The Department of Health have published their annual report detailing the coverage and timeliness of pre-school health contacts.
Healthy Child, Healthy Future – Health Review Statistics for Northern Ireland 2022/23 reports on the Healthy Child, Healthy Future framework. This framework sets out a programme of child health contacts that every family can expect to receive.
The six pre-school reviews to complete include contact at 10-14 days, six to eight weeks, 14-16 weeks, six to nine months, one year, and two to two and a half years old.
In 2022/23, health visitors were expected to complete 127,164 contacts. Of these, 89% were completed, with 81% in the recommended timeframe, and 8% outside the timeframe (either early or late). Around 10% did not take place.
‘The publication does not capture information on why reviews were completed outside of the recommended timeframe,’ says the Department of Health. ‘However, where issues are known these will be set out in the publication.’
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