Skip to content
Welsh Government
Data Provider: Welsh Government Management Information Annual percentage of Healthy Child Wales Programme contacts received within age ranges
None
Year[Filtered]
Measure1
Measure[Filter]
Contact[Filter]
Click here to sortWithin programme age rangeClick here to sortBelow min ageClick here to sortAbove max age
Contact at 10 - 14 days78.37.614.1
Physical examination at 6 weeksThere is a known data quality issue, see summary info for more detail.92.24.73.1
Weight and measurement at 8 weeksThere is a known data quality issue, see summary info for more detail.68.130.21.7
Weight and measurement at 12 weeks76.518.74.8
Weight and measurement at 16 weeks73.815.710.5
Contact at 6 months68.528.23.3
Health visitor contact at 15 months75.920.23.9
Health visitor contact at 27 months75.718.75.5
Contact at 3.5 years pre-school51.846.61.6
All contacts73.720.85.5

Metadata

Title

Annual percentage of Healthy Child Wales Programme contacts received within age ranges

Last update

January 2024 January 2024

Next update

May 2024 (provisional)

Publishing organisation

Welsh Government

Source 1

National Community Child Health Database (NCCHD), Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW)

Contact email

stats.healthinfo@gov.wales

Designation

Management information

Lowest level of geographical disaggregation

Wales

Geographical coverage

Wales

Languages covered

English and Welsh

Data licensing

You may use and re-use this data free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government License - see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence

General description

The National Community Child Health Database (NCCHD) is a database maintained by Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW). The data is extracted routinely from LHB-held Child Health System databases. Data is for all children: includes children defined as receiving Flying Start services and not receiving Flying Start using their flying start postcode coverage.

From 1st April 2019 health service provision for residents of Bridgend local authority moved from Abertawe Bro Morgannwg to Cwm Taf. The health board names have changed with Cwm Taf University health board becoming Cwm Taf Morgannwg University health board and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University health board becoming Swansea Bay health board.

Data for the quarter Jan-Mar 2020 is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some health visitors were redeployed by health boards to work in hospitals and to ease the burden on health boards and only the 10-14 day contact and 6 week contact remained mandatory for health boards to carry out. Contacts at other points in time were completed as much as resource allowed, and the majority would have been completed over the telephone. These contacts may not have been recorded in the usual way, so the data for Jan-Mar 2020 should be interpreted in this context.

Data from April 2020 onwards will be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Health boards were under extreme pressure to provide services, in particular during the early months of the pandemic, with many health visiting staff being redeployed to different roles. As a result Welsh Government issued guidance on 23 March 2020 advising health boards to prioritise providing contacts at 10-14 days, 6 weeks and 6 months. As face-to-face contacts were reduced, many contacts would have taken place virtually but not all of these would have been recorded. Further guidance was issued on 13 May 2020 advising health boards to reinstate additional contacts and for health boards to work towards providing a full range of contacts and on 25 August 2020 health boards were advised that they should now return to providing the full range of contacts.
As the rate of COVID-19 infections increased during the winter, further guidance was issued on 22 December 2020 advising health boards to risk assess cessation or the reduction of health visiting services, and as a minimum, health boards should still provide contacts at 10-14 days, 6 weeks and 6 months.

Caution is advised when interpreting data for the 6 week GP appointment and the 8 week immunisation appointment, as there is a known data quality issue. The data presented is an under-count of the actual activity taking place. The issue is caused by the paper-based data collection process not being fully implemented. Steps have been taken to improve data quality, and further measures will continue to be actioned until data is more reliable.

There is a known data quality issue for April-Jun 2022 data. The percentage of children receiving contacts in Aneurin Bevan at each contact point apart from 6 weeks is an undercount of the true activity which took place. This issue has been caused by a delay in processing data collection forms in the health board and the health board is working to resolve it. The overall Wales figures are also affected. Data may be revised in the next publication.

Frequency of publication

Annual

Data reference periods

2018-2022

Keywords

Child health; Healthy Child Wales Programme