DCAF-Ages and Stages Questionnaires - National Licence

All children in Scotland are entitled to benefit from the Scottish Child Health Programme. The programme consists of formal screenings for specific medical conditions, routine childhood immunisations and a series of child health reviews provided by a Health Visitor or Family Nurse.

Appropriate support and/or referral can be made where concerns are identified in a child or young person. This approach provides proactive care and supports all children to attain the highest level of health and wellbeing possible.

Details of five routine contacts with a Family Nurse and/or Health Visitor (First Visit (11-14 days), 6-8 week review, 13-15 month review, 27-30 month review and 4-5 year review) are inputted into the Child Health Surveillance Programme – Pre-School system (CHSP-PS). This produces population level data on the health and development of pre-school children across Scotland.

This data can be used to guide service provision and improvement work at local, regional and national levels. In addition, the Scottish Government’s Early Child Development Transformational Change Programme, launched on 14 December 2023 aims to improve early child development by providing enhanced oversight and better integration of relevant policies.

It promotes prevention and early intervention across the pre-birth to three age range and looks to identify and respond to policy and implementation gaps. The aim of the Programme is to reduce the proportion of children with developmental concerns at 27-30 months by a quarter by 2030 (from 18% to 13.5%).

The ASQ is the only viable tool which can support the assessment of pre-school child development in Scotland. In context of Scottish child health policy and delivery, any child development assessment tool would need to meet the following criteria.