Maternal and early years health services / SEND support
Maternal and early years health services
We will improve integration between health and family support services, to better enable access to health services including support for feeding and nutrition, immunisation, oral health, and maternal wellbeing.
Priority Actions
- Improve Access and Engagement with Health Visiting and Early Years Health Checks:
- Increase take-up of 5 mandated Health Visiting contacts through targeted outreach and community-led campaigns
- Strengthen proactive follow-up for families who miss contacts
- Increase completion and quality of Ages and Stages Questionnaire developmental checks.
- Strengthen Integrated Pathways Across Health, Gloucestershire's Family Hubs Network and Early Years Settings:
- Implement a protocol for sharing the 2–2½ year developmental review with Early Years settings and Gloucestershire's Family Hubs Network teams
- Establish integrated review pathways linking health, early help, and SEND identification.
- Improve Oral Health for Babies and Young Children:
- Increase uptake of the Supervised Toothbrushing Programme in high-risk areas
- Embed First Dental Steps and strengthen dental referral pathways.
- Strengthen Breastfeeding and Infant Feeding Support:
- Improve breastfeeding continuation rates at 6–8 weeks
- Expand Baby Friendly Initiative accredited support across Gloucestershire's Family Hubs Network
- Increase community infant feeding peer-support groups.
- Improve Nutrition and Financial Wellbeing via Healthy Start:
- Embed Healthy Start Champions across Children and Family Centres
- Increase distribution and promotion of Healthy Start vitamins
- Strengthen Perinatal Mental Health Early Identification and Support:
- Implement a unified early identification approach across maternity, health visiting, primary care and VCS partners
- Produce a shared referral guide for Perinatal infant mental health services.
- Improve Vaccination Uptake:
- Increase Measles Mumps Rubella and flu vaccination uptake through targeted campaigns.
- Reduce Unintentional Injuries in Early Childhood:
- Strengthen home safety education and access to equipment
- Enhance trauma-informed early help and safeguarding responses.
Outputs
Health Visiting & Child Development Outputs:
- Completion rates of all mandated Health Visiting contacts
- Number of completed 2–2½ year Ages and Stages Questionnaire reviews shared with Early Years settings
- Number of referrals made into Gloucestershire's Family Hubs Network following developmental concerns
- Integrated review pathway implemented.
Oral Health Outputs:
- Number of First Dental Steps packs distributed
- Number of children enrolled in supervised toothbrushing schemes.
Breastfeeding / Infant Feeding Outputs:
- Number of settings achieving Baby Friendly Initiative accreditation
- Number and attendance of infant feeding peer-support groups.
Healthy Start Outputs:
- Number of families accessing Healthy Start vouchers
- Distribution volume of Healthy Start vitamins
- Number of Healthy Start Champions trained.
Perinatal Mental Health Outputs:
- Shared referral guide produced
- Number of professionals trained in screening and trauma-informed practice
- Number of referrals into Perinatal Infant Mental Health pathways.
Vaccination Outputs:
- Community vaccination outreach events delivered
- Families contacted through Measles Mumps and Rubella and flu campaigns.
Unintentional Injury Outputs:
- Number of families receiving home safety advice or equipment
- Multi-agency injury-prevention training delivered.
Impact Measures
- Increased percentage of children achieving developmental milestones at age 2–2½
- Reduction in prevalence of dental decay and extractions under age 5
- Improved breastfeeding continuation rates at 6–8 weeks
- Increased uptake of Healthy Start among eligible families
- Timely access to perinatal mental health support with fewer delays
- Increased early identification of Perinatal Infant Mental Health needs
- Increased Measles Mumps and Rubella and flu vaccine uptake
- Reduction in Accident and Emergency attendances for unintentional injuries in 0–5s.
SEND support
We will put processes in place to help ensure that families can access high-quality, joined-up care when special educational needs and disabilities are identified.
Priority Actions
- Strengthen Early Identification and Access to Support:
- Recruit specialist SEND Advisors for every Best Start Gloucestershire's Family Hubs Network to provide early advice and triage
- Complete a supply and demand analysis to assess sufficiency of early years/childcare provision for children with SEND, implement action plan to address gaps, including development of additional SEND specialist Early Education places
- Implement consistent early identification processes across Early Year settings, Health Visiting, and Gloucestershire's Family Hubs Network
- Establish clear referral pathways into community health, education and voluntary sector support.
- Improve SEND Inclusion Funding Access and Impact:
- Review and simplify Early Year SEND Inclusion Funding guidance to ensure accessibility for providers
- Develop systems to allocate inclusion funding to suport access to out of school childcare where needed
- Introduce monitoring processes to track child progress linked to funding use.
- Introduce and promote tools to support effective use of EY pupil premium.
- Strengthen Workforce Capability in Inclusive Practice:
- Deliver targeted SEND and inclusion training for all Early Year and childcare practitioners
- Promote Inclusion Champions platform across the Early Years sector to enhance and evidence strong inclusive practice
- Provide additional specialist Continued Professional Development for Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) and setting leaders on early support, adaptations and reasonable adjustments.
- Improve Family Experience and Navigation of the SEND System:
- Develop family-friendly SEND information and signposting materials
- Create integrated routes for parent support across Gloucestershire's Family Hubs Network, Early Year providers and SEND services.
Outputs
- Specialist SEND Advisors recruited across all Best Start Gloucestershire's Family Hubs Network
- Number of early years practitioners completing SEND and inclusion training
- Number of SENCOs receiving enhanced specialist Continued Professional Development
- Clear referral pathways published and shared with partners
- Volume of referrals from Early Years settings and Gloucestershire's Family Hubs Network into SEND support pathways
- Family feedback systems established to measure access to SEND advice
- Parent experience feedback system for inclusive early education and childcare implemented
- Revised Inclusion Funding guidance published with clear application and monitoring tools.
Impact Measures
- Improved parental satisfaction regarding access to SEND advice and early help
- Increased percentage of children with SEND accessing full early education entitlements
- Improved developmental outcomes for children supported through Inclusion Funding.
- Evidence of strengthened inclusive practice across Early Years settings (reflected through quality visits and SEND/Inclusion audits)
- Reduction in delays between early identification and first support offered
- More children with SEND accessing full entitlement of early education/childcare.