Delivery of the healthy child programme
The principles underlying the programme and the expectations that public health nursing teams are expected to meet when delivering services in England.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
The healthy child programme is the Department of Health and Social Care’s major public health programme for children, and the national delivery model for public health visiting and school nursing services from preconception to adulthood (ages 0 to 19, or up to the age of 25 for care leavers and those with special educational needs and disabilities) in England.
This guidance includes a detailed description of:
- the core concepts of the programme
- workforce requirements
- the role of health visiting and school nursing teams
- safeguarding responsibilities and supervision expectations
- expectations for collaboration across agencies
- the 4 levels of service provision (community, universal, targeted and specialist)
- the quality, purpose and characteristics of each health and development review (ages 0 to 5) or health needs assessment (ages 5 to 19)
This guidance has been written primarily for practitioners, providers and commissioners delivering the programme. It should be read in conjunction with the following related publications: