NHS outlines children's care priorities

The measures are included in the NHS Mandate for 2014/15, which sets out key targets for the health service in England and is used to hold it to account on pledges to improve child health.

The new mandate, which comes into force from next April, applies to all NHS services as well as clinical commissioning groups and health and wellbeing boards. It also binds NHS England to delivering the objectives in the Better Health Outcomes for Children and Young People Pledge.

From next year, the mandate says NHS England will begin planning for the role out of the Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme to the remaining 50 per cent of the country not yet covered by it.

The mandate also calls for a more “joined-up approach” to safeguarding vulnerable children between health and children’s services. “We expect to see the NHS, working together with schools and children’s social services, supporting and safeguarding vulnerable looked-after and adopted children, through a more joined-up approach to addressing their needs,” it states.

Better support for children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities is also committed to. The mandate commits NHS England to ensuring children with SEN, disabilities and long-term conditions receive services identified in their agreed care plan.

In addition, parents of children who could benefit from a personal budget will be given that option. This will be based on a single needs assessment across health, social care and education.

The mandate’s child measures have been welcomed by the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) and Council for Disabled Children (CDC).

Laura Courtney, NCB head of policy and public affairs, said: “We know that historically, child health has not had the level of priority that it should have in the NHS, and there has been a lack of accountability for children and young people’s outcomes. It is not acceptable that we have as many as five extra child deaths a day in comparison to other European countries.
 
“At NCB and CDC, we have been working with voluntary sector organisations in the Children and Young People’s Health Policy Influencing Group to call for health system accountability for the delivery of the Better Health Outcomes for Children and Young People Pledge to address this.

“We welcome the inclusion of the pledge in the NHS Mandate, as this will provide a genuine incentive for the health system to improve children and young people’s health outcomes. We urge the government to keep a close eye on progress against this objective and ensure that NHS England and its partners are held to account.”