Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust (HDFT) has retained the contract to deliver the 0-5 years Healthy Child Programme (HCP) in North Yorkshire following a competitive bidding process.
The contract, worth around £5m per annum, is commissioned by North Yorkshire County Council and will run until March 2020.
Health visitors lead and deliver the HCP to ensure a healthy start for each and every child in North Yorkshire. This programme provides universal and targeted prevention and early intervention support during pregnancy through to school entry.
This includes promoting positive physical and mental health, supporting new parents, and assessing the health and development of children and young people.
Health visitors are able to provide ongoing support, working with a range of local services in partnership with the family to deal with more complex issues over a period of time.
HDFT will use a ‘One Team’ approach and service delivery model for the Healthy Child Programme (HCP) integrated into the local children’s services. This will help to deliver efficient and effective services at a community, local and individual level, providing a clear focus on prevention and early intervention to improve outcomes and tackle health inequalities.
The ‘One Team’ of health visitors are supported by early years practitioners and administrators will work together with multi-agency partners and stakeholders.
Lorraine Fox, Head of Children’s Public Health Nursing at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said:
This is an exciting opportunity for us to continue to deliver a high quality service to the children and young families in North Yorkshire.
We have a shared responsibility with partners such as North Yorkshire County Council to work with children, young people and their families to reduce risk, build resilience and keep them safe
We have significant experience of delivering this service across North Yorkshire, and we know that the existing staff who will be transferring across to us are an enthusiastic, committed and professional team.
Dr Lincoln Sargeant, Director of Public Health at NYCC, said:
I am delighted that the 0-5 Healthy Child Programme contract has been awarded and look forward to working with HDFT to ensure effective local that will directly support the achievement of the North Yorkshire Health and Wellbeing Board strategic aim for all children to have a healthy start in life.
