Policy, legislation and guidance – Wales

iHV infographic ‘Who are health visitors and what do they do?’ in Welsh to support health visiting practice across Wales and enable Welsh health visitors to articulate the complexity of their role to families and professionals.

This infographic provides clear information on Specialist Community Public Health Nurses (health visitors) and the vital role they play in positively influencing health outcomes for future generations in Wales.

iHV infographic ‘Who are health visitors and what do they do?’ in English to support health visiting practice across Wales and enable Welsh health visitors to articulate the complexity of their role to families and professionals.

This infographic provides clear information on Specialist Community Public Health Nurses (health visitors) and the vital role they play in positively influencing health outcomes for future generations in Wales.

We wanted to celebrate the extraordinary work of health visitors and their teams in Wales. In collaboration with Amanda Holland, Senior Lecturer, SCPHN Programme Manager, Cardiff University and CPHVA Wales Chair/ CPHVA Wales, we gained support from senior leads of SCPHN and Welsh Government leads for early years to celebrate the health visiting profession in Wales. We asked health visitors to tell us about their journeys during the pandemic and the ways in which they innovated and adapted their practice and the service. These articles set out a snapshot of some of the innovations and workarounds that health visiting teams developed to ensure that families in Wales continued to receive the best possible service during unique times.

Thank you to all those who contributed to these articles and those who supported this project, and particular thanks to Sue Tranka, chief nursing officer for Wales; Karen Jewell, senior midwifery officer, Welsh Government;  Amanda Holland, specifically, for writing these as journal articles; and Community Practitioner for permission to share these articles.

Showcasing health visiting in Wales - Part 1 (Published in Community Practitioner Journal May/June 2022 - Unite/ CPHVA/ Redactive)

Showcasing health visiting in Wales - Part 2 (Published in Community Practitioner Journal July/August 2022 - Unite/ CPHVA/ Redactive)

The Healthy Child Wales Programme (HCWP) sets out what planned contacts children and their families can expect from their health boards from maternity service handover to the first years of schooling (0-7 years). These universal contacts cover three areas of intervention: screening; immunisation; and monitoring and supporting child development (surveillance).

This Quality Assurance Framework will ensure The Healthy Child Wales Programme (HCWP 2016) delivers a progressive, universal service focused on prevention and early intervention, enabled by the application of the Family Resilience Assessment Instrument and Tool (FRAIT) (Wallace et al 2016). This will ensure early identification of child and family resilience in order for timely and appropriate planned universal, enhanced and intensive interventions. Effective interventions and prevention in the early critical years of a child’s life are vital to ensure a best start in life and reduce long term health and social issues.

The Guidelines aim to standardise practice and improve the quality of the NIPEC examination, contributing to the health and wellbeing of babies and infants through early detection of congenital abnormalities of the eyes, hips, heart and (in males) testes.  The Guidelines have been developed in collaboration with experts from across Wales based on research evidence and best practice.  The guidelines will be reviewed periodically and updated in accordance with any new or emerging evidence.

This plan sets out a long term future vision of a ‘whole system approach to health and social care’, which is focused on health and wellbeing, and on preventing illness.

NHS Wales core values Putting quality and safety above all else – providing high value evidence based care for our patients at all times. Integrating improvement into everyday working and eliminating harm, variation and waste. Focusing on prevention, health improvement and inequality as key to sustainable development, wellness and wellbeing for future generations of the people of Wales. Working in true partnerships with partners and organisations and with our staff. Investing in our staff through training and development, enabling them to influence decisions and providing them with the tools, systems and environment to work safely and effectively.

Proposed whole system values Co-ordinating health and social care services seamlessly, wrapped around the needs and preferences of the individual, so that it makes no difference who is providing individual services. Measuring the health and wellbeing outcomes which matter to people, and using that information to support improvement and better collaborative decision making. Proactively supporting people throughout the whole of their lives, and through the whole of Wales, making an extra effort to reach those most in need to help reduce the health and wellbeing inequalities that exist. Driving transformative change through strong leadership and clear decision making, adopting good practice and new models nationally, more open and confident engagement with external partners. Promoting the distinctive values and culture of the Welsh whole system approach with pride, making the case for how different choices are delivering more equitable outcomes and making Wales a better place in which to live and work.

