Salford’s Healthy Child Programme (0-19 service) public consultation

Please note this consultation is now closed.

Overview of the Healthy Child Programme

The Healthy Child Programme is a national programme for children, young people and their families which provides support from pregnancy to age 19. It includes health visiting, child development checks, drop in clinics and school nursing which includes health advice for schools, drop ins for high school children and the National Child Measurement Programme (reception and Year 6 height and weight checks) plus targeted support for vulnerable children and families.  

The Salford Healthy Child Programme is one of a number of services that work to improve and protect the health and wellbeing of children and young people in Salford. There is a mandatory (legal) requirement to provide some parts of the service. 

Current contract and the funding position 

The Salford Healthy Child Programme is commissioned by Salford City Council. The Healthy Child Programme is funded by the Department of Health to local authorities in their Public Health grant. The amount of funding the council gets in this grant is decided nationally by central government. 

Since 2010, local authorities have had their budgets cut and for Salford this equates to £245 million pounds. Government funding for local authority public health budgets has been substantially cut since 2015/16. Even with more recent uplifts in cash terms, the public health grant 2022/23 was 24 per cent, or £1 billion Nationally, lower per head in real terms compared to 2015/16 for every person. This has led to reductions, meaning that the council needs to reduce spending across a range of public health services including the Healthy Child Programme. The council continues to spend around a quarter of its Public Health allocation on the Healthy Child Programme contract.

As part of the new contract for the Salford Healthy Child Programme, there is a 5% reduction in contract value, equating to £266,374 each year, meaning the new service will be different to that which is currently provided.

Change of the Family Nurse Partnership to a supporting parents with additional needs pathway from the Salford Healthy Child Programme

Many first time parents require additional support during pregnancy and early childhood. The Family Nurse Partnership is a licensed programme which supports young mothers and care leavers. To accommodate the reduction in budget, it is proposed that in the new specification, the Provider will not be required to provide the Family Nurse Partnership programme.

However, the service still needs to provide a level of additional support for parents and children who are identified to have greater needs, via a vulnerable parents' pathway which will support Parents with additional needs offer and will deliver a targeted programme of support to parents-to-be and parents, as a targeted aspect of the HCP. This will be achieved by providing additional support for people identified as having greater needs. Additional services are also available to support this group of families such as the strengthening families' programme.