Healthier Wealthier Children 

HWC

 

 

 

 

 

 

Background

Almost half of the children in Greater Glasgow and Clyde live in low income households, ranging from 25% in East Renfrewshire to 69% in East Glasgow[1]. Addressing child poverty is a key Scottish Government strategy for improving children’s health and well-being and is supported by the strategies, Equally Well, Achieving Our Potential and the Early Years Framework. Maximising families’ income is one element of addressing child poverty and a practical action that health and social care service providers can offer with the right support. A collaboration between NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC), Glasgow City Council (GCC) and the Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH) with additional support from other council partners has been successful in attracting funding from the Scottish Government Achieving our Potential Programme.

A grant of £1,058,375 has been secured for 15 months to set up the Healthier Wealthier Children project. The project builds on actions taken by NHSGGC to meet Scottish Government objectives outlined in the Chief Executive Letter 36 (CEL) to improve uptake of the UK-wide Healthy Start programme which provides fresh food, milk and vitamins to pregnant women, infants and young children. Healthy Start requires health professionals to provide nutritional advice and to encourage uptake of vouchers but in NHSGGC more help was required for families to find out about and apply for vouchers and through that, for further help with income maximisation. Healthier Wealthier Children therefore provides income maximisation advisers alongside development officers for all Community Health (and Care) Partnerships (CH/CPs) and Addictions services across NHSGGC.

 

Project Aims

The project aims are based on evidence demonstrating that families are at risk of child poverty when they are trapped in a low pay/no pay cycle and that risk increases with particular life events such as around the time of the birth of a child and relationship breakdown. The financial recession is likely to cause additional hardship to some families already at high risk. Additional circumstances might also increase risk such as having a child with additional support needs, immigration status preventing access to welfare benefits, kinship caring or when parents have problems with mental health or substance misuse. Income maximisation can help families deal with child poverty and to prevent families falling into child poverty if identified and referred on at an early stage through universal health and early years service provision. The main purpose of the Project is to support the development of expertise within financial inclusion services and health structures for addressing child poverty in order to set up sustainable information and referral routes beyond the lifetime of the Project.

The two aims of the Project are to:

  • Test out partnership models of providing income maximisation advice at a local level; and
  • Build action on child poverty into mainstream children and families services and financial inclusion services beyond the life of the project. 

The Project structure and functions are as follows:

  • The elements of the project comprise practice development within antenatal services, CH/CPs, addictions services and financial inclusion services; and strategic development through NHSGGC and Local Authority partners and the Scottish Government. The Project is overseen by a Steering Group comprising representatives of all structures and services involved in the Project, and is accountable to the NHSGGC Financial Inclusion Strategy Group
  • Income maximisation services will be targeted mainly through health and early years services at pregnant women and families experiencing or at risk of child poverty as listed above
  • Services might be clinic or office based or provided through outreach and should collaborate with other local resources where available, such as initiatives for employability, affordable childcare and other anti-poverty measures
  • Income maximisation advisers are employed through existing financial inclusion commissioning arrangements to provide services for nine CH/CPs with one CHP (East Dunbartonshire) using existing services to test out the partnership model. Development officers have been deployed across all ten CH/CPs and addictions services
  • Income maximisers and development officers will work together to set up clear and sustainable information and referral pathways between health and early years services and financial inclusion services. This is likely to be achieved through training and awareness raising for health and early years staff, producing information materials, negotiating partnership working, and developing and implementing new models of local practice
  • The income maximisers and development officers will be expected to work closely with the evaluation team and contribute to gathering data for monitoring and research purposes.

 

In total, the budget will fund the following staff and facilities across NHSGGC and partner councils:

  • Nine development officers based in CH/CPs (the two least deprived CH/CPs will share a development officer) and one allocated to addictions services
  • Nine income maximisation advice services to work with CH/CPs
  • One administration officer
  • Two researchers – one specialist and one assistant to design and deliver a monitoring and evaluation programme
  • Managerial, training, equipment and office costs is included in the budget for each postholder.

 

The main outcomes for the income maximisation service are expected to be as follows:

  • Higher numbers of families with young children receiving financial inclusion information, advice and support
  • Improved financial awareness for pregnant women, new families and families with young children
  • Additional income generated for families using the service
  • Improved debt management in the target group as a result of the service
  • Agreed models of good practice for financial inclusion support for families at risk of child poverty.

 

The main outcomes for the development work are expected to be as follows:

  • Health, social and early years staff across the CH/CP areas having improved knowledge of benefits available for pregnant women and families with young children
  • CH/CP staff having improved knowledge of the availability and accessibility of local financial inclusion services
  • Clear referral and information pathways for pregnant women and families with young children between health, social and early years services and financial inclusion services local to a CH/CP
  • Guidelines for future contracting of financial inclusion services for pregnant women and families with young children at risk of child poverty, based on evidence of local need and successful models of practice.

 

The Glasgow Centre for Population Health will manage the evaluation, with its main aims being to:

  • Lead on the design and analysis of a monitoring programme
  • Estimate the added value of a children and families financial inclusion service to a CH/CP population
  • Assess and define effective information and referral pathways between health, social and early years services and financial inclusion services for pregnant women and families with young children at risk of poverty
  • Produce an interim report and final report on the initiative
  • Disseminate models of good practice and learning to CH/CPs and CPPs across Scotland.
 

The Project will start receiving referrals in October 2010 and an interim report will be available in Spring 2011. The Project will report in Spring 2012.

 

Healthier Wealthier Children Launch

Healthier Wealthier Children was launched on Tuesday 9 November 2010 by Nicola Sturgeon, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing.  The event included the Save the Children Museum of Poverty exhibition and gave participants an opportunity to feed into the National Tackling Child Poverty Strategy 2010 consultation.

If you would like more information about the launch, please contact the PHRU via email.

 

 

[1] Low income households are defined here as being in receipt of any benefits, out of work or in work (2006 data, GCPH analysis, 2009)