more rapid and sustained fall than has been seen in the national stillbirth rates. The evaluation identified challenges with implementation and concerns about increased interventions, such as induction of labour and caesarean section. The information the evaluation provided was invaluable to the development of version two of the Saving Babies' Lives Care Bundle (SBLCBv2). In March 2019 SBLCBv2 was published. It provides detailed information for providers and commissioners of maternity care on how to further reduce perinatal mortality across England. It provides clearer guidance on the frequency of surveillance required to minimise stillbirth and when induction of labour is indicated. It also recognises the extension of the national ambition to reduce pre-term birth from 8% to 6% by including a new intervention, Element 5 which aims to optimise care of women at high risk of preterm birth. Every maternity provider was expected to fully implement SBLCBv2 by March 2020 and SBLCBv2 is now included in the NHS Standard Contract. The Covid-19 pandemic may have prevented some maternity providers from achieving this target. Please apply here: https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome