Healthy Child Programme: Questionnaire for Staff and Stakeholders of Children Aged 5-19

Overview

We would like to hear your views on our current Healthy Child Programme services in Birmingham. You will have four weeks to respond and we will use your responses to help make our recommendations to Cabinet on how we commission theses services in the future.

Who would be affected by these proposals?

• Children and young people aged between 0-19
• Pregnant women and partners
• All parents and carers of children aged 0-19
• Professionals who work with children and young people and their families.

We want to make sure that as many children, young people and parents and carers as possible can access the services and that everyone is clear about what we provide and how to access it.

We would welcome feedback views from parents, carers and young people as well as health, social care and education professionals, schools, governors and other stakeholders about the Healthy Child Programme services.

To submit your views, please fill out the questionnaire and make sure it reaches us by midnight on 14 December 2021 at the latest. 

If you need help to complete the questionnaire, or have any questions about the consultation, then contact catherine.moore@birmingham.gov.uk.

Current Healthy Child Programme (HCP)

The Healthy Child Programme (HCP) provides a service for all children and families to improve their physical and mental health. It is available for children and young people aged 0-19 and young people up to age 25 who have SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) or who have left care at 18 years. The HCP is delivered by Health Visitors and the School Nursing Service. Health Visitors make regular visits to families, from before birth until a child is aged 2½ years, to offer advice, support and guidance. The School Nursing Service works with school-aged children to promote health. They focus on healthy weight, emotional wellbeing, healthy relationships education and more.

Why change?

The Public Health Grant (which funds the 0-19 service) is a limited resource and we want to ensure maximum value. Birmingham Community Healthcare Trust is the provider of the above services. The current contract with them will finish in 2023 and the Public Health Department are taking this opportunity to review the 0-19 services to make the best use of resources for the health of all children and young people and their parents and carers living within Birmingham.

We also want to look at how we could link in some of these services more effectively with those provided by the Council and Birmingham Children’s Trust to improve access and efficiency. We want to make sure we are working closely with our partners, such as health, schools, communities and the voluntary sector to make the future programme as effective as possible. We also need to consider how best to achieve value for money for the Councils.

Services have had to be delivered differently due to the national and local lockdowns and now that children have returned to school, use of the existing websites for advice and support has tripled and we know that we could make much greater use of digital approaches, peer support groups and the telephone as well as than face-to-face. During the lockdowns staff have developed new skills to help families and young people use digital channels, such as video conferencing. More people prefer to use this way of communicating however, some people still benefit from face-to-face contacts with social distancing measures in place