Tags: PHE

iHV welcomes PHE #ValueofVaccines campaign

iHV welcomes Public Health England’s support to UK vaccine heroes – those health professionals promoting the value of vaccines – in its #ValueofVaccines campaign.

At the start of European Immunization Week (#EIW2019), Chief Executive of Public Health England, Duncan Selbie, reminds all those working in healthcare of the importance of speaking ‘confidently about the value of vaccines’ and urges everyone to support the vaccine heroes – those GPs and nurses who are on the frontline.

Research from Public Health England shows that health professionals remain the most trusted source of advice on immunisation (93% of parents agreed), while social media and the internet ranked as the least trusted sources of information. Overall, only 9% of parents have seen, read or heard about something that would make them doubt having their child immunised – a historically low proportion and down from a third (33%) in 2002.

When asked what they had come across in the past year the majority (86%) of parents who reported seeing or hearing information about vaccines said the messages were in support of immunisation. Only 4% said the information was against vaccination.

The survey also shows that reported parental confidence in the immunisation programme is very high and the percentage of parents refusing one or more of their child’s vaccines remains very low at only 4%. For those parents who didn’t vaccinate when due, most had postponed, rather than refused vaccination, with their child going on to have it at a later date.

Vaccine coverage remains high for most childhood vaccines. The latest quarterly data suggests that vaccine coverage at 12 months of age increased by 0.4-0.9% for all vaccines compared with the previous quarter. This follows slow declines in uptake since 2012-13. According to research by the Royal Society of Public Health these small drops may be due to timing, availability and location of appointments.

Read PHE info

iHV response to PHE’s news on children’s tooth extractions in hospitals

The news released from Public Health England today, that almost 9 out of 10 hospital tooth extractions among children aged 0 to 5 are due to preventable tooth decay, serves as a useful reminder to the health visiting profession. Whilst it is encouraging that oral health in the under 5s is improving overall, we still have significant work to do in deprived areas to tackle oral health inequalities. The number of extractions in 0-5 year group due to tooth decay remains a shocking statistic and should further mobilise the profession, especially where 9 out of 10 extractions were considered preventable.

Health visitors nationally have key opportunities through the mandated contacts of the Healthy Child Programme to deliver sugar reduction and toothbrushing messages to all families, as well as seeking to encourage and support parents to engage with routine dental care. Health visiting teams are also well positioned to promote apps such as the Change4Life Food Scanner at these appointments.

Through their ongoing work at partnership plus level of the service, health visitors have the prospect of identifying and intervening where children are known to be more at risk of tooth decay e.g children with long-term medical conditions are at high risk of dental health issues, or additionally those families we work closely with over a prolonged period with significant wider health and social issues.

iHV is committed to improving children’s oral health and remains a keen member of the Children’s Oral Health Improvement Programme Board (COHIPB). We have published some summaries of resources for professionals, collated with the support of the Office of the Chief Dental Officer NHS England in the autumn of 2018. We aim to promote these again to our members and the workforce again to support action on oral health by health visitors.

Download How health visitors can help to give every child a smile for life

Download Oral health resources for families

Read PHE press release - Almost 9 out of 10 child hospital tooth extractions due to decay

 

Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework Evaluation

Have you used or looked at the Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework (PHSKF)? 

If so, please could you complete this short online evaluation that is being conducted for Public Health England on behalf of the four UK nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?

The aim is to evaluate Public Health England’s redesigned 2016 PHSKF to determine its impact on the public health workforce and their employers, and its utility.

The survey should take no more than about ten minutes to complete.

The deadline for submission of survey is 8 March 2019.

Go to Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework Evaluation survey

 

New Start4Life campaign launched to boost parents’ confidence in weaning their baby

Public Health England (PHE) has launched its first ever Start4Life campaign to help parents introduce their baby to solid foods.

Official advice is that most babies should not start solid foods until they are around six months old. By this point their bodies are better able to cope with solid foods and they are more able feed themselves. They are also better at moving food around their mouth, chewing and swallowing.

Dr Cheryll Adams, Executive Director of the Institute of Health Visiting, commented:

“This is very helpful advice. PHE’s new Start4Life hub contains lots of important information that will help parents feel confident introducing solid foods to their baby for the first time. We recommend that mums still unsure about how to wean their children ring their health visitor or attend a child health clinic to seek advice.”

