Event overview: 

The innovative Children’s Health 0-19 Service App has been developed by the Growing Healthy Wakefield 0-19 Children’s Service, in collaboration with Wakefield Families Together, and is specifically tailored to the local area to ensure the healthcare information provided is relevant to people who live in the district.

 

The Growing Healthy Wakefield 0-19 Children’s Service provides health visiting and school nursing support - working with children, young people and their families to ensure that children have the best start in life and are able to fulfil their potential. 

 

The app eases the sense of information overload, particularly regarding pregnancy and children’s health. With the number of resources available, it can be difficult to know who to trust.  The app provides trusted and local NHS-approved information from all sectors including public, private and voluntary and social enterprise sectors, with the best interests of parents and caregivers at heart. The app has had over 25,000 page visits in it’s first two months and 3142 downloads.

 

Improvements for services delivering the Healthy Child programme: use new app infrastructure to improve the efficiency of information exchange between parents/caregivers, health visiting, primary care and school nursing, leading to more timely and comprehensive information on services available, potentially leading to better decision support and improved outcomes for children.

 

Cost savings – nurses currently provide printed information.  By providing electronic information it can be interpreted into 27 languages, delivered beside captioned videos and with links to web-based resources.  The chat function will reduce telephone bills and provide more accessible interventions.  In the future app will enable appointment confirmations and reminders saving on missed appointments.

 

Reinforce health messages around fitness and health by tracking activities such as cycling and walking on the app and providing new healthy recipes monthly. Also using app notifications to drive engagement and deliver health messages for the service and partners. 

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In attendance will be Councillor Darren Byford, Wakefield Council's Deputy Mayor.

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Speakers are:

• Melanie Robinson, Public Health Service Manager - Children and Young People at Wakefield Council

• Malcolm Brechin, Strategic Development Director, Mobile Rocket

• Claire Birks, Interim Service Manager Clinical Transformation, Growing Healthy Wakefield 0-19 Service

• Dave Forrest, Community Anchor Liaison Lead, Growing Healthy Wakefield 0-19 Service

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​Session run by: Dave Forrest - Community Anchor Liaison Lead