Deliver The Healthy Child Programme

Health Needs Assessment

In the pilot areas the structured health needs assessment process provided a vehicle to gather the evidence of the needs of children, young people and their families and deliver The Healthy Child Programme1. The assessment of need incorporated a system of health and development reviews that were carried out on every single child in the pilot areas at school entry (aged 4-5 years) and every young person in year 6 (aged 10-11 years).

Each health and development review:

• Assessed strengths, needs & risks
• Provided the opportunity to discuss concerns and aspirations
• Assessed physical health, growth & development
• Assessed any mental or emotional issues
• Identified any needs which required progressive (targeted) interventions
• Ensured appropriate support was available

The Universal Progressive Model

Universalism was achieved and the required progressive/targeted service provision identified , supporting the delivery of planned proactive interventions and thereby reducing reactive practices. This cyclical approach of data collection increased the evidence to reduce and address the variations in practice and inequalities gap in service provision seen in the scoping exercise. The data was then analysed and presented to influence the commissioning process. The table below shows the number of individual children in the two pilot sites with an identified need at school entry, the pathways of activity represent the initial intervention carried out and are linked to the health and development reviews.

1 Healthy Child Programme(5-19) Department of Health/Department for Children, Schools and Families 2009
2 The Child Health Promotion Programme Delivery Standard Department of Health 2007