Giving children the best start: How Child Health Hubs in North West London are Improving Early Years Health for Longer-Term Benefits
Evaluating Child Health Hubs: Addressing Early Years Health Inequalities Through Integrated Care in Northwest London
Professor Mitch Blair, Professor Dougal Hargreaves, and Dr Bina Ram lead the evaluation of the Early Years Pilot Child Health Hubs, which deliver integrated healthcare services for children aged 0-5 years and their families.
Health disparities exist among babies, children and young people, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, leading to poorer outcomes, especially in terms of childhood mortality and morbidity. Despite a changing landscape of health and local authority service provision, disparities remain persistent.
The North West London Integrated Care Board supports the development of GP Child Health Hubs (also called Integrated Neighbourhood Teams) to provide a holistic approach to support babies, children, young people, and their families. Child Health Hubs draw on 15 years of experience of the Connecting Care for Children model, which was introduced to improve the integration of care provided by GPs, specialists, and local authority services. These hubs' advantages include easier access to paediatric services through joint clinics in GP practices and monthly multi-disciplinary team meetings to support individual families. Integrating services into the primary healthcare setting can foster stronger relationships and ensure wider community reach to families with young children to help address health inequalities in the early years.
In October 2023, Imperial College London received funding to evaluate Early Years Pilot projects across Brent, Ealing, and Harrow, where each borough’s Child Health Hub tailors its approach to meet the specific needs of its local community. These pilots, running from April 2023 to March 2025, are designed as an indirect response to the recommendations of the Fuller and Hewitt Reports.
Community Events
One component of the Early Years Pilot Evaluation included the project team co-hosting two Health and Wellbeing ‘Show and Tell’ Fairs in Harrow (February 2024) and Brent (June 2024). These fairs bought the local community together to learn about the health and developmental support for young children available for families. The Harrow Fair hosted over 30 professionals and attracted over 250 community members, while the Brent Fair saw 110 community members attend.
Community feedback included:
We created a word cloud to capture the reflections of the community attending the event:
Professor Mitch Blair, Clinical Lead of the evaluation said:
“The concept of a “Show And Tell Fair” was well received by both stall holders and the audience. There was a vibrant atmosphere and a lot of sharing of information not only between parents, but also between stallholders themselves who were curious about each other’s services.”
Highlighting the importance of integrated healthcare services to improve child health
Families already facing barriers to access healthcare continue to face challenges which will impact their children’s health. Missed opportunities for preventive care, early intervention, and timely management of health conditions lead to increased hospitalisations, higher healthcare costs, and poorer wellbeing of individuals. Young children, particularly under-fives, are the highest attending population group for urgent and emergency services. Early interventions to identify health, development and support needs are critical to improve life chances.
More information
For more information, please see our 9-month report: Evaluation for the Early Years Pilot, Child Health Hubs, North West London (August 2024).
The evaluation team is working to secure additional funds to extend the project, given the importance of a longer evaluation period to identify how well-embedded Child Health Hubs become within the local community to reach those most in need.
Acknowledgements
North West London (NWL) Integrated Care Board, NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) NWL, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Mohn Centre for Children’s Health and Wellbeing, Department of Primary Care and Public Health (Imperial College London), Lara Ritchie, Kajl Ahmed, Subhash Pokhrel, Amrit Banstola, and all others who have contributed to this work.
Associated Research Theme
This news story is related to our Child Population Health theme.