On Thursday 2 July, PHIRST took part in an LGA public health lunch and learn session looking at interventions to the Healthy Child Programme.

The first 1,000 days of a child’s life are vitally important for mental, physical and social development. The session will cover the Healthy Child Programme (HCP), an initiative developed by the UK Government which seeks to reach every child in the country and is a key way to promote healthy child development. You will also hear about the role of local authorities, which spend over £850 million on HCP delivery each year, and the importance of making best use of this investment and supporting the skilled professional workforce, including health visitors.

The session will also outline how, in England, every family is entitled to five free health and development reviews delivered by health visitors at distinct time points, from before birth until the child is aged 2.5 years. It will include learning from two NIHR PHIRST evaluations with local authorities that have added extra reviews to the core schedule – in Rotherham, where families are offered an additional sixth visit at 3–4 months, and in the London Borough of Camden, where families are offered eight visits in total – 3 more than the standard schedule. Please note the Camden evaluation is still in progress and findings are preliminary at this stage.

The evaluations explored whether there are differences between families who take up visits and those who do not, including barriers to participation, as well as the impact on staff delivering additional visits and any impacts on child outcomes.

We thank the LGA for allowing us to share the recording of the session. Thanks to Lorna Quinn, Public Health Intelligence Principal at Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council for chairing the session.

You can also download our quick glance summary, Adding More visits to the Health Child schedule Summary (PDF: 5 slides)