Hard on the heels of the Government report into the future of its early education and childcare policy comes a far-reaching health strategy targeting children's physical and mental well-being.
Issued jointly by the Department for Health and the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the strategy, 'Healthy Lives, Brighter Futures' stems, in large part, from Government unease about health inequalities and rising levels of poor mental health and obesity.
It outlines an extended role for children's centres and how they, along with schools, healthcare and community services, will support families to give every child - in the words of health secretary Alan Johnson - 'a healthy and happy start to life'.
The strategy, which covers children from pre-birth to 19-year-olds, builds on the standards and ambitions set down in the National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services, the Every Child Matters programme. Here are some of its main intentions.
PREGNANCY AND THE EARLY YEARS
Government will:
- rename the Child Health Promotion Programme, which covers childhood screening, immunisations, needs assessment and health promotion, the Healthy Child Programme
- review how the programme is currently commissioned and delivered as part of its efforts to increase parental awareness of all its various aspects
- develop an e-learning programme for frontline health professionals, including health visitors, to ensure they have the skills and knowledge needed to deliver the programme. The training will include modules on attachment and neurological, speech and language development
- develop ways to engage fathers more in the early life of their child. These will include providing greater support to children's centres on how to involve fathers and providing arrangements for fathers to stay with their partners in maternity units
- develop an Antenatal Education and Preparation for Parenthood programme to help engage parents, including those from more disadvantaged backgrounds
- roll out the NHS Early Years LifeCheck, an online tool for parents with babies aged five to eight months, nationally, and develop a Fathers' Early Years LifeCheck
- promote breastfeeding through children's centres and encourage hospitals and community settings to adopt the principles of the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative
- develop the 'Red Book' (the personal child health record within the Healthy Child Programme) to include details of the EYFS and sources of information for parents
- ensure each children's centre has access to a named health visitor to work as part of the team and oversee health work of the centre, as part of efforts to bring about the effective integration and co-ordination of services
- work with the health visitor profession on how to develop the responsibilities of and support for health visitors in children's centres
- enhance and expand the successful health programmes that are currently being run in children's centres
- publish a National Tobacco Control Strategy, which will set out how children's centres can encourage parents to quit smoking
- expand the Family Nurse Partnership, which provides intensive home visiting for vulnerable first-time young parents, from 30 to 70 sites by 2011, with a view to rolling out this support for the most vulnerable first-time young mothers across England over the next decade
- develop a predictive tool for child health and well-being to help services identify families who would benefit from additional support during pregnancy and onwards. (To be carried out by DoH.)
SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN
Government will:
- extend the Healthy Child Programme to school-age children. This will include details of what services should be available for all children, in addition to the services that will help support children and families from more vulnerable backgrounds
- expect local areas, through the Children's Trust, to publish information on what (school-age) children and families can expect from their health services locally
- continue to expand its PE and Sport Strategy for Young People. Between 2008 and 2011 it will focus on 'giving children a sense of entitlement to five hours PE and sport a week, and so stimulating demand' and improve areas such as training for coaches and access to sporting opportunities for gifted and talented pupils, and for children with disabilities
- develop a School Report Card, which will set out information about each school's performance and achievements across all its responsibilities, including the contribution it is making to its pupils' well-being
- develop an enhanced Healthy Schools Programme, to improve schools' general health promotion work and the additional support they give to 'at risk' children. The new Ofsted inspection framework, to be introduced in September 2009, will incorporate the new well-being indicators
- pilot the concept of an online parent-held record for the parents of children over age five to ensure that the parents of school-age children have access to high-quality information about their children's learning and development. The pilots will ensure that the confidentiality of users is respected and that the data held is compliant with rigorous data security requirements
- improve the quality and consistency of Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education and intend to make it statutory within the curriculum. A new module on safety and risk management may be added and rolled out in autumn 2009. (PSHE is a core theme of the National Healthy Schools Programme)
- initiate pilots testing the health and educational outcomes that it could expect from introducing free school meals for all primary pupils. The pilots will also test extending free school meals to a wider group of low-income families. The pilots will start in the summer term, with pupils receiving their free lunches from September 2009. The pilots will run for two years to July 2011. The DCSF will set up a joint fund of £20m to implement and evaluate the pilots, which will be matched by £20m from local authorities and PCTs.
SERVICES FOR CHILDREN WITH ACUTE OR ADDITIONAL HEALTH NEEDS
Government will:
- update and reissue guidance on Managing Medicines in Schools and support this with a new awareness-raising campaign. This will include guidance relating to children with complex health needs, as well as clear statements of expectation for different partners, including schools and PCTs. The guidance will be developed in consultation with organisations such as Diabetes UK
- work with health staff to develop an effective approach to supporting the health needs of vulnerable children through a multi-disciplinary community children's service
- make sure that by 2010 all children with complex health needs have individual care plans to support co-ordinated care
- set up pilots to test innovative ways of providing better integrated care, including personalised budgets, which can offer parents more control over decisions on their children's care, to suit their personal circumstances and choices. Some local authorities, with their PCT partners,will be invited to become a disabled children individual budget pilot area
- fund the Autism Education Trust to make support for local authorities and PCTs to improve the commissioning of services for children with autism a priority for its work in 2009-10
- invest £340m over three years to support the NHS in delivering commitments made around palliative care, short breaks, and community equipment and wheelchair services. This includes £30m to meet commitments made for children and young people in need of palliative care and end-of-life care. The DCSF has already committed £340m million to its Aiming High for Disabled Children programme.
MORE INFORMATION
- Healthy Lives, Brighter Futures - The strategy for children and young people's health is at: www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/ PublicationsPolicyAnd Guidance/DH_094400
- An overview of the Child Health Promotion Programme, to be renamed the Healthy Child Programme, is at: www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/ PublicationsPolicyAnd Guidance/Browsable/DH_4870581
