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6. The Best Possible Start
| What this will mean for you |
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- Effective support to help you meet the challenge of parenting in the earliest years of your child's life
- Services that provide particular support for parents and children in deprived areas
- Long term, cross Government action to support those in the early stages of their life
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Our Approach
Good parenting is fundamental to the development of a child's physical and mental health and wellbeing. By providing appropriate support from conception through the first 3 years of a child's life, we can increase the capacity and capability of families and help all our children realise their potential in our society. There is increasing evidence that early intervention can help improve a child's health throughout their life and that this investment pays in the longer term by helping educational attainment, and supporting them to become confident, balanced and resilient citizens. Such intervention can also reduce reliance on care services and the burden on our criminal justice system.
NHSScotland's maternity and antenatal services mean that it is uniquely placed to develop relationships with families, deliver early interventions and work constructively with other delivery partners in the public and voluntary sectors. We are particularly determined to focus this support on children with multiple or complex needs to give every child the opportunity that they deserve.
Framework for Discussion
This discussion can advance the debate in Scotland about the role of early interventions and help determine the way in which we:
- Implement Delivering a Healthy Future, our action framework for children and young people's health in Scotland, so that our children and young people receive the best possible start in life and can maximise their full potential
- Ensure that NHSScotland makes a full contribution to the development and implementation of our broader cross Government early years strategy
- Provide support and services to help pregnant women quit smoking and drinking
- Tackle drug misuse and ensure that the children of drug misusing parents are identified and supported from birth
- Protect children from the stresses of domestic abuse
- Improve infant nutrition, closing the gap between the rates of breastfeeding in our deprived and more affluent communities
- Support effective parenting in the earliest stages of a child's life
- Provide a positive, health promoting environment for looked after children
- Enhance infant health by, for example, promoting good early parent child interactions and supporting the problem solving skills of parents
- Introduce and support new roles and ways of working within NHSScotland that are better suited to the challenge of bringing different agencies together to provide solutions based on the needs of children and their families
| Issues to consider |
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- How could the approach described above be developed further to ensure that our children get the possible start in life?
- Which aspects of the suggested approach would you prioritise?
- What specific actions should NHSScotland take at national, regional or local level in order to extend and improve our range of early interventions?
- What further opportunities do you see for taking this agenda forward through cooperation and collaboration between NHSScotland and its partners?
- Have you had any recent personal experiences that might help us shape and inform future actions across Scotland?
- Which key performance targets would best focus NHSScotland on providing early interventions and helping to offer our children the best possible start in life?
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