New co-design partnership launched for children’s health services | News centre

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New co-design partnership launched for children’s health services

birth to five years partnership image

A new partnership has launched in Surrey putting families at the heart of improvements for local NHS community health services for 0-5 year olds.

The Birth to Five Community Health Partnership is a new initiative devised by health staff and local people representing families across Surrey and the format adopted is thought to be the first of its kind in England. Local families are invited to talk about their experiences of health visiting and therapies services and they are also invited to work with staff to co-produce community health services to make changes for the better.

Birth to Five Years Community Health Partnership is chaired by eight independent representatives known as Lay Chairs across the four key health visiting areas of Surrey - North West, South West, North East and South East. They are reaching out to families in their local communities at baby and toddler groups, family centres and other local settings to listen to their experiences.

Lay Chair Charlotte Swann said: “I’m really excited to be involved in this new Partnership to help local families receive the care and support they need for their young children.

“I know from my own experience how important it is to have good community health care services around you as a parent, and with families and staff working together I believe we can really make a difference. Our initial focus is going to be talking to families about the 10-12 month and 27 month reviews for infants provided by health visiting teams.”

Trudy Mills, Executive Director for Children’s Community Services in Surrey, said: “By creating this Partnership we are giving families in Surrey a continuous voice in heath improvements and developments. This is part of work across Surrey Health and Care Partnership to create services that serve the needs of our communities well.”

Birth to Five Years Community Health Partnership builds on the outstanding work done by the Maternity Voices Partnerships in Surrey in recent years to help co-produce improvements to maternity services.

Lay Chairs are keen to hear from families who have children under the age of six, and who have seen a health visitor or used other NHS community health services for their child in the past year. Find out more on our website.

For more information please contact Stephanie Forster, Communications Manager, on 07786 268446 or stephanie.forster@nhs.net.

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