Both children’s centres & early years (2 years) and health visiting services (2 1⁄2 Years) are expected to undertake development reviews of children. Whilst the emphasis within each of these reviews is fundamentally different (health and learning/development) there are areas of similarity and cross over and therefore duplication.
Given that both reviews fall within similar timeframes it would appear sensible for these reviews to be undertaken as a joint review within early year’s settings. The benefits of this to children and families are fairly obvious and it would have the benefit of reducing the amount of duplicated effort.
It should be noted that Norfolk, including East Coast Community Healthcare is part of a national programme working with identified Children’s centres to develop this approach and some areas (i.e. Peterborough) have already piloted on a small scale and found that there were a number of logistical problems in delivering it effectively.
However the benefits, in terms of quality and resource utilisation, of being able to deliver a joint assessment would be considerable for the system as a whole and this approach should not therefore be discounted.
Both local commissioners and providers should explore further the operational delivery of joint 2 – 2 1⁄2 Year reviews as a significant developmental opportunity. This work should draw on learning from both local and national pilot areas and explore:
- How health visiting, early years providers and children’s centres should approach the delivery of a joint review.
- The potential nature and extent of logistical problems associate with delivery and potential solutions.
- The potential inherent difficulties to embedding this across a whole system and potential solutions.
- The establishment of a service wide measure for the identification of the number of joint 2-21/2 year reviews being undertaken.