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Published (Version of Record)CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Variation in health visiting contacts for children in England: Cross-sectional analysis of the 2-2½ year review using administrative data (Community Services Dataset, CSDS)
BMJ open, Vol.12, e053884
2022
PMCID: PMC8867374
PMID: 35193912
Abstract
Objective
The 2–2½ year universal health visiting review in England is a key time point for assessing child development and promoting school readiness. We aimed to ascertain which children were least likely to receive their 2–2½ year review and whether there were additional non-mandated contacts for children who missed this review.
Design, setting, participants
Cross-sectional analysis of the 2–2½ year review and additional health visiting contacts for 181 130 children aged 2 in England 2018/2019, stratified by ethnicity, deprivation, safeguarding vulnerability indicator and Looked After Child status.
Analysis
We used data from 33 local authorities submitting highly complete data on health visiting contacts to the Community Services Dataset. We calculated the percentage of children with a recorded 2–2½ year review and/or any additional health visiting contacts and average number of contacts, by child characteristic.
Results
The most deprived children were slightly less likely to receive a 2–2½ year review than the least deprived children (72% vs 78%) and Looked After Children much less likely, compared with other children (44% vs 69%). When all additional contacts were included, the pattern was reversed (deprivation) or disappeared (Looked After children). A substantial proportion of all children (24%), children with a ‘safeguarding vulnerability’ (22%) and Looked After children (29%) did not have a record of either a 2–2½ year review or any other face-to-face contact in the year.
Conclusions
A substantial minority of children aged 2 with known vulnerabilities did not see the health visiting team at all in the year. Some higher need children (eg, deprived and Looked After) appeared to be seeing the health visiting team but not receiving their mandated health review. Further work is needed to establish the reasons for this, and potential solutions. There is an urgent need to improve the quality of national health visiting data.
Details
- Title
- Variation in health visiting contacts for children in England: Cross-sectional analysis of the 2-2½ year review using administrative data (Community Services Dataset, CSDS)
- Authors/Creators
- Caroline FraserKatie HarronJane BarlowSamantha BennettGeoffrey WoodsJenny ShandSally KendallJenny Woodman
- Publication Details
- BMJ open, Vol.12, e053884
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Identifiers
- 991005569352507891
- Copyright
- © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022
- Murdoch Affiliation
- Ngangk Yira Institute for Change
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
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- Web Of Science research areas
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- Clinical Medicine