The  brand-new weaning hub has been launched on the Start4Life website to help parents during their weaning journey. Packed with NHS-approved advice and tips for each weaning stage, plus simple, healthy weaning recipes for different age groups, it puts everything parents need to know in one place. It also includes new videos showing the signs that indicate babies are ready to wean, how much food to give, and weaning tips from other parents.

A new survey of 1,000 mothers of young children conducted for Public Health England found that common myths persist about the signs a baby is ready for their first solid foods, including:

  • Just under half of mums (46%) think wanting extra milk feeds is a sign that babies are ready for solid foods;
  • A third of mums (32%) believe that a baby chewing their fists is a sign that they are ready to start weaning;
  • Just under a quarter of mums (24%) believe that waking up in the night is a sign a baby is ready for weaning.

The survey revealed that many parents have concerns around weaning with more than a quarter saying they didn’t feel confident when they introduced solid foods to their baby. Choking topped the list of worries about weaning, with mums also concerned about allergic reactions to new foods, how much food to give their baby, and concern that their baby won’t eat enough or will reject food.

Go to Start4Life weaning hub

Telling parents about the hub is a simple way to help them access information that they know they can trust. To support your conversations, PHE has created a new weaning leaflet which is available to order free of charge by health visitors and early years professionals via the PHE Campaign Resource Centre. It comes in a handy pocket-size format which folds out to a wall-planner, with tips for each stage of weaning. A social media toolkit is also available on the Campaign Resource Centre.

 

iHV partners with PHE in ground-breaking commitment to better mental health

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) has signed up to Public Health England’s (PHE) Prevention Concordat for Better Mental Health. This will see iHV work closely with PHE to take significant steps towards the promotion of good mental health and the prevention of mental health problems.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, Executive Director Institute of Health Visiting, with the iHV’s signatory certificate for Prevention Concordat for Better Mental Health

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, Executive Director of the Institute of Health Visiting, said:

“The Institute is delighted to have been awarded as a Signatory for the Prevention Concordat for Better Mental Health. Our work in Perinatal and Infant Mental Health, in particular our Champions project, acts on the recognition that parental and infant mental health are crucial to good mental health across the life-course. We support our Champions at every local level to lead the shift towards prevention-focused care, enabling early help through the use of upstream interventions at every level of need.

“The Institute is absolutely committed to supporting local authorities, policy makers, parents, NHS clinical commissioners, service providers and the voluntary sector to promote a prevention-focused approach towards improving the public’s mental health.”

The Prevention Concordat Programme for Better Mental Health marked the first time that agencies across the community and care sectors came together to make prevention a priority for mental health. Now 74 organisations representing all sectors have signed up and committed to action. These organisations are benefiting from resources designed specifically to help local areas put in place effective prevention planning arrangements.

The promotion of good mental health is everyone’s responsibility and can only be achieved by working together. As a signatory to the concordat, we recognise that we can all contribute to improving mental health and wellbeing and reducing stigma, facilitate local and national action around preventing mental health problems and promote good mental health.

Lily Makurah, national lead for public mental health at PHE, said:

“The Prevention Concordat for Better Mental Health exists to help communities prevent mental health problems and promote good mental health. Through local and national action across sectors we can all contribute to improving mental health and wellbeing, improve outcomes and reduce stigmas for everyone. We’re delighted that the Institute of Health Visiting has joined the growing list of signatories.”

Find out more about Our Work in Mental Health

Background to the Concordat

Your views are needed to help shape SLC training for health visitors

As part of the government’s commitment to reducing the word gap, the Department for Education (DfE) and Public Health England (PHE) are leading a joint programme of work as part of the Social Mobility Action Plan (SMAP). One element of this is that the Institute of Health Visiting has been commissioned by PHE to develop training for health visitors to:

  • promote a strengths-based approach to supporting parents and carers of pre-school children with their child’s speech, language and communication development;
  • to support early identification and appropriate signposting to speech language and communication services.

We need to establish a baseline in relation to health visitors’ current knowledge of speech, language and communication. This will help us to shape the planned training and the development of resources which we will be rolling out in 2019.

Your participation in this survey is entirely voluntary and this short survey will take no more than 10 minutes of your time.

Go to Speech, Language and Communication Survey

New PHE Change4Life campaign – “Make a swap when you next shop”

Children have already exceeded the maximum recommended sugar intake for an 18 year old by the time they reach their tenth birthday, according to Public Health England (PHE). This is based on their total sugar consumption from the age of two.

