Presentation of the Strategic Head of Early Help, the Strategic Lead (Early Years) and Tracey Forster, Lead Manager, Health Visiting, Vulnerable Babies and Child Health Services, Local Care Organisation

This presentation provides an overview of the Start Well Strategy.

The Committee received a presentation of the Strategic Head of Early Help, the Strategic Lead (Early Years) and Tracey Forster, Lead Manager, Health Visiting, Vulnerable Babies and Child Health Services, MLCO, which provided an overview of the Start Well Strategy.

The main points and themes within the presentation included:

• The Start Well Partnership Board;
• The vision and principles of the Strategy;
• The current picture;
• The offer;
• The workforce; and
• Next steps.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• To welcome the good, innovative work taking place;
• The take-up of Healthy Start vouchers;
• Smoking around hospitals;
• What work was being done to encourage breast-feeding; and
• The Health Visitor Service, including vacancy levels and whether home visits were being carried out, rather than virtual meetings with families.

The Chair praised the work of her local Sure Start Centre.  She also highlighted the positive work in her ward, including the Imagination Library and work to bring a range of services under one roof and suggested that these be introduced elsewhere.

The Strategic Head of Early Help advised that the take-up of Healthy Start vouchers was around 66% and that this had been identified as requiring further promotion, looking at all the organisations and professionals who had contact with pregnant women and new mothers and identifying opportunities to inform them about the scheme.  She reported that the Go Smoke-Free Pilot started at the ante natal stage so hospitals were involved with this work and she advised that she would communicate the Member’s point about smoking around hospitals to the steering group.

In response to comments from the Chair about the impact of the reduction in Universal Credit and rising fuel prices on families, the Strategic Head of Early Help acknowledged that addressing this would be a challenge.  She reported that, throughout the pandemic, there had been an increase in families asking Sure Start staff for advice and guidance and a lot of that had been linked to financial issues and poverty and she outlined some of the support provided to alleviate hardship, for example, providing meals to children accessing services in the Sure Start Centres and through links with food clubs.

The Commissioning Manager advised that 91% of Health Visitor posts were currently filled and that the service was half-way through a 4-year-plan to invest in training nurses to become Health Visitors.  He reported that visits were now taking place face-to-face again but that the service had also been praised for how quickly it had mobilised earlier in the pandemic to undertake checks remotely. 

Tracey Forster from Health Visiting, Vulnerable Babies and Child Health Services informed Members that the service had received significant funding about 3 years ago to set up an Integrated Infant Feeding Service in north Manchester, which provided advice and support on breastfeeding to new mothers and that the data showed that this had increased breastfeeding levels in that part of the city.  She advised that the Health Visiting Teams provided support on breastfeeding in central and south Manchester but that additional funding had now been received which would enable the service to review its model for breastfeeding support in central and south Manchester.

In response to a Member’s question about meeting the diverse needs of different communities, the Strategic Head of Early Help advised that Sure Start was a mixed model that involved a range of voluntary and community sector partners which helped it to reflect the community of the area they were working in.  She advised that work was taking place to offer parents and grandparents support with improving their English, which would then increase their confidence in engaging with services, such as the two-year-old early years offer.  In response to a further question, she advised that work was taking place to develop and deliver services for families who had recently arrived from Afghanistan.

Decision

To note the presentation.