health liaison for early years, early years health checks

Bridging the gap between health and the early years

Linda Bartholomew and Cathy Kennedy describe their initiative to capitalise on the links which health visitors can create between early years providers and families

Background to the project
As health visitor assistants working with a team of health visitors in an area of diverse health and social needs we feel that a healthy lifestyle is not just about having nutritious food, being illness free, and physically fit. It is also about having a sense of wellbeing and gaining the skills needed to be a confident, useful member of society.

Discussion with health visitors, families and early years professionals identified the need to improve communication between health and education services, early years settings and families prior to a child’s admission to school.

The aim of the project was therefore to establish effective channels of communication and develop positive relationships with providers of early years services and families, thereby improving the equality of access to care and promoting young children’s welfare.

Health Liaison for Early Years
The initial meeting of the Health Liaison for Early Years network, attended by representatives of 34 early years settings in the maintained and non-maintained sectors, identified three key areas which were to become the focus of the project:

Information meetings for early years providers.
Visits to early years settings.
Home visits for families.

Information meetings for early years providers
These take place four times a year at different times of day at a range of venues throughout the geographical area covered by the project. Each of these meetings provides an opportunity for networking and sharing information as well as the chance to access information from talks on a range of subjects including ‘weaning’, ‘asthma, eczema and allergies’, ‘healthy eating’, ‘managing challenging behaviour’ and ‘incontinence and potty training’.

Visits to early years settings
As part of our overall work schedule we make between four to eight visits a month to different early years settings. The reasons for these visits vary.

We may be invited to participate in a particular project a setting is involved in, such as healthy eating. In this instance we took in fruit and vegetables for the children to see, feel and try. Towards the end of the session we were able to talk about healthy eating to the parents, bring them up to date with any new government initiatives, distribute leaflets, and answer any questions.

From time to time a setting may ask us to attend to support parents who may be having problems, for instance around potty training. Here, following a group discussion we encouraged the parents to offer their own suggestions and build a support network for themselves.

A frequent request is for support for settings and families in the management of behaviour problems. In this instance we may visit the group to do an observation on the child in an environment other than the home or if the setting themselves, having gained consent from the family, have requested support around the development or behaviour of a child.

Other reasons for visiting settings may be to respond to a request from a paediatrician involved in assessing a child for developmental delays or behavioural concerns, to provide information and advice for staff at a training session or to follow up on a child attending a behaviour management support group.

Home visits for families
The following example illustrates a typical scenario where a home visit provided an essential link to a child with behaviour problems to make an effective transition to school. Contact was initiated by the early years setting where there were concerns with the child’s behaviour and development.

Previously, following a two-and-a-half-year health check, the child had been referred for speech therapy and an appointment with the community medical officer. Because the parents had not understood fully the procedures involved they had not shared this information with the setting. Permission was obtained from the parent to conduct an observation of the child in the early years setting and in the home. When the information from these visits was fed back to the parents they realised more clearly the problems was experiencing. Acting as the health liaison person for this child we became a central point of contact for all professionals involved and were able to provide focused support for the parents and coordinate an information sharing meeting with the school the child was due to transfer to.

Future developments
Challenges for the future include finding ways to integrate childminders and parent and toddler groups into our meeting structure, and running parenting programmes for the families attending the early years settings.

The most rewarding side of our project has been witnessing parents’ spirits lift as they begin to understand their child’s developmental needs and seeing the child who has been struggling with not only adults, but its own peer group, grow in self-esteem and confidence.

Linda Bartholomew and Cathy Kennedy are health visitor assistants with South East Essex Primary Care Trust.

This article first appeared in Early Years Update - Jun 2007

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