APPG NEWS : Health Matters

The All Party Parliamentary Group for Children held a meeting on 10 February on the National Service Framework for Children. At this meeting the Group heard presentations from Professor Al Aynsley-Green, National Clinical Director for Children and Chair of the Department of Health Children’s Taskforce, and from Tony Bell, Chief Executive of the Royal Liverpool Children’s NHS Trust (Alder Hey).

National Service Frameworks (NSFs) were launched in April 1998, and there are several NSFs covering areas such as mental health, children, older people and diabetes. NSFs set national standards and define service models for a defined service or care group; put in place strategies to support implementation; and establish performance measures against which progress with an agreed timescale will be measured.

There are six modules in the National Service Framework for Children:

- acute services,
- maternity,
- mental health and psychological well-being of children and young people,
- children in special circumstances,
- disabled children, and
- healthy children and young people.

Professor Aynsley-Green said that the acute module will be published shortly, along with emerging findings for the other modules. The full National Service Framework for Children will be published by December 2003.

In his closing remarks, Professor Aynsley-Green set the Parliamentarians a number of challenges:

• To speak more effectively for children in order to improve their lives and their health
• To find out how many children and young people live in your constituency/area
• To explore the quality of children’s services in your constituency/area
• To find out what is being done to promote joined-up working
• To find out what your area’s track record is like for commitment to children
• To think about what you can do to improve the focus on children’s lives
• To engage more with children’s services and their staff.

Tony Bell focused on the challenges for children’s hospitals in delivering the National Service Framework for Children. At the first children’s hospital conference held in September 2002 attendees were asked: ‘What are the major problems affecting your speciality in relation to clinical and professional issues?’ Consultants comprised 50% of the sample of 72 respondents, and the top five issues were as follows:

• Human resources
• Shortage of facilities – beds, theatre time etc.
• Standards and quality – Clinical governance
• Lack of funding
• Tension between generalist and specialist paediatrics

In conclusion, Mr Bell proposed a number of actions that would help to address the current problems in children’s healthcare services, namely:

• Increase medical workforce training posts via central funding, effective from 2004
• Develop a national co-ordinated paediatric medical workforce strategy and set targets for recruitment, retention and return to work
• As above for nursing and allied health professional e.g. Medical Laboratory Scientific Officers (MLSOs), Psychologists and Speech Therapists
• Establish ‘fast-track’ training programmes to enable skills to be developed and retained for local primary and secondary care access
• Develop and implement a framework for a national system of Managed Clinical Networks (MCNs) to sustain local access to acute services and continued updating
• Develop a national policy and framework for specialist paediatric commissioning and monitoring of service standards – Children’s Services Commissioning and Development Board

For more information on the National Service Framework for Children and its development please see the Department of Health website: http://www.doh.gov.uk/nsf/children.htm

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Forthcoming meetings of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children include:

26 February – Implementation of the New Child Support Agency Arrangements and its Implications for Children

4 March – A Children’s Commissioner for England? The Work of a Children’s Ombudsman (Joint with Associate Parliamentary Group for Parents and Families)

5 March – Pupil Behaviour and Discipline in Schools (Ivan Lewis MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Young People and Adult Skills)

31 March – Anti-Social Behaviour (Louise Casey, Head of the Anti-Social Behaviour Unit)

28 April – Children at Risk Green Paper (The Rt Hon Paul Boateng MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury)

Please contact Alison Linsey, Joint Clerk to the Group:

• To be added to the email mailing list to receive minutes and notices of meetings
• For copies of minutes from any of the meetings
• For a free copy of the Group’s report ‘Commitment to Children’
• For any further information about the Group

Email : ALinsey@NCB.org.uk