News Release issued by
the COI News Distribution Service on 16 September 2010
The Government
today set out a new vision for the health of children and young
people in an engagement document, Achieving Equity and Excellence
for Children. This forms a detailed supplement to the ongoing
consultation for the White Paper, Equity and Excellence:
Liberating the NHS.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley launched the engagement document,
designed to seek the views of professionals and the wider
community on how the new system should work, alongside a thorough
review of children’s services in the NHS by Professor Sir Ian Kennedy.
Achieving Equity and Excellence for Children sets out a vision in which:
• services will be personalised to individual needs and
appropriate for children, young people and their families;
• age-specific information should become routinely available and accessible;
• children, young people and their families will be at the centre
of design and delivery of services, facilitated by local
professionals; and
• improvements will be measured in terms of outcomes for children
and young people rather than just time-focused targets.
Andrew Lansley said:
“In our new vision for the NHS, and in preparing for our public
health White Paper later this year, we are determined to provide
for children and young people as an essential and integral part of
delivering better health outcomes.
“Sir Ian Kennedy’s review, published today, has revealed the
scale of the issues facing the health service. It tells us
important things about the lack of effective, integrated and
responsive services we have inherited. Sir Ian reminds us just how
important the start of life is for children and young people’s
future physical and mental development.
“We need to act urgently to protect our most vulnerable, not just
look after those who know their way around the system. That’s why
today we are publishing an unique engagement document - Achieving
Equity and Excellence for Children - which will ensure children’s
needs are firmly embedded in the mainstream of service provision.
“Our vision for the future of the health service will put more
power in the hands of patients and the doctors and nurses who know
and treat them. Outcomes for children need improvement at many
levels of the health service: at a national level, through
cross-Government efforts and at a local level, through the
front-line professionals who deliver that care.
“The experts on this are not in Whitehall - they’re in the home
or at a GP surgery, hospital or clinic.
“We are today ensuring that, informed by Sir Ian's
report and in line with the new focus in the White Paper on
patient-centred care, we shape the future of children and young
people's services to meet their needs more effectively by
improving health outcomes to be amongst the best in the world,
through more devolved, locally integrated service provision.
“We welcome views on the action needed locally and nationally to
make this vision a reality.”
The engagement document Achieving Equity and Excellence for
Children can be downloaded at:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_119449
Follow the progress of the White Paper on Twitter @dhgovuk
Notes to Editors
The Government’s White Paper Equity and Excellent: Liberating
the NHS, can be downloaded here: www.dh.gov.uk/liberatingthenhs
2. The engagement document, Achieving Equity and Excellence
for Children can be downloaded here: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_119449
3. Professor Sir Ian Kennedy’s review, Getting it right for
children and young people - Overcoming cultural barriers in the
NHS so as to meet their needs, can be downloaded here: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_119445
For media enquiries, please contact the Department of Health
news desk on 020 7210 5221.
Contacts:
Department of Health
Phone: 020 7210 5221
NDS.DH@coi.gsi.gov.uk