Guidance

Services for children aged 0 to 5: transfer to local authorities

Documents relating to the transfer of public health services for children aged 0 to 5 from the NHS to local authorities.

Applies to England

Documents

Finance factsheet 1: Finance issues

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Mandation factsheet 2: Commissioning the national Healthy Child Programme - mandation of universal healthy child programme assessments/reviews

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Transfer of 0 to 5 children’s public health commissioning to local authorities: baseline agreement exercise

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Minimum floor calculations

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Details

Health visitor reviews and the transfer of public health services

The planning and commissioning of public health services for children aged 0 to 5 was transferred from the NHS to local authorities in October 2015. Alongside the transfer, regulations require local authorities to make provision for 5 main universal health visitor reviews, which form part of the 0 to 5 Healthy Child Programme. These are the:

  • antenatal health promotion review
  • new baby review, which is the first check after the birth
  • 6 to 8 week assessment
  • 1 year assessment
  • 2 to 2-and-a-half year review

This will help ensure that a universal health visiting service continues, which is essential to supporting the health and wellbeing of families and children at crucial stages of development. This requirement will end after 18 months. A review at 12 months, involving Public Health England, will influence future arrangements.

Documents on this page

The documents on this page include:

  • an overview of the transfer of the 0 to 5 Service from NHS England to local authorities
  • an overview of the National Health Visiting Programme
  • an overview of the Health Visiting and Family Nurse Partnership Services
  • an overview of the changes in how 0 to 5 services are commissioned
  • an explanation of changes to the Health Visiting Service so far
  • a factsheet on the scope of the transfer of 0 to 5 services
  • documents about financial arrangements from October 2015, including factsheets on the timescales for NHS area teams and local authorities in the run up to the transfer
  • mandation factsheets to explain the responsibilities of local authorities after the transfer
  • an equality analysis that examines the impact of plans in relation to the Department of Health’s duties to the Equality Act 2010
  • a factsheet on the relationship between Health Education England and local authorities in relation to workforce planning
  • a data and information factsheet
  • a note to clarify issues relating to registered and resident populations which may be preventing progress from being made

The Department of Health has also published:

More information can be found in NICE guidance on commissioning health visiting services

Updates to this page

Published 22 August 2014
Last updated 12 November 2015 + show all updates
  1. Added clarification of issues relating to registered and resident populations.

  2. Added document: 'Data and information factsheet 2: data sharing'

  3. Minimum floor calculations document updated.

  4. Added a factsheet that gives an overview of the transfer of the 0 to 5 Service from NHS England to local authorities.

  5. Data and information factsheet added.

  6. Added documents: 0 to 5 Public Health Allocations for 2015 to 2016 (July 2015) Equality Analysis: Transfer of 0 to 5 children’s public health commissioning to Local Authorities (July 2015) Finance factsheet 4: Final allocations

  7. Added 'Factsheet: the role of Health Education England and Local Education and Training Boards'.

  8. Updated to include 'The transformed health visiting service – the story so far' and new versions of the '0-5 Public Health Allocations for 2015/16' and 'Equality analysis' documents.

  9. Added equality analysis on mandating elements of the Healthy Child Programme.

  10. 'Finance factsheet 3: Final allocations' added

  11. Added three overview factsheets

  12. Updated to include allocations for 2015 to 2016 and equality analysis.

  13. Mandation of universal healthy child programme assessments/reviews factsheet added.

  14. Updated 'Factsheet: finance principles'.

  15. Updated to include 'Scope of 0-5 public health services transition transfer' factsheet.

  16. Added a fact sheet that explains how finances will work when children’s public health commissioning is transferred to local authorities:

  17. First published.

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