Agenda item

This report is to update the Committee on the progress of the Medway Integrated Child Health Service. The report provides details of the commissioning arrangements for children’s community health services in Medway, key challenges relating to mobilisation of services and service achievements since contract commencement. The report also identifies key outcomes for children and next steps for service development moving forwards.

Discussion:

The Head of Public Health Programmes introduced the report which provided an update on the progress of the Medway Integrated Child Health Service, including key outcomes for children and next steps for service development.  Representatives from Medway Community Healthcare (MCH), the provider of the service, were also in attendance to answer questions.

Members then raised a number of questions and comments, which included:

·           GPs kept informed of medication updates – in response to a question about the impact of poor patient to GP ratios in Medway on this aspect, officers confirmed that a significant restructure of GP services in Medway was underway which was providing the ability to pool resources and MCH were working across Primary Care Networks to ensure they were fully briefed.  For individual patients, MCH liaised with named GPs to keep them updated on patient care.

·           Single Electronic Patient Record – in response to a question about the implementation of a single electronic patient record system across universal and specialist community health services, officers explained that all staff were now using this system which was improving services and safety for patients.

·           Children who wait beyond 12 weeks for their initial appointment – officers explained that delays were generally not service related but were usually around the health of the child or parent, i.e. sickness causing appointments to be missed.

·           Mitigating risk of mobilisation issues for the future – in response to a question about how risks of recurring mobilisation issues could be mitigated against, officers explained that the service had brought together 19 different services from four providers and this had inevitably caused some difficulties at the start of the contract.  Many of the services had been operating paper based records which made transition difficult.  Now the services had been integrated into one contract which was now using electronic based records, this would help to reduce the risk of difficulties caused by contract changes in the future.

·           Health Visitor vacancy rates – officers confirmed that vacancy rates among the Health Visiting Service were very low and it was considered this was because staff were supportive of the system and model in Medway.

·           Autism Diagnosis – in response to a question about diagnostic pathways for Autism, representatives from MCH explained that children were now provided with three hour assessment appointments which were comprehensive multi-disciplinary assessments that resulted in a decision of diagnosis or not at the end of the appointment (unless there was the potential for underlying issues that require scans or blood tests).  The service was also beginning to provide training for parents ahead of this assessment and was providing a better co-ordinated offer.

·           School Readiness Screen – in response to a query about this screening officers confirmed Medway was the only area in the country to offer this additional check which would help to identify issues affecting a child’s readiness for school, such as speech, incontinence or sleep issues.  The screen had tried to be aligned with the school admissions application process but uptake was still relatively low and further ways of raising awareness of the screen and its benefits were being considered.  Officers welcomed the suggestion of working with primary schools to join up with them during Reception visits to raise awareness of the screen further.

·           Social Prescribing – in response to a questions about social prescribing, MCH representatives explained that this provided a vehicle to help families engage in social activities which they might otherwise find difficult to access for a variety of reasons.  So far the programme had enabled over 130 children and young people to access groups and services and this was being expanded further through partnership working with the Council and third sector organisations to increase the offer.

Decision:

The Committee noted the report.