Healthy Weight Service

Description

This notice relates to the process set out in Regulation 10 of The Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023, Most Suitable Provider Process (MSP). The London Borough of Hounslow is seeking an experienced provider to deliver its Healthy Weight Service and is being procured using the Most Suitable Provider Process (MSP) under the Provider Selection Regime Historically, the Council has experienced high levels of engagement with its Tier 2 weight management programmes delivered through the integrated health and wellbeing service, Healthy Hounslow (formerly One You Hounslow). While participation and programme completion rates were consistently strong, the service did not achieve the level of weight loss outcomes expected, despite weight reduction being a primary objective of the intervention. This presented a challenge in demonstrating the overall effectiveness and value for money of the programme. Consequently, the recommissioning process and transition to a new Provider has provided an opportunity to redesign Hounslow's weight management offer, ensuring that future provision is more outcomes-focused, evidence-based, and delivers greater value for residents and the Council. Hounslow is committed to improving healthy weight outcomes for residents through the delivery of a whole systems approach to healthy weight. This approach recognises that obesity is influenced by a wide range of social, economic and environmental factors and therefore requires coordinated action across the system. As a result, there is a strong emphasis on prevention and creating environments that support and enable healthier choices for all residents. This includes improving the borough's built and food environments, commissioning services that support healthier lifestyles, and facilitating community-led and grassroots initiatives that contribute to sustainable system-wide change. In line with this strategic direction, this service specification places greater emphasis on prevention, early intervention and a universal offer that supports all residents to adopt and maintain healthy behaviours, rather than focusing solely on individuals who are already above a healthy weight. By shifting towards a more preventative approach, the Council aims to support residents to achieve and maintain good health throughout their lives, reduce health inequalities, and improve long-term health and wellbeing outcomes across the borough. The new service design is strongly underpinned by evidence, ensuring behaviour change for residents are attainable and sustainable. Health behaviours are shaped by a complex interaction of individual, social, environmental, and systemic factors which is reflected in the service specification. The service must be underpinned by established behaviour change theories and evidence-based approaches, including the COM-B Model (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation and Behaviour) and the Behaviour Change Wheel. The Provider must ensure that all service components move beyond the provision of information alone and instead support residents to develop the knowledge, skills, confidence, motivation and environmental supports required to initiate and sustain positive behaviour change. All interventions, programmes, resources and resident interactions delivered through this service must be designed and implemented using recognised behaviour change principles. This should include identifying barriers and enablers to behaviour change, setting achievable goals, supporting self-monitoring and problem-solving, building self-efficacy, and creating supportive social and physical environments that enable healthier choices. The Provider must demonstrate how behaviour change theory informs service design, delivery, staff training, participant engagement approaches and evaluation activities, ensuring that interventions are tailored to residents' needs and support long-term, sustainable improvements in health and wellbeing outcomes. The service must be informed by the Compassionate Healthy Weight Framework and adopt a person-centred, trauma-informed and non-stigmatising approach to weight and health. The Provider must ensure that all interactions, communications, resources and interventions promote dignity, respect and inclusivity, and avoid language or practices that may contribute to weight stigma or discrimination. The Compassionate Healthy Weight Framework recognises that weight and health behaviours are influenced by a wide range of interconnected factors, including biological, psychological, social, cultural, economic and environmental determinants. The Provider must acknowledge these multifactorial influences and avoid approaches that place sole responsibility for weight on the individual. Programmes should support residents to improve their health and wellbeing in ways that are meaningful and achievable for them, taking account of their individual circumstances, lived experience, barriers to change and wider determinants of health. Interventions should focus on improving health behaviours, wellbeing and quality of life, rather than weight alone, and should empower residents to make sustainable changes within supportive environments. The Provider must demonstrate how the principles of the Compassionate Healthy Weight Framework are embedded throughout service design, workforce training, programme delivery, communications and evaluation activities. The new weight management service will move away from the traditional 12-week Tier 2 Weight Management Programme model of delivery, instead focusing more on preventative and universal services, such as family cooking programmes, engaging with children and young people in schools, and working closely with our expanded Healthy Hounslow adult physical activity provision to deliver nutrition and behaviour change support. This service will provide both universal and targeted healthy weight support programmes for those who live, study, work and/or are registered with a GP in Hounslow. The service will be adaptable and tailored to the local population, considering the diverse cultures and languages spoken in the borough. An essential part of this will be coproduction with the local communities and stakeholders. Please refer to the full specification attached. Any provider will need to be able to demonstrate capability against a number of key criteria during the Most Suitable Provider (MSP) selection process: Clinical Governance and Oversight Performance Management and KPI Achievement Demonstrate service delivery Readiness to work as part of the Healthy Hounslow Alliance Contract mobilisation Social value Commitments & Delivery. TUPE does apply, providers will need to complete a Certificate of Confidentiality Undertaking in order to receive the TUPE information, which will be provided in the suite of documents. The request to participate will close at 15.00 on Tuesday 27th October 2026. The deadline to submit responses is 16:0 on Tuesday 3rd November.

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