Health for all Children Guidance on Implementation in Scotland Consultation Response

SPPA welcomes the opportunity to contribute a response to this consultation on the Scottish Executive’s Guidance on Implementation in Scotland of ‘Health for all Children’. It trusts that all children in their early years will benefit from this integrated approach in providing services and takes the view that SPPA member groups are ideally placed to play an important part in their communities, in meeting some of the objectives of the Guidance.

Introductory Statement

SPPA is the national voluntary intermediary agency supporting over 1600 pre-school groups for over 45,000 children under five years of age, the majority of which are in the voluntary sector. Each member group is autonomous and provides sessional day care and/or pre-school education for children within local communities, throughout each of the thirty two Local Authorities in Scotland.

SPPA welcomes the opportunity to contribute a response to this consultation on the Scottish Executive’s Guidance on Implementation in Scotland of ‘Health for all Children’. It trusts that all children in their early years will benefit from this integrated approach in providing services and takes the view that SPPA member groups are ideally placed to play an important part in their communities, in meeting some of the objectives of the Guidance.

The implications for SPPA

SPPA endorses the view that ‘parents are supported and empowered to keep their children healthy and safe’. SPPA recommends that strong links are made with the voluntary sector in order to reach groups which do not come under statutory regulation, and suggests that full use is made of Child Care Information Services to access this information. SPPA welcomes the recognition that staff, working in early years settings, have a key role to play in identifying children who are at risk and in need. It agrees that it is essential that staff have knowledge of the ‘clear routes for liaison, consultation and referral’ to the NHS. Staff require access to training to cope with this. SPPA would ask therefore that the Scottish Executive, NHS and Local Authorities collaborate closely with the organisation to ensure that it is kept well informed about these routes, and about training opportunities. This information can then be disseminated to both SPPA staff and to staff working within its member groups.

SPPA wishes to alert the Scottish Executive, NHS and Local Authorities to its concerns regarding the availability of part time staff in community led pre-school groups to play an equal part in the work. It wishes to highlight the time and financial resource implications to groups that this work would entail, which could impact on their ability to participate fully.

SPPA has concerns regarding confidentiality problems which may arise if staff in community led pre-school groups advise the NHS about a child’s health problem, without the knowledge of parents, and trusts that this issue would be addressed in the training.

SPPA welcomes the proposed addition of information on the pre-school years being included in the NHS Health Scotland ‘Ready Steady Baby’ booklet and would appreciate having a supply of these. SPPA would welcome closer links with Health Promotion. This would give an opportunity to provide information for our member groups which previously may have been mainly targeted at the statutory sector.

Gwen Garner
Practice Development Officer

On behalf of the SPPA Board - March 2004