Agenda item

Update on Progress re the Best Start in Life – Report Attached

Update on Progress re Ensuring a Healthy Standard of Living for All – Report Attached

The Board received a report and presentation to provide a progress update on the Best Start in Life theme of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy “Equally Well: a healthier, fairer future for North Tyneside 2021-2025”.

It was noted that the evidence is clear that the early years (pre-birth to five years) is a crucial period of development.  The period from conception to age two is globally recognised as critical for building strong societies.

Some of the highlights of the report include North Tyneside having the lowest rates of women smoking at the time of delivery, North Tyneside’s current level is 6% for the year to date, the 2021/22 rate was 8/3%which shows a positive reduction since 2010/11 when 17% of women were smoking at the time of child birth.  Breastfeeding prevalence is also positive with rates of breastfeeding 6-8 weeks after birth being 44.4% compared with a regional rate of 35.7% and England rate of 49.2%.  The trend data show a small increase in the rates of breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks since 205/16 when it was 38% in North Tyneside.

There is robust evidence that the 1001 critical days from pregnancy to the age of two are vital for development and impact a child’s physical and emotional health for the rest of their life – hence why ‘the best start in life’ is a key theme within the Equally Well Strategy.

Family Hubs are a national local initiative with many local areas receiving additional money in 2022 to develop their services to offer ‘one stop’ shops to families.  Unfortunately North Tyneside did not receive national Family Hub Funding but are still committed to delivering the Family Hub model.

Family hubs aim to bring a range of services together and make it easier to access different types of support that might otherwise be hard to find.  Any family, parent, carer or young person can use and access a Family Hub.

The Family Hub model emphasises the importance of the first 1001 days and should provide universal and seamless support and encouragement to every new family and are a warm base from which to connect with antenatal services such as midwifery and public health nursing as well as wider services.

It was noted that Health Visiting and Midwifery is key in the offer and are a key presence in buildings.  It was also noted that most of the services are working in a very joined up way.  It was noted that we often get feedback about lots of hubs being developed it is something we need further discussion on having an over-arching approach and doing some re-structuring to make it more effective and efficient.

It was noted that having physical buildings is great but transport can be an issue and is something to keep in mind.

It was commented that in terms of older people, there is a key role for grandparents when talking about families and in terms of developing sustainable networks the best solutions are from within themselves.

RESOLVED -           i)       that the progress in delivering the Best Start in Life by the Children and Young People Partnership be noted.

                                ii)      that the comments of the Board on the progress and approach to further develop multi-agency working in Family Hubs in North Tyneside be noted.