National Service FrameworkBackground
The Children's NSF is a ten year programme intended to stimulate long term and sustained improvement in children's health. It aims to ensure fair, high quality and integrated health and social care from pregnancy right though to adulthood.The NSF is aimed at everyone who comes into contact with, or delivers services to children and young people.
At the heart of the NSF is a fundamental change in thinking about health and social care services. It is intended to lead to a cultural shift, resulting in services that are designed and delivered around the needs of children and families using those services, not around the needs of organisations.
The Children's NSF sets national standards for the first time for children's health and social care, which promote high quality, women and child-centred services and personalised care that meets the needs of parents, children and their families.
These standards are set, not just for the NHS and Social Services, but also for other local authority services which have an impact on the health and well being of children and young people, including education, housing, leisure and transport.
The NSF contains 203 Key Actions that neeed to be acheived over the next 10 years to achieve the standards. Some of these are Core Key Actions which need to completed by March 2006.
A Combined Audit / Action Plan.pdf [285k] of the developmental actions has been undertaken by our statutory and voluntary partners.
Using the NSF
An audit of progress made in completing the actions set out in the Children's NSF must be completed each year. The NSF Self Assessment Audit Tool (SAAT) has been designed to measure and record progress and compare acheivements across Wales. The SAAT sits on the Internet so that it can be easily accessed from any NHS or Local Authority organisation though a password is needed to do so.
Organisations who will be required to enter data into the SAAT are:
- Local Heath Boards
- NHS Trusts
- Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust
- Local Authorities
- Health Commission Wales
- Area Child Protection Committees
- Children & Young People's Framework Partnerships
- Higher Education
- Welsh Assembly Government
The information entered will be used to plan service improvements.
If you feel your organisation can contribute towards improving the health of children and young people in Merthyr then please don't hesitate to set in touch. For more information you can contact the Partnership Planning Team at:
Partnership Planning Team, Ty Keir Hardie, Riverside Court, Avenue De Clichy, Merthyr Tydfil, CF47 8XF.
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