Targets & Strategies

The following public bodies and organisations have a role in helping to improve the health, wellbeing and life chances of children and young people. They implement targets and strategies in order to do so and, although not all of the activities below directly mention child health, many relate to the wider determinants of health that will have an overall impact on child health and wellbeing. 

Scottish Government

The Scottish Government are funding and working with NHS Scotland to promote and support good child and maternal health, so that all children in Scotland can have the best possible start in life.

In terms of actions they are:

• developing a Child and Adolescent Health and Wellbeing Action Plan for the next ten years
• improving maternity and neonatal care by implementing a five-year plan for those services
• offering free vitamins to all pregnant women to help ensure a healthy pregnancy and baby
• undertaking a maternal and infant nutrition survey to see whether policies are working
• funding free school meals for all children in primary 1 to 3 in local authority schools
• supporting delivery of a universal health visiting service to help ensure the health and wellbeing of all pre-school children
• delivering the Family Nurse Partnership programme to support first-time teenage mothers, as well as some mothers aged up to 24
• setting vaccination policy in Scotland to protect children against serious vaccine preventable diseases
• managing welfare foods in Scotland, including Healthy Start vouchers and the nursery milk scheme
• supporting parents with premature babies in NHS care through the Neonatal Expenses Fund

These policies to support maternal and child health are part of Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) - the national approach to improving outcomes and supporting the wellbeing of children and young people.

In January 2017 the Scottish Government published The best start: a five-year forward plan for maternity and neonatal care in Scotland, which sets out how we will improve the services available for pregnant women and newborn babies in Scotland.

In 2011 the Scottish Government published Improving Maternal and Infant Nutrition: A Framework for Action which outlines the measures to be taken by organisations working with families to ensure that every parent is supported to give their baby the very best nutritional start in life.

Relevant bills and legislation include:

The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014

Breastfeeding etc. (Scotland) Act 2005

The Scottish Government's overall National Performance Framework also contains aspirations and outcomes relevant to child poverty.

More information on all of the above is available from the Scottish Government website. 

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

To tackle Glasgow and Clyde’s poor public health record, six core public health programmes have been identified in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's new public health strategy, Turning the Tide through Prevention, launched in August 2018. 

They are:

1) Understanding the needs, experiences and assets of the population, how these vary by sub-group and change over time.

2) Tackling the fundamental causes of poor health and of health inequalities - these causes are the basis on which inequalities are formed - and mitigate their effects.

3) Applying a life course approach, recognising the importance of a healthy start in life and the need to maximise opportunities for health and wellbeing at all life stages.

4) Intervening on the intermediate causes of poor health and health inequalities: these are the wider environmental influences on health, including access to services, equality and human rights and other aspects of society.

5) Improving health services by ensuring effectiveness, accessibility, equity and best value, and strengthening the health impact of other services across Greater Glasgow & Clyde.

6) Protecting the public’s health from environmental, communicable and other potential risks

Programme 3 in particular aims to:

• Continue investment in the implementation of the New Universal Pathway, Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) and Curriculum for Excellence to ensure that children and young people benefit from early interventions within maternity and health visiting services and school-based support. Maintain a focus on supporting parenting and attachment; readiness to learn and attainment; relationship development and employability skills and physical health needs such as oral health, immunisation, sexual health and weight management
• Provide targeted support for vulnerable groups based on learning from Family Nurse Partnership, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and poverty mitigation approaches such as cost of the school day
• Provide public health support to service development/redesign and innovation with the potential to improve health and reduce inequalities at key life stages e.g. Best Start.

Healthier, Wealthier Children aims to contribute to reducing child poverty by helping families with money worries. The project is working closely with antenatal and community child health services to target pregnant women and families with young children experiencing, or at risk of, child poverty, as costs increase and employment patterns change around the birth of a child.

The project offers income maximisation advice for families experiencing child poverty and will aim to prevent families from falling into child poverty by working with health and early years services to identify families at risk at an early stage.

Glasgow City Council

Glasgow Community Plan

 The Glasgow Community Plan has been developed by partners in the city to articulate the focus and priority areas where joint action can make a real difference. The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 requires the Partnership to publish a Local Outcomes Improvement Plan that sets out shared priorities for the city and where improvements are planned.  

The Glasgow Community Plan and the Glasgow Community Action Plan 2018-20, which implements the Glasgow Community Plan, can be found here.

Glasgow City Council Strategic Plan

This plan sets out the priority themes and commitments that will be delivered between 2017 and 2022 by the council, its services and arm's length organisations. It aims to deliver a step change in how the Council:

• Promote human rights and reduce inequalities across Glasgow.
• Improve the life chances and choices for all our citizens.
• Embed social justice in our policy making.
• Empower our citizens, giving them a stake, and a say, in what happens in their local communities and communities of interest.

The plan can be accessed here.

Other organisations and collaborations

• The Early Warning System developed by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland has been designed to track the impact of welfare changes on the wellbeing of children, their families and the communities and services that support them.
• The Children’s Neighbourhood Scotland project in Bridgeton and Dalmarnock aims to develop services to reduce poverty, extend power within communities, and improve outcomes for children and young people. The programme is being extended into another urban centre, a small town and a rural community with Scottish Government investment of £2 million.