Information and support for children and young people

The Healthy Child Programme is intended to support children and young people to make the best possible start in life. Starting well means that children and young people can achieve and maintain the best possible physical and mental health, as well as being able to achieve their full potential into adulthood.

The programme offers every child in Salford a schedule of health and development reviews, screening tests, immunisations, health promotion and support for parents/carers which is tailored to their needs, with additional support available when needed.

In Salford, the Healthy Child Programme is delivered by the 0-19 Integrated Children’s Health Service provided by Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust. The service consists of three main elements, led by a team of Specialist Public Health Nurses, including Health Visitors, School Nurses and Family Nurse Partnership Nurses.

0-19 Integrated Children’s Health Service

Health Visiting

This service supports parents and children during the antenatal period, through pre-school and up to the age of 5 years old. The team includes health visitors, community staff nurses and nursery nurses. They are specialists in child health and development and provide a range of information, support and advice, to ensure families are fully supported to give their children the best possible start in life.

More about Health Visiting

School Nursing

This service supports children and young people aged 5–19 in mainstream, those who are home-educated or attending alternative education providers, as well as their families and carers. Every school has a named school nurse, who is supported by community staff nurses and School Health Assistants. School Nurses utilise their clinical judgement and public health expertise to identity health needs, providing support through signposting, referrals to other services and health intervention along with supporting children and young people who are vulnerable and at risk, with both in- and out-of-school provision.

Family Nurse Partnership

The Family Nurse Partnership team work specifically to deliver the Healthy Child Programme to teenage mothers and their children. This specialist team provides intensive support to try and help young mothers overcome any disadvantage caused by early pregnancy. Support focuses on six high impact areas – the transition to parenthood; maternal mental health; breastfeeding; healthy birth weight and nutrition; managing minor illness and reducing accidents; and supporting child development.

More about the Family Nurse Partnership

National Child Measurement Programme

Public Health are mandated to participate in the The National Child Measurement Programme. This is also delivered by the 0-19 Integrated Children’s Health Service provided by Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust. This means that every year, Reception and Year 6 pupils have their height and weight measured by school nurses and their BMI is calculated. In cases where children are considered to be above a healthy weight, parents/carers will be contacted with information about where they can access more support to maintain a healthy weight.

Early Help

From time to time, all parents/carers might need a little bit more support with their children, for any number of reasons. Early Help Practitioners are there to ensure that parents/carers have any additional support they need to keep their child’s development on track and prevent them from falling behind. For this reason, health and Early Help professionals work closely together to support children and young people to start well in Salford.

More about Early Help

Emotional health for children and young people, Salford Thrive

Emotional health and wellbeing can be supported through:

  • Good parenting
  • Quality experiences in school
  • Leisure and social engagement

Children and young people may need additional support at some point in their lives and this is normal. Information and advice, or support from family and friends, usually helps. However, some children and young people may experience difficulties that are severe and chronic. They will need more specialist advice and support.

The Salford Thrive webpages, which are housed on the Partners in Salford Website, provide a wealth of useful information and resources to support anyone working with or supporting children and young people in Salford, whether you are a professional, volunteer or friend, family member or carer.

Further links to the individual pages of the Thrive programme are below;

Emotional Health Service Directory

Emotional Health Service Directory

The Salford Thrive Directory has been developed to support anyone working or volunteering with children and young people. The directory will help you access useful information about different types of resources and services that are available to support children and young people's social, emotional health and well-being and to provide guidance when making a referral into services.

The directory has been designed to reflect the THRIVE model which has been adopted by Salford to deliver services under the following headings:

  • Getting advice
  • Getting help
  • Getting more help
  • Getting risk support

The directory is a dynamic document, full of shortcuts and hyperlinks that allows users to navigate either via a thematic search or the Thrive quadrants.

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