Percentage of eligible children with recorded Healthy Child Wales contacts, by quarter and local authority
None
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Contact at 10 - 14 days
Metadata
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. For more information see the joint statement from Cwm Taf and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Boards (see weblinks). 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 University 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.
Weblinks
https://gov.wales/statistics-and-research/healthy-child-wales-programme/?lang=enhttps://cwmtaf.wales/welsh-government-announce-decision-on-bridgend-boundary-change/
https://gov.wales/written-statement-health-board-boundary-bridgend-associated-planning
