ADPH responds to new health visiting survey
Sarah Muckle, ADPH Lead for Children and Young People has welcomed today’s report from the Institute of Health Visiting highlighting the critical challenges facing babies, children and families in receiving vital support in the important early years:
“Every child has a right to – and benefits from – the very best start in life so that they have the right building blocks in place to develop into happy and healthy individuals. Providing early support for families is an essential part of making this happen and makes a big difference not just for individual families, but for creating healthy communities and ultimately, for the economy as a whole.
“With rising levels of need and complexity, and decreasing levels of public health funding over the last decade, many families are now without this vital early support. Well-resourced and targeted local interventions are absolutely key to reversing the alarming trends we are seeing in our children’s declining health, addressing inequalities, and for ensuring the health of future generations.
“We must see a sustained commitment to increasing funding so that Directors of Public Health and their teams can ensure that high-quality, personalised care for families can be delivered to everyone, and that outcomes for babies and young children can be improved.”