One in five children has a probable mental health condition; childhood obesity remains stubbornly high; and tooth decay is the leading cause of hospital admission among young children. Yet services continue to respond after problems emerge rather than preventing them.
Neighbourhood health is a major opportunity to tackle these and other poor health outcomes. Its focus on prevention, community-based support and integration aligns with what children, young people and families consistently tell Barnardo’s they need.
But the Neighbourhood Health Framework does not provide a clear route to delivering the healthiest ever generation.
Drawing on Barnardo’s delivery experience across family hubs, social prescribing, community wellbeing, mental health and health equity programmes, this report contains the clear route that is needed. It sets out a vision for neighbourhood health that works for children and young people.
To move from ambition to outcomes, neighbourhoods must be:
- structured to promote integration;
- designed around the needs of children and young people; and
- focused on prevention and equity.
To deliver on the Government’s ambition, Barnardo’s is calling for a Child Health Action Plan that defines “healthiest ever generation”, establishes an outcomes framework and aligns national, regional and neighbourhood delivery.
The Child Health Action Plan should set out:
- the improvements Government expects to achieve in children’s health, wellbeing and equity;
- how different departments will contribute to those outcomes;
- the role of neighbourhood health in delivering change locally; and
- a consistent framework for measuring progress.
The success of neighbourhood health should not be measured by how services are reorganised, but by whether children’s lives improve. If more children are healthy, thriving, connected and able to access support when they need it, neighbourhood health will have succeeded. Without a clear vision, shared outcomes and accountability for progress, it risks becoming a reorganisation of services rather than the child-centred transformation needed to create the healthiest ever generation
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