Category: Child Health

Bleak houses: Tackling the crisis of family homelessness in England

Children’s Commissioner, August 2019

This report shines a light on this homelessness crisis and shares the experiences of some of those children. Growing up in a stable, healthy and secure home is so important for any child. Yet we know there are thousands of children in England who are living in homeless families, stuck in poor quality temporary accommodation, often with low prospects of finding something permanent. There are many others who are at risk of ending up homeless.

Click here to view the full report.

It takes leaders to break down siloes: Integrating services for disabled children –

Council for Disabled Children, July 2019

Over the past decade, successive governments have brought in a range of legislation, policies and programmes in an attempt to deliver on a vision of coordinated, person-centred care and better outcomes for children and young people with SEND. However, despite this visible drive towards integration, services for children with SEND remain fragmented. The reality of integrated working between different services and agencies, such as NHS and local authority services, children’s and adults’ services and specialist and universal services, is challenging. The report identifies key factors that are helping and hindering the integration of services around special education needs and disability (SEND). The report finds that:

  • • The system of disabled children’s services, nationally and locally, is highly complex and fragmented. Those who work in it face multiple practical barriers to integration.
  • Leadership is the most important factor in enabling or hindering integration; service leaders play a pivotal role in uniting agencies around a whole-system approach to SEND and wider vulnerable children’s services.
  • Good quality population data is vital to developing a whole-system approach, and the measurement of shared outcomes.
  • Local Areas’ efforts to integrate services in the complex SEND system must be part of a wider strategic vision

Click here to view the full report.

Shaping services around your child: A parent carer’s guide to integrated commissioning

Council for Disabled Children, July 2019

Integrated commissioning is where commissioners (those who plan, develop and purchase services) pool budgets across traditional boundaries, such as ‘health’ and ‘social care.’ The intention of this is to reduce duplication in service provision, where, typically, different bits of local government or the NHS fund or commission (purchase) similar things. This guide aims to explain it to parents and carers.

Click here to view the full report.

Left to their own devices: Young people, social media and mental health

Barnardo’s, July 2019

Using the internet and social media is an important part of life for children and young people. It can be a positive opportunity to learn, to connect with friends and family and to have fun. However, internet use can also expose children to dangers, such as cyberbullying, online grooming and sexual abuse. At the same time, mental health conditions are on the rise with recent data showing that 1 in 8 children and young people between ages 5-19 in England have a mental health problem.

This report gained insight from 80 practitioners across more than 30 Barnardo’s services in the UK. It found:

• Half of these practitioners responding said they had worked with children aged five to 10 who had been exposed to unsuitable or harmful materials online, and more than one third said children in that age group had been victims of cyberbullying.

• When it comes to 11-15 year olds, 79% of practitioners responding said children they work with have experienced cyberbullying. Some practitioners highlighted that cyberbullying had led to self-harm and suicide.

• 78% of practitioners responding also said they had worked with children in this age group who had been groomed online and 78% also said they’d worked with children in this age group who had accessed unsuitable/harmful content.

Click here to view the full report.

Far less than they deserve: children with learning disabilities or autism living in mental health hospitals

Children’s Commissioner, May 2019
This report finds that too many children are being admitted to secure hospitals unnecessarily – in some cases are spending months and years of their childhood in institutions rather than being treated in their communities. It warns that the current system of support for those with learning disabilities or autism is letting down some of the most vulnerable children in the country.
Click here to view the full report.

Transitions to adulthood: the case for a cross-departmental taskforce

The Children’s Society, May 2019
One in five 16 year olds experience five or more complex issues. Their age means these young people often fall between the cracks of children’s and adults’ services and are left without support. Many face further challenges as support drops off overnight after their eighteenth birthday, making the transition into independent adulthood difficult. This report outlines steps that government departments and other agencies should take to improve transitions for young people. It recommends that the government forms a cross-departmental taskforce to look into transition planning for older teenagers as they move into adulthood, to ensure the best outcomes for vulnerable young people.
Click here to view the report.

Early access to mental health support

Children’s Commissioner, April 2019
This report looks at the amount spent on “low-level” mental health support for children in England. “Low-level” mental health services are preventative and early intervention services for treating problems like anxiety and depression or eating disorders, such as support provided by school nurses or counsellors, drop-in centres or online counselling services.  The report reveals that local areas, which included both local authorities and NHS spending, were allocated a total of £226 million for low-level mental health services in 2018/19, just over £14 per child.  The report also found large variations between geographical areas in the funding available, and where spending on services has fallen locally it has been driven by reduced spending by local authorities.
Click here to view the full report.

Keeping kids safe: improving safeguarding responses to gang violence and criminal exploitation

Children’s Commissioner for England, March 2019
This report estimates there are 27,000 children in England who identify as a gang member, only a fraction of whom are known to children’s services. It recommends that the government needs to make child criminal exploitation a national priority, and lay out clear expectations about the role of all organisations working with children – including the police, schools, children’s services and NHS bodies. There also needs to be more support from the NHS, including better mental health support for children at risk of gang membership and exclusion.
Click here to view the full report.

First 1000 days of life

Health and Social Care Committee, February 2019
This report calls on the Government to produce a long-term, cross-Government strategy for the first 1000 days of life, setting goals to reduce adverse childhood experiences, improve school readiness and reduce infant mortality and child poverty.  The report also calls for the Government’s Healthy Child Programme to be revised, improved and given greater impetus. The Committee recommends that the programme should be expanded to focus on the health of the whole family, begin before conception, deliver a greater continuity of care for children, parents and families during this period and extend visits beyond age 2½ years.
Click here to view the full report.