These include:
- Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) will be required by primary legislation to set out the steps it will to take to address the needs of children and young people under the age of 25 in the forward plan.
- A commitment in legislation to publish a report, within a year, that will describe the Government’s policy on information sharing in relation to children’s health and social care and the safeguarding of children and will include an explanation of the Government’s policy on a consistent identifier for children.
- NHS England will issue statutory guidance that states that each ICB must nominate an executive children’s lead, ensuring leadership for babies, children and young people on every ICB.
In response, Dr Camilla Kingdon, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said:
We are very encouraged by this announcement. It is extremely positive that the Government has recognised the Health and Care Bill needed to include a focus on children and young people. Too often the unique needs of children and young people are overlooked by systems. It is a significant and welcome step forward that local areas across England will be required by law to set out their plans to address the needs of children and young people once the legislation has passed.
It also significant that the Government has acted on our call for each Integrated Care Board to include a children and young people’s lead. This is vital for much-needed strategic leadership locally to ensure the delivery of high quality, safe and effective integrated services. We look forward to the publication of the statutory guidance from NHS England in order to comment further.
We have repeatedly called for the Government to use the NHS Number as a single unique identifier for children. If this happens, it will utterly transform children’s experience of care especially those who have multiple needs and regularly interact with a range of services, or for safeguarding vulnerable children when quick information sharing is vital. We urge the Government to take note of this as they develop plans for the use of a consistent identifier.
Note:
- There are plans to establish 42 Integrated Care Systems (ICS) across England. Within each ICS there will be an Integrated Care Board (ICB), the organisation with responsibility NHS functions and budgets, and an Integrated Care Partnership (ICP), the statutory committee bringing together all system partners, including local authorities, to produce a health and care strategy.