Case studies

This case study forms part of a children's public health transfer resource. On 1 August 2017, the council transferred all of its children’s services to a community interest company owned by the council and two other local authorities.  

Very young children in Manchester were found to have high levels of tooth decay. Prolonged bottle feeding, often with sugared drinks, was of particular concern in this area.

 All children have health needs, and local authorities now have a major role in meeting these.

Brent local authority commissions the delivery of an evidence-based oral health plan to improve child oral health and reduce inequalities, prioritising families with children under 5.

Middlesbrough Council and NHS England Cumbria and the North East have launched a joint programme “Starting Well” to develop closer links between dental team members and the wider health and social care workforce to increase uptake of both school and dental practice prevention programmes to prevent dental decay in our youngest children.

Lambeth Council has been implementing a healthy weight programme to address child obesity – and as part of that a specialist healthy weight school nurse post has been created. This case study forms part of our resource on the National Child Measurement Programme.

The school nurse team in Sefton helped children spot the signs of worry, and how to build resilience.

In north Manchester clinical commissioning group funding has supplemented investment by the council to create a network of breastfeeding support for new mothers.

Young people have been encouraged to express their thoughts, feelings and experiences on topics relating to mental health via the MindMate blog.

Like all areas, the results are fed back to schools via email and hard copies sent through the post. But two years ago the council decided to do more to link it in with the healthy weight programmes they were beginning to run.