Provision of a 0-19 Healthy Child Service in Halton

Giving every child the best start in life is crucial to reducing health inequalities across the life course. The foundations for virtually every aspect of human development – physical, intellectual and emotional – are set in place during pregnancy and in early childhood. What happens during these early years has lifelong effects on many aspects of health and wellbeing, educational achievement and economic status. Universal and specialist public health services for children are important in promoting the health and wellbeing of all children and reducing inequalities including:

• Delivery of the Healthy Child Programme (HCP);
• Assessment and intervention when a need is identified; and
• On-going work with children and families with multiple, complex or safeguarding needs in partnership with other key services including early years, children’s social care and primary care.

The Health Visiting Service and the Family Nurse Partnership work across a number of stakeholders, settings and organisations to lead delivery of the Healthy Child Programme 0-5 (HCP), a prevention and early intervention public health programme that lies at the heart of the universal service for children and families and aims to support parents at this crucial stage of life, promote child development, improve child health outcomes and ensure that families at risk are identified at the earliest opportunity.

The School Nurse Team promotes the holistic health of the school aged population (5 – 19), thereby enabling them to realise their potential. They encourage children and young people to think about their health and support them to become responsible for their own health and wellbeing as they progress through childhood and adolescence.

In order to maximise the impact of the two teams (the 0-5 service and the 5-19 service as described above), Halton is seeking to create an integrated 0-19 service (or up to 24 for young people with a disability or complex health care need) that will deliver the Healthy Child Programme and provide both universal and targeted support services to help improve the health and wellbeing of children, young people and families in Halton. The Council seeks to secure a service that will offer specialist skills in each of the areas of need identified above combined with a strong background in research and innovation that will drive forward Halton’s key priority of improving the life chances of all children and young people.