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Review of the Personal Child Health Record (Red Book)
Briefing April 2011
A revised Red Book for Sheffield will be produced in April 2011. This is the result of a 4 month development process involving colleagues from NHS Sheffield, Sheffield PCT Provider Services, Primary Care, Sheffield Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Maternity Services. The aim was to respond to a number of changes in practice which have been implemented over recent months and to an audit which was carried out in Dec 2009 with parents and practitioners.
The main changes to the Red book are as follows:
- Addition of Common Childhood Conditions information – developed by lead clinicians in primary and secondary care, with the aim of providing a common message to parents. Practitioners are also encouraged to use these guidelines to provide consistent and appropriate information to parents when their child is unwell. (page 19)
- Addition of Safe Sleeping information (page 10)
- Addition of Healthy Start information (page 12)
- Addition of Dental Health information (page 51)
- Revised Vaccination and Immunisations schedule, addition of information and parental record sheet (page 56)
- Revised Screening and routine reviews information and parental record sheet (includes addition of Breastfeeding Assessment Form) (page 64)
- Addition of developmental milestones (page 68)
- Removal of all flimsies except for the ‘Child communication handover record from community midwife to health visitor’.
Please familiarise yourself with the revisions, as some changes will be required to day to day practice. Ultimately though, it will result in less duplication and a more user friendly document.
It is also really important that you continue to encourage parents to bring their child’s Red Book with them to appointments and clinics etc so that it remains an ‘active’ record of their child’s development.
Background and Context
The Personal Child Health Record (PCHR/Red Book) is distributed to new parents following the birth of their baby. It is intended to be used as the main record of their child’s growth, development and uptake of preventative health services. The ethos behind it is improved communication, enhanced continuity of care, and increased parental understanding of their child’s health and development.
Several factors have had an influence on this revised edition:
- A booklet was put together by GPs and Sheffield Children’s Hospital outlining common childhood illnesses. This is to encourage the appropriate response e.g. self-care, GP or A&E. The same information will be made available to GPs. It is hoped this will promote consistency of advice and reduce unnecessary attendances at Sheffield Children’s Hospital A&E.
- Work has been undertaken recently around vaccination and immunisation schedules: e.g. MMR, Hib&Men C and PCV 1st dose +2nd yr boosters are now all to be given at 12 months (rather than 12 and 13 months).
- Implementation of SystmOne in GP practices, and TPP for Health Visitors means that data e.g. Vaccination and Immunisation records, screening, can now be collected electronically, rather than via the paper flimsies within the Red Book.
- Of all the Child health review data flimsies submitted to Child Health Services, the only data processed/reported on is the 6-8 week breastfeeding rates. This can now be collected electronically (as above).
- An audit was carried out with parents and practitioners in 2009, which showed that data collection as part of the Red Book was often incomplete and that there was duplication.
- The implementation of the Healthy Child Programme has meant a change in the configuration and practical delivery of health visiting services.
A stakeholder meeting was held in October 2010 to determine the future content and function of the Red Book, and further development work was carried out over subsequent months to finalise content. The review has been co-ordinated by NHS Sheffield Public Health Directorate and overseen by the Maternal and Child Health Planning and Commissioning Group.
For further information please contact Siobhan Horsley, Health Improvement Practitioner Siobhan.horsley@nhs.net or 0114 3051220
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Download this briefing (21kb pdf, opens in a new window)
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