This figure comes as a new Change4Life campaign launches today, supporting families to cut back on sugar and to help tackle growing rates of childhood obesity. While children’s sugar intakes have declined slightly in recent years, they are still consuming around 8 excess sugar cubes each day, equivalent to around 2,800 excess sugar cubes per year.

To help parents manage this, Change4Life is encouraging them to “Make a swap when you next shop”. Making simple everyday swaps can reduce children’s sugar intake from some products (yoghurts, drinks and breakfast cereals) by half – while giving them healthier versions of the foods and drinks they enjoy.
Parents can try swapping:

  • a higher-sugar yoghurt (e.g. split-pot) for a lower sugar one, to halve their sugar intake from 6 cubes of sugar to 3;
  • a sugary juice drink for a no-added sugar juice drink, to cut back from 2 cubes to half a cube;
  • a higher-sugar breakfast cereal (e.g. a frosted or chocolate cereal) for a lower sugar cereal, to cut back from 3 cubes to half a cube per bowl.

The launch of the campaign will also see the release of new TV, radio and digital advertising as well as a brand new short film which brings to life key statistics around children’s consumption of sugar.

Families are encouraged to look for the Change4Life ‘Good Choice’ badge in shops, download the free Food Scanner app or search Change4Life to help them find lower sugar options.

Popular brands – including Nestlé Shredded Wheat, Nestlé Low Sugar Oat Cheerios, Petits Filous and Soreen (malt loaf) – will display the ‘Good Choice’ badge online, in-store and throughout their advertising, to help parents find healthier options.

 

PHE – New physical activity resource for health professionals

A new resource that will improve conversations about physical activity between patients and healthcare professionals has been launched.

The new digital Moving Medicine tool will help healthcare professionals advise patients on how physical activity can help to manage their conditions, prevent disease and aid recovery.

It is produced by the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine (FSEM) in partnership with Public Health England (PHE) and Sport England with support from National Lottery funding.

Currently one in four of the population in England does less than 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity a week and are classified as inactive.

Physical inactivity is in the top 10 greatest causes of ill health nationally, with negative impacts on health, wellbeing, social and economic outcomes for individuals and communities.

The tool focuses on helping to address the most common long term health conditions affecting the population, such as cancer, depression, musculoskeletal pain and type 2 diabetes.

Developed in consultation with over 300 healthcare professionals and patients and using evidence-based step-by-step guidance, Moving Medicine is designed to provide healthcare professionals with the latest evidence to address this knowledge and skills gap in the NHS and support healthier outcomes for patients as a result.

Go to Moving Medicine tool

iHV welcomes new Health Profile for England

The Institute of Health Visiting welcomes Public Health England’s new Health Profile for England published on Tuesday 11 September.

This report summarises the health of people in England in 2018 and provides an update to the first Health Profile for England (published 2017). A new addition for this year’s report is the inclusion of forecast data for several key indicators, for the 5 years up to 2023 and a separate chapter on the health of children in the early years.

As a society, people are living longer but often in poorer health and stubborn inequalities persist. Good health is about much more than good healthcare – a high-quality education, a warm home, and a good job are just as important to a healthy standard of living.

The future trends, data and evidence contained in Health Profile for England will help shape the forthcoming NHS long term plan and its renewed focus on prevention as well as treatment.

The report covers life expectancy; major causes of death; mortality trends; child health; inequality in health; wider determinants of health; and health protection. The report also links to further PHE tools to allow local policymakers and commissioners to see how they compare with the national picture.

The Health Profile for England report’s 7 chapters are:

  1. Population change and life expectancy
  2. Trends in mortality
  3. Trends in morbidity and risk factors
  4. Health of children in the early years
  5. Inequality in health
  6. Wider determinants of health
  7. Current and emerging health protection issues
Go to PHE Health Profile for England 2018

Read PHE's blog on this new report

 

PHE Guidance – Health matters: reproductive health and pregnancy planning

A resource focusing on reproductive choice and ensuring that pregnancy, if desired, occurs at the right time and when health is optimised.

This resource for professionals working with women and men that may have children in the future focuses on reproductive choice and ensuring that pregnancy, if desired, occurs at the right time and when health is optimised. Effective contraception and planning for pregnancy mean that women and men stay healthy throughout life and take steps to improve the health of the baby.

Go to PHE Guidance