Our programme for services for children and young people

There are almost 12 million children and young people in England. Although as a group they are healthier today than ever before, they access healthcare more frequently than adults.

The health needs of children and young people are also different from those of adults. Healthcare organisations must take this into account when planning and providing services.

Services for children and young people are an important part of our work and we have a statutory duty to pay particular attention to “the need to safeguard and promote the rights and welfare of children.”

Read the sections below to find out how we are working to achieve this through our programme for assessing services for children and young people.

Improving services: standards and guidance

Lord Laming’s inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie (2003) led to the publication of the National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services; the Children Act 2004 and "Every Child Matters: Change for Children".

The National Service Framework
The Kennedy Inquiry into events at Bristol Royal Infirmary (2000) led to the ultimate establishment of the Healthcare Commission and was influential in the publication in September 2004 of the "National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services" (children’s NSF).

The children’s NSF sets the standards for services across health, education and social care for children and their families, over a ten year period. The Healthcare Commission is using the children’s NSF as a crucial measure of quality in the delivery of services to children and expectant mothers. We expect the organisations that we inspect to do the same.

Find out more about the National Service Framework for Children and Young People (Opens new window)

Every Child Matters: Change for Children
The Children Act 2004 provides the legal underpinning for "Every Child Matters: Change for Children". Children and young people have said that there are five outcomes that are key to wellbeing in childhood and later life. These are:

being healthy
staying safe
enjoying and achieving
making a positive contribution
achieving economic wellbeing

"Every Child Matters" outlines a framework to improve services for children and young people from all backgrounds, and looks at how this will be able to help those most at risk. It takes forward the Government’s vision of radical reform for children, young people and families, requiring agencies to work together close the gap between the most disadvantaged and their peers.

Find out more on the Every Child Matters website (Opens new window)

Improvement review: improving services for children in hospital

In 2006, the Healthcare Commission carried out a major review of services for children in hospital. The review assessed whether hospitals were meeting or making progress towards key requirements of the hospital standard of the children’s NSF. In February 2007, we published a national report of our findings outlining the improvements that need to take place in order to improve the quality of services.

The report set out a small set of indicators to measure improvement and these will be gathered during winter 2007 as part of the Annual Health Check.

Find out more about our improvement review for services for children in hospital

Joint area reviews (JARs): integrated inspection of services for children and young people

Led by Ofsted, joint area reviews focus on the experiences of children. They assess local services against how well they support children to achieve the five main outcomes for childhood and later life as set out in "Every Child Matters: Change for Children" – being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and achieving economic wellbeing.

Find out more about joint area reviews

Youth offending teams: integrated inspections

Youth offending teams have a presence in every local authority in England and Wales and exist to prevent or reduce youth offending. They are made up of representatives from the police, probation services, social services, health, education, drugs and alcohol misuse and housing officers.

All 155 youth offending teams in England and Wales are being inspected as part of a six-year cycle. The programme is led by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation, under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and the Children Act 2004, with cooperation from the Healthcare Commission and seven other inspectorates

Find out more about the integrated inspections

Safeguarding children and young people

The Health and Social Care Act 2003 states that the Healthcare Commission must pay particular attention to “the need to safeguard and promote the rights and welfare of children.”

Find out more about how we are working to safeguard children and young people

Annual heath check

As part of our annual health check, NHS trusts are required to make a self-assessment and public declaration about the extent to which their organisation has met the Department of Health’s core standards.

Core Standard 2 requires healthcare organisations “to protect children by following national child protection guidelines within their own activities and in their dealings with other organisations.”

We check these self-declarations against a wide range of ongoing assurance, including specific information on services for children and young people. For the annual health check 2006/2007, part of this ongoing assurance will include data from the joint area reviews (JARs) and inspections of youth offending teams.

Find out more about the annual health check

Audit of neonatal care

Supported by the Department of Health, the Healthcare Commission has commissioned a national audit of neonatal care. This initiative is in response to the recognised need for auditing of national standards to inform good clinical practice in this area. Led by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of a national neonatal auditing process and to design an audit that will lead to improvements in care and outcomes for patients across England and Wales.

Find out more about the audit of neonatal care

Regional operations teams

The Healthcare Commission has regional operations teams working locally, building relationships with NHS and independent healthcare organisations, healthcare professionals, partners, patients and the public. The teams regulate independent healthcare organisations providing healthcare for children and young people. They also undertake the majority of the joint area reviews (JARs). Our regional staff are focused on the needs of children and young people and identify areas where further exploration may be required.

Investigation into the service for people with learning disabilities provided by Sutton and Merton Primary Care Trust

In January 2007, we published our investigation into services for people with learning disabilities provided by Sutton and Merton Primary Care Trust.

As part of the investigation, the investigation team visited a respite unit for children and young people. The investigation identified areas of concern at the unit, although children and young people were not felt to be at risk of abuse.

Find out more about our investigation

National audit of learning disabilities services

Following the investigation into Sutton and Merton Primary Care Trust and a previous investigation into learning disability services at Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust, the Healthcare Commission caried out a national audit of services for people with learning disabilities.

The audit aimed to ensure that adult and specialist adolescent services for people with learning disabilities are provided in the safest possible environment, and to support long term improvement for people with learning disabilities, family carers and staff.

Find out more about the audit

Programme for maternity services

Part of our statutory duty to safeguard and promote the rights and welfare of children, includes the time from pregnancy onwards. We have a comprehensive programme for maternity services including a review and a survey.

Find out more about our programme for maternity services

Child health mapping roadshows - slide set of children's programme

During October the Healthcare Commission is joining the DH-supported Child Health Mapping Project team based at Durham University in a series of roadshows in each SHA area. The attached document shows the slides presented at the roadshows, and provide an overview of our current programme of work.

Our Children's Programme - slides for mapping roadshows (pdf 193kb) (opens new window)

Previous publications

The Healthcare Commission and its predecessor, the Commission for Health Improvement, have published or contributed to additional publications relating to services for children and young people.

Read our previous publications

Healthcare providers