DHSC:GAPH: Healthy Child Programme: 5-19 Public Health Nursing

Children and young people are facing significant health challenges which affect their current wellbeing and have an impact on their future outcomes. Complex health needs, SEND, mental health disorders, digital risks to health and development and poor nutrition have all been identified as barriers to learning and increases the risk of poor outcomes The government has set out it’s ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever while shifting to community health services that are focussed on prevention.

To achieve this, the school nursing service, which leads the delivery of the 5-19 Healthy Child Programme, needs to be reimagined in such a way that it aligns with neighbourhood health teams. This alignment will, in turn, strengthen the key role of public health specialists as part of the local offer.

To do this effectively we need to address variation in the current offer, identify opportunities and challenges associated with strengthening the offer including understanding how/where children and young people want to access health services. This will enable implementation that best supports development of the integrated neighbourhood health teams.