Child Health Surveillance - Health for all children (Hall4)           

Child health surveillance is reviewed at regular intervals by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH).  The most recent RCPCH review of child health screening and surveillance programmes was published as the fourth edition of Health for All Children (Hall4).

Hall4 recommends a reduced core programme with some enhanced screening for all children and a more flexible programme for children and families who may require additional or in some cases intensive support. Hall4 also recommends that alongside the surveillance programme there should be an enhanced programme of health promotion work to inform and educate parents about their child's development.

Health Plan Indicator (HPI)

Under Hall4 all children are assigned to one of the models of continuing contact and support, on the basis of the assessed need of the family:

• CORE - The universal programme.
• ADDITIONAL - The universal programme + structured additional support
• INTENSIVE - The universal programme + intensive inter-agency support

The health professional records which model of continuing contact and support the family has been assigned to i.e. Core, Additional or Intensive.  This is known as the Health Plan Indicator (HPI).  Health professionals can amend a child's HPI as necessary in line with changes in the child's health/family circumstances.  Beyond the universal programme of contacts the health professional uses their professional judgement to decide on the nature and frequency of further contacts with the family for review of child development.

Implementation

The guidance report Health For All Children : Guidance on Implementation in Scotland ( 515kb) was published in April 2005 to support consistent implementation of the recommendations of Hall 4 in Scotland. The report advised that NHS Boards should agree with local authority planning partners an organisational development plan for implementation of this guidance over a three year period, aiming for full implementation by 2008.

The Hall4 Implementation Network has been established for those within NHS Boards who have responsibility for coordinating implementation. The network provides a forum for discussing implementation issues and for a shared approach to problem solving.

Implementation of Hall4 was phased across Scotland from 2005.  All NHS Boards using the Child Health Systems Programme (CHSP) have implemented Hall4.  Implementation dates for users of CHSP- Pre-School and School are as follows:

NHS Board	Pre-School Hall4 Implementation Date	School Hall4 Implementation Date
Ayrshire & Arran	October 2006	August 2007
Borders	October 2005	October 2005
Dumfries & Galloway	April 2006	April 2006
Fife	April 2006	August 2006
Forth Valley	April 2006	April 2006
Grampian	Do not use CHSP Pre-school	June 2007
Greater Glasgow & Clyde Argyll & Clyde* Greater Glasgow	February 2006 April 2006	May 2007 Do not use CHSP School
Highland Argyll & Clyde* Highland	February 2006 May 2007	May 2007 Do not use CHSP School
Lanarkshire	December 2006	August 2006
Lothian	October 2005	October 2005
Orkney	Do not use CHSP Pre-school	Do not use CHSP school
Shetland	Do not use CHSP Pre-school	Do not use CHSP school
Tayside	January 2007	January 2007
Western Isles	May 2006	May 2006

* Argyll and Clyde ceased to exist on 31st March 2006 and the administration area was split into sub-areas that now fall under the administration of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Highland respectively.