2 Early childhood setting health profile
This section looks at Step 1 of the Toolkit. In the previous sessions of the course, you’ve looked at the factors within the child, their family, their community and the country that they live in that can influence babies and children’s health. The questions in Step 1, see Table 2 below, are designed to help you learn more about the factors that may influence the health of the children and families in your setting.
Activity 1
Using the early childhood setting health profile
Take a look at the questions in Step 1 and, if you work in a setting, consider the answers to the questions. As you respond to the answers, make a list of the reasons why developing a profile of your setting is helpful when considering the health of babies and children.
| Description of your setting | |
|---|---|
| Type of setting |
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| Location of setting: what description fits where your setting is located | An area of:
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| Number of children in each age band |
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| Number of staff in the setting |
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| Parents of the children in your setting |
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| Number of children receiving funding |
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| Ethnicity of children and families: How many parents describe themselves as |
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| Minority groups | Do you have any children who are living in families who are:
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| English as an additional language | Do you have children who belong to families who have English as an additional language? If so, how many children? Which languages, other than English are spoken by children and families in your setting? |
| Children not living with their biological parents | Do you have any children who are:
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| Health priorities in your setting | |
| What are the children’s health issues that are of most concern? | |
| What aspects of health improvement do you promote in your setting? | |
| What aspect of children’s health would you most like to improve? | |
| What resources do you use to promote children’s health? | |
| Health issues that affect the children in your setting | |
| Chronic Health Conditions | Are any of the children in your setting affected by any of the following health conditions. If so, how many?
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| Children with dietary restrictions/requirements | Number Type of restriction and reason |
| Allergies |
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| Complex medical conditions | Complex medical conditions, Yes/No how many children? Please name the condition(s) Does the child(ren) require any support such as
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| Infectious illnesses | Do the children in your setting ever have infectious illnesses such as:
Absence because of being ill with an infectious disease? How often are children absent because of an infectious disease? frequently/occasionally/never How often are staff absent because of being ill with an infectious disease? frequently/occasionally/never |
| Mental health conditions | Do any of your children have any of the following:
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| Other child health conditions | How many children in your setting have one, or more, of the following health conditions:
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| Education health care plans (EHCPs) | Do you have any children with an EHCP? How many? |
| Working with other professionals | Do you work with other professionals or agencies to support children’s health? Please specify:
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Comment
Step 1 asks wide-ranging questions which are designed to learn more about the social, economic, ethnic and cultural factors that may influence the health of children and families. The questions link back to the content of Session 3, and also link to the video where Helen Lyndon speaks about the influence of the child’s environment on their health. Consider how the questions in Step 1 above, will help to find out more about the health conditions that children may already have.
In the next part of the activity, the video gives a practitioner’s view of using the 5 steps.
Practitioner’s perspective on using the Toolkit
In the following video, Karen Neal – Family Support Worker at the Nursery and co-researcher for the pilot – explains how the 5 steps helped the practitioners in her setting to learn more about the health needs of the children in her setting. As you listen to Karen, think about how much of what she says is helpful to your work with children.
Transcript: Video 2 Practitioner’s Perspective on using the ToolKit.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Discussion
As you listened to Karen in the video, it may have struck you how she explains that it became clear very quickly that the practitioners in the setting didn’t have all the answers to the questions; this highlighted to them that they needed to involve parents. In Sessions 7 and 8 there is more about the importance of working with parents to support children’s health. Having looked at the questions in Step 1, you too may have further or different questions that you think would be helpful to learn about the factors that influence the health of the children and families in your setting.
The following section looks at Step 2, the early childhood health promotion target tool.