To provide an update on the progress of the implementation plan for the Health and Wellbeing Board’s strategic priority of giving our children the ‘Best Start in Life’ focusing on 0-5 years.

The report was introduced by the Public Health Principal, highlighting progress recorded in the Best Start in Life (BSiL) Implementation Plan 2023-2025 (Appendix 1 to the report) and in the Outcome Indicators Dashboard (Appendix 2).

Attention was drawn to the following red, amber, green (RAG) ratings:-

i.             Red indicators: dental decay in 5-year-olds; MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination at 5 years; DTaP and IPV (diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis and inactivated poliomyelitis vaccine) booster vaccinations at 5 years; vaccination coverage of children in care; and premature births (less than 37 weeks).  The board was advised about the work being undertaken in relation to oral health and vaccinations.

ii.            Amber indicators: mother’s smoking status at time of delivery; overweight children including obesity at reception and year 6; children achieving a good level of development at age 2.5 years; and Free School Meals children reaching a good level of development at the end of reception year.  It was reported that local data suggested that ‘smoking status at time of delivery’ had reduced from 8.3% to 6.7%.  It was commented that the time lag in some national data sources highlighted the need to explore the use of uptake data and other proxy indicators at a local level to identify trends more quickly.

iii.          Green indicators included: the launch of the Healthy Schools programme, with work coming along on the Healthy Tots programme, and for further education settings; and SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) champions had been implemented within the 0-5 service and were represented in each PCN (Primary Care Network) area.  It was commented that progress had been made in terms of partnership working and in utilising data from early years settings to inform policy development.

The Public Health Lead (Children and Families) provided further details about BSiL projects and initiatives.  The key points included: over 45 schools had signed up to the Health Schools programme; the Healthy Tots programme aimed to enhance standards in early years settings, including addressing issues around unhealthy baby and toddler food products; a large proportion of schools had signed up to the supervised toothbrushing scheme; through the recommissioning of the 0-19 years Public Health Nursing Service, additional health checks had been introduced and were receiving good uptake; and work with the local maternity services included the roll-out of ‘challenging conversations’ training to midwives around healthy lifestyles.

The Chairperson emphasised the corporate parenting principles for children in care and sought further clarification on the position with vaccination coverage.  The Public Health Principal commented on the efforts to identify which vaccinations were missing, noting that a significant proportion of the children concerned were in out of county settings, and the Public Health Programme Officer (Strategy and Partnerships) outlined the work with partners and other local authorities to administer vaccinations and to improve the recording process.  The Vice-Chairperson noted that the position had improved, with coverage increasing from a baseline of 80% to 87% currently; this compared favourably to the region (83%) and England (85%).

The Chairperson questioned why  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43