The best health for children programme provides for a new core surveillance programme for all children up to the age of 12; it covers both pre-school developmental examinations as well as the school health service. Underpinning the recommendations in the report is a model that embraces a more holistic child health promotion approach and that emphasises the role of parents in achieving best health for their children. The Eastern Regional Health Authority and the health boards are responsible for the provision of health services, including child health developmental screening, within their functional areas. A child health examination service is provided by the boards and the authority to children and policy priorities within the boards and the authority account for variances between them in the provision of child health developmentalscreening. However, the commitment of my Department to the development of child health policy underlining the best health for children programme is manifested in the additional funding provided; over €2 million has been allocated to the health boards and the ERHA in order to facilitate the implementation of the recommendations set out in the report. The implementation of this programme is ongoing; the funding provided has been used to appoint key individuals at regional level to drive the implementation process at board level as well as to establish pilot projects aimed at demonstrating best practice.
The Health Boards Executive has established a programme of action for children and an interim steering group has been appointed to oversee its work and this will facilitate a co-ordinated and integrated approach to the delivery of a range of child health and child care projects. This initiative will encompass a number of child related measures, including projects associated with best health for children. The work of the programme of action for children includes: facilitating the implementation of the best health for children programme for screening and surveillance as endorsed by the national health strategy; and developing evidence based standards regarding child health screening and surveillance, in consultation with professional bodies. The programme of action for children is currently undertaking a national review of recommendations for core child health surveillance in Ireland, including child health developmental screening and working groups have been established to develop a revised national core child health surveillance and screening programme. The tasks are: to review evidence base; to develop guidelines and standards for each surveillance and screening opportunity; to agree appropriate tools and equipment; and to identify resource constraints. This systematic national review will help to assess the resources required to implement any recommendations on a revised national core child health surveillance and screening programme, including child health developmental screening. This includes implementing training programmes for doctors and nurses involved in child health surveillance and screening. One of the key recommendations in the report is the need to provide appropriate training for public health doctors and public health nurses involved in delivering the child health surveillance programme, including the school health service. Additional funding of €700,000 has been provided to health boards and the ERHA in 2003 for this purpose. The funding has been used to appoint relevant training personnel and to develop, in conjunction with TCD, a training programme for those involved in the delivery of the core surveillance programme. The training programme was launched earlier this year and it is intended that all those involved in child health surveillance will have received the necessary training by the end of 2005.
The review must also agree Irish standards of growth measurement and commission development work to support the setting of standards. The programme for action on children recently held a consensus conference on growth measurement in Ireland. The conference was attended by key experts in this area from Ireland and the United Kingdom. This conference was largely funded by my Department given our commitment to the work of the programme for action for children. The benefits of the consensus conference will be a standardised approach to growth monitoring and clear guidance to practitioners on use of growth monitoring tools and application of appropriate criteria and pathways. Ultimately, it will lead to an appropriate use of resources and an improved outcome for children.
My Department has written to the chief executive officers of the health boards and the ERHA requesting that they provide information directly to the Deputy on the staffing of area medical officers.
