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Agenda item

Agenda item

HEALTHY START - FIRST 1001 CRITICAL DAYS OF LIFE

Sue Welford (Principal Education Officer, Leicester City Council) Mel Thwaites (Head of Women’s and Children’s Transformation, CCG) and Clare Mills (Public Health Children’s Commissioner) to present a report and give a presentation on Healthy Start – First 1001 Critical Days of Life.

 

Minutes:

Sue Welford (Principal Education Officer, Leicester City Council) Mel Thwaites (Head of Women’s and Children’s Transformation, CCG) and Clare Mills (Public Health Children’s Commissioner) presented a report and gave a

presentation on Healthy Start – First 1001 Critical Days of Life.

 

During the presentation the following was noted:-

 

·         Leicester was a deprived city and 31% of children were in low-income families compared with 19% nationally.

·         There were high numbers of homeless, or at risk of homelessness, families requiring protection.

·         There were high levels of obesity in early pregnancy.

·         The City had areas with high under-18 conception rates.

·         Over a fifth of under 25-year-old mothers were smokers at the time of delivery.

·         The breastfeeding prevalence at 6 to 8 weeks varies across the city

·         Infant mortality rates were a significant concern; there were approximately 28 infant deaths (under 12 months) per year in Leicester and 5.9 deaths per 1,000 live births which was significantly higher than England (3.9).

·         There were low MMR immunisation rates for 2 year olds

·         Depravation leads to difficult engagement and outcomes for children.

·         Asian heritage women were twice as likely to die in maternity, mixed heritage were 3 times more likely and black women were 4 times as likely compared to women of white heritage.  Officers were working with health services to look at this.

·         Postnatal depression affects the child’s response at high levels for long periods and has an impact on its developing brain.

·         New services commissioned by Public Health were:-

o   Building Communication Skills to support a reduction in the number of children who have below expected language levels at the 2 – 2 ½ year developmental review, and increasing children’s school readiness.

o    Improving the mental and physical wellbeing of parents with vulnerabilities In addition to mums and babies, the service also targets fathers, male carers, and LGBT+ parents, ensuring their voices and needs are not overlooked.

·         Schools were reporting children starting school were further behind following covid than before.

·         The next steps for action were:-

o   A Start for Life offer, delivery plan and impact framework would be co-produced with families and created in partnership across health, education, social care, and the voluntary/community sector through the Readiness for School Steering Group by Autumn 2022.

o   A stakeholder engagement strategy – including a one-day workshop – would be held to shape the Equity and Equality work.

o   Following on from a successful online workforce development event held on 10th November 2021 on the importance of the First 1001 Critical Days, further engagement opportunities would be held in 2022 to encourage understanding and engagement with the Start for Life offer.

o   The development of Family Hubs and the Start for Life offer would be taken forward through funds from the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme from the Department for Education and Department for Health and Social Care (announced 2nd April 2022). Key learning exchange and impact frameworks would be developed with local, regional and national partners including the National Centre for Family Hubs, Family Hubs Network, East Midlands Family Hubs Transformation Programme network and regional Early Years Strategic Leads network.

·         The response to the First 1001 Critical Days benefited from a strong partnership between the council, health services and community services.

 

Members of the Board commented that:-

 

·         There were increasing numbers of children who were not vaccinated, and this led to later health issues.

·         Childhood immunisation used to be good but there had been on-going decline in recent years and the vaccination  confidence was now impacting as well and further efforts were required to prevent further erosion in levels in vaccination and raise it the previous levels and to promote immunisation to mothers.

·         The higher rates of maternity deaths for black women should be linked to the broader health inequalities and service provision.

·         There were links with the Action Plans involving groups and the Action Plan for the Health and Wellbeing Strategy and these needed to be linked to ensure issues incorporated into action plans enact with the whole strategy.

 

The Chair commented that the average case load was 200 per health visitor for city with our deprivation, the current rate in the city was  over 500 cases and some had 600 cases per health visitors.  The trial system that worked in County would not work in the City as it has different issues and levels of deprivation.  A scheme should be tailored for the needs in the City and not the County.  The issues of training and recruitment of health visitors required to be addressed urgently.  The Chair would raise the issue of post-natal depression want to take up with Public Health.  Neurodiversity also needed to be included to pick up these issues at a very early stage as it impacts significantly upon parenting and the family.  An Action Plan on what was being done to reduce the levels of unvaccinated young people should be submitted to a future Board meeting.

 

RESOLVED:-

 

Officers were thanked for the report and the presentation and Board Members were requested to encourage partnership engagement in the development of the Start for Life offer.

Supporting documents: