NHF response to the Children and Young People's Consultation

The government published the consultation document Building a strategy for children and young people at the end of 2001 to seek views on the strategy and vision for the Children and Young Person's Unit. The NHF responded to this in March 2002, welcoming the strategy and encouraged the development of an over-arching health and well-being component. The CYPU report, a compilation of all the responses and the vision for the way forward, is due to be published in April 2002. The consultation intends to take into account the views of children and young people, and to that end has established workshops around the country and published age-tailored versions of the document including a questionnaire asking for opinions of the UK's children.

The NHF response to the consultation takes as its foundation the young@heart policy framework; Towards a generation free from coronary heart disease: policy action for children's and young people's health and well-being. Central to the framework is the recommendation to establish a national plan for children's health and young people's health and well-being, which complements the vision of the children's and young persons unit.

A copy of the NHF response to the consultation can be downloaded below. Copies of the young@heart framework may be downloaded from the What's new page.

Download a PDF (76K) of the NHF response to the Children's and Young People's Unit consultation.

Children’s Taskforce
Professor Al Aynsley-Green, chair of the Children’s Taskforce, spoke at the National Heart Forum’s AGM in October. He outlined the importance of the Children’s Taskforce in establishing a culture that supports and promotes services specifically aimed at children and young people, and explained the process and goals of the Children’s National Service Framework. Professor Aynsley-Green will lead the Taskforce in driving forward all aspects of the NHS Plan that relate to children’s health and welfare. Their remit includes overseeing the Sure Start programme and the Childrens’ Fund. The NSF for Children, when developed will address inequalities, transitions and cross-over between services. Publication is currently scheduled for 2002.

United Nations Special Session on Children
The Special Session for Children and Children’s Forum has been rescheduled for 8-10 May 2002. The United Nations’ follow-up to the 1990 World Summit for Children was due to be held mid-September in New York, but was postponed in the wake of the tragic events in New York.

The special session will review goals achieved since the World Summit, in line with the world declaration on the survival, protection and development of children. The vision borne out of the World Summit includes the wish for all children to live a full and healthy life, and for all infants to start life healthy. In the light of the terrorist attacks, the drive of all involved has intensified, and the need to address the agenda is apparent. Included in the Special Session will be the nutrition and health of the world’s children.

Global initatives to address nutrition usually conjure up thoughts of hunger and malnutrition in developing countries. The flipside of this problem is now the increasing occurrence of obesity in the developing world. Alongside this, the increasing rates of overweight and obesity in Western societies - now reaching epidemic proportions, in both adults and children - begs a place on the agenda for obesity at the special session for children. For more information and comment see Lancet 357 (2001) p1989, and for information on the programme see the United Nation's Special Session site at www.unicef.org/specialsession

Health Inequalities Review consultation
August saw the launch of the Department of Health’s consultation on action needed to achieve the Government’s national health inequalities targets, Tackling health inequalities. These include specific NHS measures and wider Government objectives to tackle inequalities in health. Coronary heart disease is a named priority in the consultation. Also high on the agenda are the remits to provide a sure foundation for life through healthy pregnancy and early childhood and to strengthen disadvantaged communities and tackle the wider determinants of health inequalities. The consultation specifically asked for views on the six proposed priority themes of i) providing a sure foundation through a healthy pregnancy and early childhood, ii) improving opportunity for children and young people, iii) improving NHS primary care services, iv) tackling heart disease and cancer, v) strengthening disadvantaged communities and vi) tackling the wider determinants of health inequalities through government policy. Suggestions for other actions of similar priority and local examples of effective action were actively sought. Also a part of the discussion were the range of indicators used to assess progress across government.

The National Heart Forum submitted it's response to the Tackling health inequalities consultation in November 2001. This was a very timely opportunity to put forward new recommendations from the young@heart initiative, which will be published in February. A copy of the response can be downloaded here.

The consultation document can be viewed online at www.doh.gov.uk/healthinequalities/tacklinghealthinequalities.htm.