The Act imposes duties on local authorities, health boards and Welsh Ministers that require them to work to promote the well-being of those who need care and support, or carers who need support. The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act changes the social services sector:

• People have control over what support they need, making decisions about their care and support as an equal partner
• New proportionate assessment focuses on the individual
• Carers have an equal right to assessment for support to those who they care for
• Easy access to information and advice is available to all
• Powers to safeguard people are stronger
• A preventative approach to meeting care and support needs is practised
• Local authorities and health boards come together in new statutory partnerships to drive integration, innovation and service change

Principles of the Act

• The Act supports people who have care and support needs to achieve well-being
• People are at the heart of the new system by giving them an equal say in the support they receive • Partnership and co-operation drives service delivery
• Services will promote the prevention of escalating need and the right help is available at the right time.

The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales. The Act gives a legally-binding common purpose – the seven wellbeing goals – for national government, local government, local health boards and other specified public bodies. It details the ways in which specified public bodies must work and work together to improve the well-being of Wales. It will make the public bodies listed in the Act think more about the long-term, work better with people and communities and each other, look to prevent problems and take a more joined-up approach. This will help us to create a Wales that we all want to live in, now and in the future.

Overarching Strategic Goal More babies in Wales will be breast-fed, and for longer, and the current inequalities in breastfeeding rates between groups will be reduced. The strategic goal will be delivered through the following two strategic approaches working in parallel both at a population level, each with their own defined goals, one strand looking at 2 the Health and Care System and one strand looking at whole system and whole population approaches. Strategic Approach 1: Health System This approach will develop system-wide action to bring about maximise the potential of the NHS in Wales to support infant feeding goals.

Strategic Aims

1. Supporting families to make informed decisions about how to feed their baby.
2. Enabling mothers who have opted to breastfeed to do so successfully for as long as they would like to do so.
3. Creating and sustaining an environment that supports breastfeeding in the healthcare system.

Strategic Approach 2: Population Level and Whole System

This approach will develop population-wide action to support optimal infant feeding for families across Wales.

Aims

1. Supporting the population to make informed choices on infant feeding.
2. Influencing social norms – towards breastfeeding being seen as the normal way of feeding a baby and accepted as part of everyday life.
3. Creating settings and environments which reflect a positive and inclusive ethos towards breastfeeding (e.g. schools, workplaces, public places/transport).
4. Controlling the advertising and managing the availability of less optimal infant feeding methods (e.g. follow-on formula milk). Where there is a clear overlap between the approaches i.e. the availability of high quality data, these are brought together.

These national guidelines have been developed to assist in the management and practice of all acts of appropriate delegation. They have been developed  primarily to support clinical staff, however, the principles could be applied to all staff groups across health and social care.

The delivery of health and social care to the population of Wales is completely dependent on our workforce who work in a range of statutory, private or voluntary provider services, volunteers or as carers. Without them, high quality health services, care and support could not be provided, and  this strategy encompasses all of these.
people.

The Socio-economic Duty came into force in Wales on the 31 March 2021. It will encourage better decision making and ultimately deliver better outcomes for those who are socio-economically disadvantaged.

This plan sets out the part that Welsh Government can play in making Wales a wonderful place for children and young people to grow up, live and work, where everyone feels valued.

These are the national Wales Safeguarding Procedures. They detail the essential roles and responsibilities for practitioners to ensure that they safeguard children and adults who are at risk of abuse and neglect.

Free practical tips and expert advice for all parenting challenges.

Flying Start is the Welsh Government’s targeted Early Years programme for families with children under 4 years of age who live in some of the most disadvantaged areas of Wales. Flying Start aims to make a decisive difference to the life chances of children by mitigating the impact of poverty, which is linked to poor life outcomes in early childhood, including health outcomes.

The strategy sets out our vision and goals for Wales and
has children’s rights at its centre.

When children are a healthy weight, they feel better about themselves. They find it easier to play and learn. And they’re more likely to grow up healthy too.  That’s why making sure they’re a healthy weight right from the start is one of the best things you can do to set them up for life.

These 10 steps to a healthy weight will help you bring up happy, healthy kids, and make life easier too.

This book has been written by parents, health professionals and child psychologists. It is packed with useful information which will support you all the way from the early stages of pregnancy, through to the early days with your baby and
into the toddler years.

Physically punishing children is illegal in Wales. We want to protect children and their rights, to give them the best start in life.

The purpose of the Act is to improve arrangements and support for the prevention and protection of gender-based violence, domestic abuse and sexual violence, and support for people affected.

A long-term strategy that sets out a vision for achieving a healthier future for people in Wales by 2035.