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Children and Young People's Health
The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (Ed Balls): Today my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and I are announcing the publication of “Healthy lives, brighter futures: The strategy for children and young people's health”.
A healthy start in life is at the heart of a happy childhood and the ability of every young person to achieve their potential and grow up well prepared for the challenges of adolescence and adulthood.
Children and young people are healthier than ever before, but we now have the opportunity to go further. We need to do more to achieve world-class health outcomes and minimise health inequalities, offering services of the highest quality and an excellent experience for the young people and their families who use them.
We know that we must do more to provide mothers and fathers with the support they need to give their children the best start and to help young people to make healthy choices as they grow up and take more responsibility for themselves.
Our two departments have come together to produce this long-term strategy to improve health outcomes for all children and young people from pre-birth to 19. It is a direct response to the views and concerns of young people, parents and professionals working with children and families.
“Healthy lives, brighter futures” sets out how we will work in partnership with local authorities and Primary Care Trusts and those working across children's health services to build the quality of support for families at key stages in their children’s lives— during pregnancy and the early years of children’s lives, for school-age children as well as young people. Our package of support for children and young people with acute and additional health needs is backed by a total of £770 million funding over three years to 2010-11, the largest ever investment in these services.
Investing in children’s health from the early years through childhood and adolescence will benefit children, families, society and the NHS.
We have met many children, young people, parents and practitioners in the process of putting this strategy together Children and young people want easier access to health services to support their psychological as well as physical health. Parents and carers want better information about what services are available locally, with better links between the services that their children use. Frontline staff want help with providing excellent, integrated health and health care services for children and families.
Through “High Quality Care for All: NHS Next Stage Review Final Report” we set out how the NHS would meet the challenges of the 21st century. “Healthy lives, brighter futures” sets out how we will continue to deliver improvements in children’s physical and psychological health, building on existing policies such as the “National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services” and the Every Child Matters reforms.
The strategy builds on work already in train to improve the quality and consistency of services, support and opportunities that families and children can expect in
their local area. Services already aim to promote healthy lifestyles, intervene early where health problems arise and deliver support tailored to families’ needs: easily accessible support in pregnancy and early years of children’s life through Sure Start Children’s Centres and GP practices; helping children to take increasing personal responsibility for their health during their school years and young people to deal with the health challenges of adolescence; good access to urgent care; and specialist support for children with complex and long-term conditions, so that every child can reach their full potential.
Through the strategy we are making commitments to improve this existing support for children, young people and families:
during pregnancy and the early years of life, more health visitors, and a strengthened role for Sure Start children’s centres with each centre having access to a named health visitor; further expansion of the successful family nurse partnership programme for vulnerable first-time mothers; and the development and testing of a new antenatal and preparation for parenthood programme for mothers and fathers;
for school-age children and their families, a core health programme, the development of a ‘Healthy Child Programme’ to set out what services should be available to parents, children and young people from 5 to 19 with schools supporting pupils’ health and wellbeing, and pilots to test the impact of extending free school meals to a greater number of pupils; and
for young people, more opportunities for sport, access to health services that are young-people friendly, and a new campaign to increase young people’s knowledge of effective contraceptive methods, backed by increased investment of around £27 million a year from 2008-09 for contraceptive services in a range of settings.
The strategy emphasises the need to ensure that high quality, timely and accessible support is available for children and young people with acute or additional health needs and their families. We are making new commitments to strengthen that support:
confirmation of £340 million in NHS allocations over three years to improve the experience of disabled children and their families through better access to short breaks, community equipment and wheelchair services, including £30 million for palliative care and end-of-life care, in addition to the £340 million revenue funding already announced by DCSF for the Aiming High for Disabled Children programme and the £90 million capital funding announced in the “Children's Plan”; and
we will test innovative approaches to the provision of community equipment and make sure that by 2010 all children with complex health needs have individual care plans to support co-ordinated care.
Improving children’s health from birth to 19 is an ambitious agenda. In order to drive change in every area, we know that we need stronger joint leadership to plan, commission and monitor the delivery of excellent services. The strategy sets out how we will help those on the frontline make a reality of this vision.
The strategy sets out a clear expectation that Children’s Trust partners are to provide children and families with accessible and comprehensive information about the services, advice and support available locally. New commitments to support local provision include action to:
promote stronger joint leadership and local accountability arrangements, with statutory Children’s Trust Boards to include GP members as well as Primary Care Trusts;
ensure all organisations with responsibility for child health and wellbeing are fulfilling their statutory responsibilities for safeguarding children;
develop the child health workforce, with a particular early focus on health visitors;
deliver a support programme for local authorities and PCTs to commission child health services;
strengthen the information available to help plan, monitor and improve services; and
give a stronger voice for children and young people in assessments of healthcare organisations, and robust arrangements to promote and ensure the quality of health services.
With schools, GP practices, hospitals, Sure Start children’s centres, the voluntary sector and Government all playing their part in support of families, we can ensure that every child has a healthy start in life and a brighter future. Working together, we can continue to work towards our goal to make this the best place in the world to grow up.
