Improving children’s and families’
health and wellbeing in Southwark
Jodie Adkin
Strategy, Planning and Performance
Children’s and Adults’ Services
www.southwark.gov.uk
Southwark health
and wellbeing board
• New statutory partnership board, established in April, to encourage
integrated working “for the purposes of advancing the health and
wellbeing” of local people
• Has statutory duty to develop and publish a joint strategic needs
assessment and a joint health and wellbeing strategy
• Southwark health and wellbeing strategy developed for 2013/14,
with further three-year strategy planned to build on initial priorities
• Development of this next strategy will include widespread
consultation over winter and spring involving children, families,
practitioners and local communities – more details to follow in due
course
www.southwark.gov.uk
2013/14 Southwark health and
wellbeing strategy
• Partnership has committed to work together to promote integration,
improve outcomes and reduce health inequalities by:
– Giving every child and young person the best start in life
• Covers key CYPP priority areas
– Building healthier and more resilient communities and tackling
the root causes of ill health
• Focuses on adult unhealthy behaviour and ill health like smoking,
excessive alcohol or lack of exercise as well as long term
conditions, and wider determinants such as employment or housing
– Improving the experience and outcomes of care for our
most vulnerable residents and enabling them to live more
independent lives
• Focuses on more specialist care for frail elderly, children and adults
with special education needs or disability, and looked after children
www.southwark.gov.uk
2013-16 Children and Young
People’s Plan
• Developed following extensive consultation and data analysis,
including 1,000 Journeys work
• Focuses on three areas that evidence shows need transformation:
– Best start – Children, young people and families access the
right support at the right time, from early years to adolescence
– Safety and stability – Our most vulnerable children, young
people and families receive timely, purposeful support that
brings safe, lasting and positive change
– Choice and control – Children and young people with a special
educational need or disability and their families access a local
offer of seamless, personalised support from childhood to
adulthood
www.southwark.gov.uk
Children and young people’s health
•
Taking the ‘Best start’ priority, there are five key areas:
–
–
–
–
–
•
Provide high-quality advice and support services in the early years,
and tackle inequalities in life chances for mothers, babies and toddlers
Help parents to raise their children successfully, particularly in troubled
or neglectful families, and continue to keep children and young people
safe and in stable homes
Keep more children physically and mentally healthy, a healthy weight
and doing well in school
Support more young people to succeed into adulthood and education
or employment
Identify and divert more vulnerable adolescents from risky behaviours
or unhealthy choices, including unsafe sex or relationships, and
involvement in crime
Vulnerable groups including child protection, looked after children,
SEN and disability fall within the third priority
www.southwark.gov.uk
Today’s session
• Two case studies highlighting typical issues facing our children and
families, particularly in relation to their health and wellbeing
• In groups, identify what is important to these residents, and what
could be done to improve their life chances and satisfaction
• Consider what activity in own organisation could be developed,
extended or ‘tweaked’ to address an unmet need or overcome a
barrier presented by the residents in the case studies
• These ideas will support implementation of the priorities in the
current health and wellbeing strategy as well as development of
next iteration
www.southwark.gov.uk
1: The Bayos
• The Bayos have recently moved to the borough from overseas,
there are three children under five
• A recent visit to A and E resulted in GP registration; GP finds all
children in general good health although some are over weight, and
not meeting some developmental milestones
• The family lives in poor private housing and both parents work
manual shifts
• The family has informal child care arrangements through their good
community links with church
• Mum is recently pregnant again
www.southwark.gov.uk
2: Fatima
• Fatima – is 16, and experienced ongoing episodes of mental health
• She smokes and drinks heavily and has a poor social network, the
friends she does have are not a positive influence on her
• Fatima has been previously been employed but found it difficult to
sustain
• No family and who mostly died of cancer
• Sometimes loses her tenancy and spends periods of time homeless
www.southwark.gov.uk