Who’s the bloke in the room? report

“Who’s the bloke in the room?” a report published by the Fatherhood Institute and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, details how expectant fathers in Britain are key influences on maternal and infant health and wellbeing, including on pregnant women’s smoking, diet, physical activity and mental health, and on children’s later adjustment.

The Fatherhood Institute’s report, Who’s the bloke in the room? recommends a more family-centred service that enrols expectant fathers in maternity services from ‘booking in’, records and responds to their health needs and behaviours, and which trains maternity staff to engage with them. The Fatherhood Institute calls on the NHS to include expectant and new fathers at all stages and inform them as thoroughly as it currently informs pregnant women and new mothers.

You can access the full Who’s the bloke in the room? report (and others in the series) here

iHV welcomes Bercow: Ten years on report

iHV welcomes the Bercow: Ten years on report and its recommendations, published by I CAN (the children’s communication charity) and The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) on 20 March 2018.

In particular, the iHV welcomes the recommendation that Public Health England should support the development of national health visitor training on identifying and supporting SLCN.

Bercow: Ten years on reports on the state of provision for children’s speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) in England. It lays bare the current picture of services for young people with SLCN and makes informed recommendations of what must be done to improve the situation at a local and national level.

Through extensive evidence gathering, I CAN and the RCSLT collected the views of children and young people, parents and carers, speech and language therapists, education professionals, commissioners and many others about the reality of support for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs in 2018. This included information from the iHV’s State of Health Visiting Survey 2017 which found that 74% of health visitors have seen a rise in the number of children with SLCN.

The report shows poor understanding of and insufficient resourcing for speech, language and communication needs. This means too many children and young people receive inadequate, ineffective and inequitable support, potentially impacting on their educational outcomes, their employability and their mental health.

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Download 2-page Summary report - Bercow:Ten years on

Download Full Report - Bercow: Ten years on

LGA – Public health transformation five years on: transformation in action

Today the Local Government Association (LGA) launched Public health transformation five years on: transformation in action – the fifth in their series of annual reports.

Public health has been part of local government for five years now. We are well beyond the stage at which public health teams have ‘bedded in’ to local authorities and at which local authorities have learned what public health is all about.

Born of the synergy between the two, we should now expect to see significant changes in the way local government carries on its business; and significant changes in the understanding of public health teams of the potential breadth and depth of their reach in tackling the social determinants of health.

Go to LGA Public health transformation five years on

New MBRRACE report published on maternal deaths and morbidity

Today MBRRACE-UK has published its latest Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity findings.

The latest from the national collaborative programme studying maternal and infant deaths, MBRRACE-UK, reviewed the care of 124 women who died and 46 women who had severe illness during or after pregnancy in the UK and Ireland between 2013 and 2015. The report, ‘Saving Lives, Improving Mothers’ Care’, examined the care of women with severe epilepsy and women who had severe mental illness, as well as the care of women who died.

Download the full report, lay summary and infographic for Saving Lives, Improving Mothers’ Care report – Lessons learned to inform maternity care from the UK and Ireland Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity 2013-15.

Download full report

Download lay summary

Download infographic

iHV responds to ‘Every mother must get the help they need’ report

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) responds to the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) report ‘Every mother must get the help they need’ report published this week. The report was inspired by the Change.org petition of Lucie Holland whose sister, Emma, died in tragic circumstances as a result of perinatal mental illness.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, executive director of the Institute of Health Visiting, said:

“The remarkable efforts of Lucie Holland and her family following Emma’s tragic death serve as a moral imperative for national commissioning bodies, and also for every commissioner at every local level, so that such a tragedy should never happen again. We need to broaden perceptions of mental health, so that all women and their families, and all health and social care professionals consider mental health equal to physical health.”

Lucie set up the petition in 2015 calling for better awareness and care for those affected by perinatal mental illness. Her petition received thousands of signatures and many people left heartfelt comments about their own experiences. The RCM collated and analysed all the comments to form the report ‘Every mother must get the help they need’.

Dr Adams continued:

“It is vital that all practitioners working alongside women and their families in the perinatal period are competent, confident and committed to ensuring that the right care, at the right time, is available in the right place for all women and their families. Specialist midwives and specialist health visitors should be in post at every local level as part of a comprehensive specialist perinatal mental health service offer. The Institute is committed to working in partnership with all agencies to achieve the highest standard of care all mothers and their families deserve.”

New reports from PHE: social inequity drives health inequalities

Two new reports from Public Health England (PHE), launched today, once again flag up the importance of social inequity to driving health inequalities – the Health profile for England report and the Public Health Outcomes: health equity report.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, executive director iHV, says

“It is very helpful to again see this focus on the wider determinants of health. There are lots of messages here for health visitors to consider and discuss with their colleagues, employers and local authority commissioners with respect to the communities where they work.”

The “Health Profile for England” report summarises the current picture of and trends in health outcomes in England with a focus on mortality, morbidity, risk factors and the social determinants of health. It brings together key PHE data and knowledge on the health of the population and fills gaps in existing outputs. It also looks at how England compares with other European countries and describes inequalities in outcomes within England. It summarises inequalities in outcomes and the impact of the social determinants of health.

Go to PHE: Health Profile for England report

The “Public Health Outcomes Framework: Health Equity Report” examines inequalities in outcomes and the social determinants of health between different population groups and has a special focus on ethnicity. It will increase understanding of inequalities in health outcomes between different populations and address some gaps in existing data and analysis.

