Child health: the elephant in the corner?

For me, moving from children's social care to children's health has been like seeing a familiar animal but in a very different way.

Previously, in my various management roles at council social services departments and large national charities, I was focused on spotting gaps in statutory provision. This could be developing preventive family services — which might reduce the need to take children into care — building services for under-eights in the light of Sure Start or building youth justice services to keep young people out of the courts. In all honesty, the health agenda figured only fleetingly.

This is partly because it is difficult to engage with health commissioners. Their focus is more narrowly defined on either acute children's services or the growing elderly population and voluntary organisations are unlikely, for example, to be seen as strategic partners when a narrow definition of health is adopted.