Children's best start in life given new focus by public health

Article date: 20 December 2024

Cabinet has this week (Wednesday 18 December) approved the latest public health annual report, which this year is called The Best Start in Life and focuses on the steps the council is taking to support children and their families and the challenges the borough faces to provide children with that vital help and support.

The report details the inequalities that exist in the opportunities and resources available to children, with 11,680 0-5-year-olds living in St Helens and over half of them living in the most deprived 20% of the country, impacting everything from health, academic attainment, and wellbeing.

Since their launch last year, Family Hubs in St Helens Town Centre, Sutton and Newton-le-Willows - and the supporting network of children's centres - have been instrumental in providing targeted support for families to address inequalities and curb their impact.

They are one-stop-shops for parents and carers to access an extensive range of services, programmes and events such as mental health, infant feeding, speech and language development and much more.

There are dozens of different activities available as part of the Family Hubs autumn programme, including sleep advice drop-ins, baby massage, Mini-Chefs cook and play, Grandtots, Read & Rhyme, Little Wizz Kids, sensory baby groups, healthy child clinics, parent and carer panels, MATCH (Men And Their Children) Monthly sessions, baby showers and baby breakfast clubs, to name just a few.

The report also highlights the importance of why focusing on giving the best start in life, and building young people's self-esteem is a vital part of not just public health work but also all work the council does through explaining why, what, where, when and how.

Delivering the best start means that a broad range of support is needed starting from pregnancy planning and conception - everything form sexual health services, maternity departments and antenatal classes, to breastfeeding, good childhood nutrition, positive attachments, child development and learning.

Councillor Sue Murphy MBE, Cabinet Member for Public Health, said: "We have the power to support the borough's disadvantaged children, to provide the opportunities, resources and self-esteem that can change the trajectory of their lives, and this is something that we are determined to do.

"We know that there are three key aspects we need to get right; supporting parents and carers, a focus on child development, and also on community development to help shape the environment our children grow up in.

"Evidence has shown us that targeted support and interventions can do this, while our Family Hubs are perfectly positioned to deliver them. We have learned from the successes of the SureStart programme, and from engagement with our communities, which interventions make a difference during the vital early stages of a child's development, and how best to provide them.

"Delivering the best start in life for local children is our priority of priorities, and quite rightly the focus of our work, not just in public health but across the council."