In September 2003, HM treasury and DFES launched green paper, Every Child Matters for consultation. The document set a framework for improving outcomes for all children and their families, to protect them, to promote their wellbeing and to support all children to develop their full potential. It focused on four main areas: early intervention and effective protection; supporting parents and carers; accountability and integration - locally, regionally and nationally and workforce reform.

Technical note.
To ensure download to disks, do this: On a PC, RIGHT click, on a Mac, OPTION (alt) click and choose to save to disc.

The Children and Young People's Unit in Northern Ireland is organising a series of informal consultation events throughout Northern Ireland to gather views to help develop proposals for a ten-year children's strategy. Among them, a short framework paper, Creating a vision for all our children, invites responses to issues affecting children in Northern Ireland. A formal consultation is planned for March 2003. For further information see: www.allchildrenni.gov.u

In November 2002, the department for education and skills (DFES) launched a consultation to inform plans to unlock the full potential of the school workforce. DFES intends to raise standards of pupil achievement, through developing the role of support staff. Consultation closes 22 January 2003. For further information see: www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations/supsta/

In April 2002 the department for work and pensions published a consultation document discussing options to track long-term progress at tackling child poverty. Four different approaches to monitoring progress were outlined in the paper on which respondents were asked to comment. Further information can be obtained from www.dwp.gov.uk/consultations

Technical note.
To ensure download to disks, do this: On a PC, RIGHT click, on a Mac, OPTION (alt) click and choose to save to disc.

The young@heart policy framework was launched on 14 February at the House of Lords. The framework document, Towards a generation free from coronary heart disease: Policy action for children's and young people's health and well-being, is available for download from the young@heart website.

The young@heart policy framework is now downloadable from the website.

The framework is based on a draft document which was presented at the young@heart summit in June, reflecting the contributions of NHF members, invited summit participants and others. It is a blueprint for national plans for children's and young people's health and well-being in the UK.

Embargoed press material will be available from the beginning of February from Jane Landon at the National Heart Forum on 020 7383 7638.

Further information about the young@heart initiative can be found on the dedicated website at: www.heartforum.org.uk/young

2 October 2001
Child health plan urgently needed to prevent coronary heart disease epidemic in future generations.
Every child born in the UK today should be able to live to at least the age of 65 free of avoidable coronary heart disease. This is the goal of the National Heart Forum's young@heart initiative. In June, 90 opinion formers and experts from multidisciplinary fields came together at a policy summit to discuss how to achieve 'a healthy start for a new generation'.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading single cause of death in adults in the UK. Every year, around 86,000 men and women suffer a heart attack before the age of 65, and over 21,000 people under 65 die of CHD. The total costs to the UK economy - in terms of working days lost and health care costs - are estimated to be £10 billion per year. Yet CHD is a largely preventable disease.
 

Making child health the focus of CHD prevention
The development of CHD can start in early life and has its origins in the major modifiable risk factors of poor diet, a sedentary lifestyle, smoking and the impact of poverty. Improving child health - by addressing these risk factors - is key to tackling adult diseases, including stroke, some cancers and CHD. Inaction now creates a public health time-bomb for future generations, with the potential for rising premature death rates from coronary heart disease.

The government has pledged to cut deaths by at least 40% by 2010. But if this reduction is to be maintained, the startling gap in strategies to build children's health must be urgently addressed.

young@heart recommendations
• Governments across the UK should demonstrate strong, visible and sustained leadership by establishing children and young people’s health and well being units in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to develop national child health plans.
• The plans should contain comprehensive strategies - with targets - to improve children and young people’s nutrition and physical activity levels and to tackle smoking. These should be established without delay and form the key planks of the plan.
• The views of children and young people must inform the development of the plan.
• Current investment should be maintained, if not increased, for family and child anti-poverty policies.
• More research is needed to develop anti-poverty policies and comprehensive anti-smoking strategies. These should be targeted at children and young people and complement adult campaigns and programmes.
 

A new policy framework for a new generation
If current knowledge about the causes and prevention of CHD are turned into effective policy action focusing on children and young people, death and disability from avoidable coronary heart disease among people under 65 could be virtually eliminated. The full young@heart framework of recommendations forms a comprehensive set of actions at local, regional and national levels. It will be launched in early 2002.

The young@heart policy summit was held on 18-19 June 2001. Ninety experts from the fields of children’s health, government, social policy, the private sector and education met to discuss a draft policy framework developed by the National Heart Forum. Among the issues discussed during the summit were the need for extended professional training, how children’s health can be influenced in schools and how the community in its widest sense can contribute to improving child health.

Following on from the summit, the NHF secretariat is now working to restructure and condense the policy framework in time for a parliamentary launch in early 2002. We will be consulting further with NHF members and others during this process.

One of the mechanisms for further consultation is a dedicated young@heart satellite website which is now online at www.heartforum.org.uk/young. This includes updates, commissioned research articles, topics for discussion and an email discussion list, moderated by the National Heart Forum.

In the meantime, the National Heart Forum is pursuing meetings with the Minister for Public Health to put forward ideas for action and to discuss how the fruits of young@heart might contribute to the new National Service Framework for Children. The young@heart initiative was also on the agenda at a recent meeting of the Department of Health’s CHD Taskforce for England.

A new taskforce has been established by the government to take forward aspects of the NHS Plan which relate to children. In partnership with other taskforces, its remit will include the development of a National Service Framework for children’s services, expansion of Sure Start, reform of the welfare foods scheme and roll out of the National School Fruit Scheme by 2004. The NHF will ensure that the recommendations and research review from its young@heart initiative will be fed into the thinking of the taskforce and development of the National Service Framework.