Copies of “Healthy lives brighter futures: The strategy for children and young people’s health” and the accompanying guidance on joint commissioning will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Communities and Local Government
Departmental Expenditure Limits
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Hazel Blears): Subject to Parliamentary approval of any necessary Supplementary Estimate, the Department for Communities and Local Government's Departmental Expenditure Limits for 2008-09 will change as follows:
The Department for Communities and Local Government's Main Programmes DEL will be increased by £162,288,000 from £11,499,316,000 to £11,661,604,000 and the administration budget will also be increased by £1,240,000 from £289,689,000 to £290,929,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:
| £’000 | |||||
| Change | NEW DEL | ||||
| Voted | Non-voted | Voted | Non-voted | Total | |
| (*)The total of 'Administration budget' and 'Near cash in Resource DEL' figures may well be greater than total Resource DEL, due to the definitions overlapping. (** )Capital DEL includes items treated as resource in Estimates and accounts but which are treated as Capital DEL in budgets. (*** )Depreciation, which forms part of Resource DEL, is excluded from the total DEL since Capital DEL includes capital spending and to include depreciation of those assets would lead to double counting. | |||||
The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from:
(i) a transfer of £1,031,000 to Request for Resources 2 (Local Government DEL) (see 2(iv) below).
(ii) a net transfer of £1,200,000 from other government departments, comprising:
To other Government Departments
(a) £40,000 to the Cabinet Office for the Government Secure Zone Security Monitoring and Control Centre.
From Other government Departments
Administration Costs (Government Offices)
(b) £1,240,000 from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform for early exit costs of BERR staff in the Government Offices.
(iii) a net increase in receipts of £20,467,000 offsetting increases in provision of £100,000 for Homelessness and Housing Reform for the pilot scheme on overcrowding and worklessness; £1,000,000 for the Community Builders Fund; £500,000 for the cross Government project on adults facing chronic exclusion; £2,069,000 for Fire control rooms; £11,400,000 for Firelink payments made by the Department on behalf of the devolved Administrations; £28,000 for choice based lettings; £4,200,000 for central administration comprising £700,000 for additional work on behalf of other Government Departments and £3,500,000 for outward secondees to other organisations; and £1,170,000 for Government Offices to reflect additional work being undertaken on behalf of the Department of Health.
(iv) a net transfer of £21,879,000 from voted to non- voted provision comprising:
From voted to non-voted provision
(a) £2,500,000 to FireBuy for costs arising from litigation in connection with the Integrated Clothing Project;
(b) £40,953,000 to the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to reflect the accounting implications of the application of merger accounting to the establishment of the HCA;
(c) £45,000,000 to non-voted European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to cover the near cash utilisation cost associated with the balance sheet provision raised in 2007-08 in respect of 1997-99 programmes;
(d) £5,481,000 to the Homes and Communities Agency comprising £1,930,000 for set up costs, £3,100,000 for the ATLAS programme and £451,000 to cover costs of staff seconded to the HCA;
(e) £722,000 to the Tenant Services Authority as part of the Authority's first year budget; and
(f) £1,500,000 to non-voted Government Offices from central administration to adjust budgets for utilisation of provisions in respect of early exit costs.
From non- voted to voted provision
(g) £1,100,000 to Implementing Planning Reforms for the Mine Waste Directive and the Renewable Energy Strategy;
(h) £10,748,000 to Government Offices for a new balance sheet provision for staff early exits;
(i) £8,000,000 for bad debts on old ERDF programmes;
(j) £800,000 for the cost of capital charge on lending to the Fire Service College;
(k) £429,000 to New Dimension for depreciation charges on Mass Decontamination vehicles;
(i) £50,200,000 non-cash for the creation of new provisions for future liabilities in respect of financial corrections to old ERDF programmes, including £18,807,000 from Departmental Unallocated Provision; and
(m) £3,000,000 non-cash for the creation of provisions for future liabilities under the Homeowners Mortgage Support scheme.
The change in the administration budget arises from a transfer of £1,240,000 from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (see l(ii) above)
The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from
(v) An increase of £149,700,000 for the changes announced in the Pre Budget report in November 2008 as part of the fiscal stimulus aimed at supporting the economy through the current economic downturn. The increase comprises £87,000,000 for Arms Length Management Organisations; £43,000,000 for Gap funding for large scale voluntary transfers and £19,700,000 for the Community Infrastructure Fund;
(vi) a transfer of £2,500,000 from Request for Resources 2 ( Local Government DEL) for the Regeneration Monitoring and Digital Inclusion programme;
(vii) A decrease in voted receipts of £105,100,000 offset by decreases in non-voted provision of
(a) £50,000,000 for Thames Gateway comprising £44,000,000 through the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), £3,000,000 through the London Urban Development Corporation and £3,000,000 through the Thurrock Urban Development Corporation; and
(b) £55,100,000 for the HCA's Affordable Housing Programme.
(viii) A net decrease in voted receipts of £10,099,000 offset by a net decrease in voted expenditure comprising:
(a) a decrease of £10,300,000 for the New Deal for Communities;
(b) an increase of £150,000 for central administration in respect of the Department's interest in the sale of land transferred to the Building and Research Establishment; and
(c) an increase of £51,000 for choice based lettings.
(ix) A net transfer of £486,559,000 from voted to non- voted provision comprising
From voted to non-voted provision
(a) £541,408,000 to the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to reflect the accounting implications of the application of merger accounting to the establishment of the HCA.
From non- voted to voted provision
(b) £20,253,000 from the Olympic programme contingency for payments to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport towards the 2012 Olympics;
(c) £34,596,000 to Fire control rooms for the temporary acquisition of two Regional Control Centre leases.
(2) The Department for Communities and Local Government's Local Government DEL will be increased by £18,941,000 from £24,873,688,000 to £24,892,629,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:
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