Issue - meetings

A report providing an overview of the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme in Oldham, and the progress over the past twelve months.

The Committee considered a report and presentation providing an overview of the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme (HCP) in Oldham, and the progress over the previous twelve months. The report also outlined the current performance of the related services, and the engagement work that was happening with parents, and young people.

The Committee was reminded that the HCP had been launched 11 years ago and was still the national evidence based universal programme for children aged 0-19. The programme provided the bedrock for health improvement, public health and supporting families. The HCP was not the responsibility of any individual service but was instead a partnership approach.  The programme was led by health visiting and school nursing: our 0-19 public health nursing services.

The Committee noted that Local Authorities were mandated to provide some key public health services, and Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provided a number of them on the Council’s behalf:-

·         Health Visitor review of pregnant women and children

·         Weighing and measuring children at Reception and Year 6, and

·         Oral health promotion programmes as deemed necessary for the area

Members were informed that, compared with England averages, the health and wellbeing of children in Oldham was below average. Health outcomes for children were impacted by poverty in a similar way that health outcomes for adults were. As the recent 10-year update on the Marmot Review argued “Poverty experienced during childhood harms health at the time and throughout the rest of life”. In Oldham, there were areas of high rates of deprivation and the latest figures were that 38% of children in Oldham lived in

poverty.

The Committee noted that the service generally performed well in relation to the mandated contacts by health visitors. Other than the New Birth Visit, the service completed more than the England average for contacts. There were some challenges to meeting the New Birth Visit target which the service was working on.

There had been an increase in demand in relation to safeguarding since the start of the pandemic and the service had implemented the following changes in practice over the past year in order to support families through the pandemic:-

·         Ensured the focus was on those most vulnerable by carrying out caseload reviews and identification of all vulnerable children (Child Subject of Child Protection Plan / Child in Care / Child in Need / child with SEND / extremely clinically vulnerable children)

·         Provided ongoing support to families identified with lower level needs to prevent escalation including creative opportunities for face to face assessments (pram walks / garden visits / park visits / doorstop child growth monitoring)

·         The service provided daily appointment-based healthy child clinics for parents who were reluctant to allow professionals into their homes as well as for the delivery of packages of care

·         The service developed a video in an attempt to allay parental fears of accessing services. The video described the COVID-19 safe arrangements that were in place in order to keep both families and staff safe whilst also  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7