ICS Report is now live!

SAPHNA is part of the Health Policy Influencing Group, a coalition of professional organisations and charities who are working to ensure that children and young people are central to policy, and their health needs are recognised and met. SAPHNA contributed to the scoping of the work of ICS’s. A shout out to Elaine Davies and Rita Jenner (SAPHNA Committee members) for their contributions. Key findings are:

• Less than half of local strategies mention integration with other key services such as education and social care.
• 61% of strategies do not consider the capacity of the children’s workforce. Almost a third (27%) of Joint Forward Plans do not set specific targets for addressing inequalities to improve health outcomes.

As School Nurses it is essential that we engage with ICS’s. Each will have a lead for children and young people. Do you know who that lead is? Is school nursing represented at the table? Have you invited the children’s lead and the ICS Chief Nurse out to see what school nurses do? Do you tag then in your social media so they can see the excellent work of school nurses?

Those attending SAPHNA’s annual conference will remember Jamie Waterall’s, England’s deputy chief public health nurse, keynote speech. He stated that School and public health nurses are “perfectly positioned” to shape, lead and deliver on policies to improve the nation’s health and he urged us to be ‘bold’ and lead change. England’s deputy chief public health nurse has said.

Local NHS plans show more focus needed to put children at the heart of new health system

SAPHNA are pleased to have contributed to a new report led by @ncbtweets @CDC_tweets Children& Young People’s Health Policy Influencing Group which examines the extent to which the needs of babies, children & young people are reflected in Integrated Care System’s plans

Integrated Care Systems and the health needs of babies, children and young people