Go to PHE: Public Health Outcomes Framework: Health Equity report

Watch PHE launch of reports:

iHV shares RCPCH’s concerns on workforce shortage

The iHV shares the concerns of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) that children’s health services are being put at risk by a serious shortage of paediatricians.

Gaps in paediatric rotas, uncertainty over the status of non-UK nationals working in the NHS, poorly co-ordinated planning, and a demoralised workforce, are putting increasing pressure on child health services and placing quality of care in jeopardy, according to a new report from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH).

It shows that demand for children’s healthcare is increasing, with the number of hospital admissions for children in England rising by 25% between 2013/14 and 2015/16, from 1.2million to 1.5million and attendances by children at Accident and Emergency Departments growing by 7%, from 4.5 million to 4.8 million over the same period.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, executive director, iHV, said:

“The iHV shares the concerns of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) that children’s health services are being put at risk by a serious shortage of paediatricians. This situation, coupled with the reducing numbers of health visitors, will have a drastic impact on the health and wellbeing of babies, children and families. A health visitor’s role is to help parents to manage minor illnesses and reduce accidents within the home and so reduce the numbers of babies and children needing to go to hospital. But the reducing health visitor numbers will put a greater demand on reducing paediatric services, which will have economic consequences for the future, particularly on the already cash-strapped NHS.”

The RCPCH Report “The State of Child Health: The Paediatric Workforce” is based on data from the RCPCH Workforce Census 2015, with additional data from the Office of National Statistics, and RCPCH trainee recruitment processes.

Read full RCPCH press release

Health Committee: Government is missing important opportunities to tackle childhood obesity

The Government needs to take more robust action to tackle the impact of deep discounting and price promotions on the sales of unhealthy food and drink, says the Health Committee in its follow up report into childhood obesity.

The Government’s plan to tackle childhood obesity was published in August 2016. Although the Health Committee welcomes the measures the Government has announced on the sugary drinks levy, they are extremely disappointed that several key areas for action that could have made the strategy more effective have not been included.

The soft drinks industry levy

The Committee also calls on the Government to ensure that manufacturers pass on the cost of the levy to ensure that there is a price differential at the point of sale between high- and low- or no-sugar drinks.

The report welcomes the Government’s positive response to the Committee’s recommendation that the proceeds of the soft drinks industry levy should be directed towards measures to improve children’s health including through increasing access to school sports and to breakfast clubs.

Read full news story on Parliament website

New report – The performance of the NHS in England in transforming children’s mental health services

The Education Policy Institute has published a new report, The performance of the NHS in England in transforming children’s mental health services, which examines the progress made by the Government in improving children and young people’s mental health services (CAMHS).

The report analyses NHS England’s new ‘Mental Health Five Year Forward View Dashboard’, which tracks the performance of local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, executive director, iHV, commented:

“Clearly there is much to be done to improve child mental health services. Investing upstream into more preventative capacity, such as in health visiting, would help stem the flow of young people requiring help from these services.”

Key findings

When assessing the overall performance of children and young people’s mental health services, we find almost three quarters (73.2 per cent) of CCGs failed to meet NHS England’s own benchmark for improving services.
In order to meet NHS England’s standard for crisis care performance CCGs must have an agreed plan to develop better local services. However, across England, less than a third of CCGs (31.6 per cent) had a fully funded plan to improve crisis care, with one in nine CCGs (10.5 per cent or 22 in total) having no agreed plan or funding set out.
Government policy states that no one under 18 should be treated on an adult ward – yet children spent a total of 2654 nights on an adult ward between July and September 2016. This increased by over a third compared to the last quarter (April to June 2016), although it is not yet possible to establish whether this is due to fluctuation or a longer trend.
There is wide variation between CCG’s planned spending per head – with those in the top quarter spending over £52 per capita, while those in the bottom quarter spend just £23, or less. This suggests that there is a postcode lottery in children and young people’s mental health care.

Read report - The performance of the NHS in England in transforming children’s mental health services

iHV welcomes the results of the ‘Women’s Voices’ survey run by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Women with mental health problems during and after pregnancy reveal the impact of low rates of specialist referral, long waits, as well as lack of consensus over medication and little support for their partners, in a survey published today (22 February) by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and supported by the Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA).

The survey of over 2,300 women who had given birth in the last five years in the UK, explores their experiences of perinatal mental health problems, engagement with healthcare professionals and the quality of care they received.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, executive director, iHV, said:

“The Institute of Health Visiting, a member of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, welcomes the results of the ‘Women’s Voices’ survey run by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and launched today.

“This survey gives real life evidence on the level of support that women receive when suffering from perinatal mental illness (PMI) – and the variation there is in the level of services across the country. Health visitors are key healthcare professionals who are well-placed to identify and offer support to women suffering with PMI. However, our own surveys have shown that, although parents will turn to their health visitor for support, there is often insufficient time for the health visitor to offer the level of support required.

“We, at the iHV, deliver perinatal mental health (PMH) and infant mental health training to ensure standardised practice for health visitor professionals and the families they work with. Our PMH training has now been delivered to well over 10,000 health visitors and others across England. However, for this training to have the impact it should, more health visitors need the time to use what they have learnt to improve services, especially at the recommended contacts.

“Perinatal mental health is an incredibly important area of healthcare which can have a negative effect on the health and wellbeing of babies and families and ultimately on our society when we don’t recognise it early. Health visitors have always made a huge contribution to supporting pre-school children and their families and are the best-placed professional to help give all children the best start in life during the early years of life.”

Download Maternal Mental Health – Women’s Voices survey report

Read full press release from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists