Health and wellbeing

The Healthy Child Programme is a team of health visitors (also known as specialist community public health nurses) who provide a service for children, young people and families, offering health and development reviews with additional support when needed.

You can contact the Healthy Child Programme team to arrange integrated reviews in your setting, or to discuss a child’s health or development needs.

West Sussex Health visitor

• Duty phone: 01273 242004
• Email: sc-tr.wsxhcpduty@nhs.net

Opening hours

• Open Monday to Friday, from 9.00am to 4.30pm, excluding bank holidays.

This is for advice, support and appointments.

• Eat Better, Start Better - Practical guide to the voluntary food and drink guidelines for settings to meet the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) welfare requirement for providing healthy, balanced and nutritious food and drink.
• Example menus for early years settings in England (GOV.UK) - Useful guidance for early years settings to help meet the Early Years Foundation Stage requirements for food and drink.
• First Steps Nutrition Trust - An independent public health nutrition charity providing resources for health workers supporting eating well from pre-conception to five years.
• Help for early years providers: Nutrition - Guidance to support providers to help children build a strong relationship with food and make the right choices from the start.
• Fussy eaters (NHS) - NHS guidance to support adults respond to children who appear as 'fussy eaters'. Practitioners should work closely with the child’s parents to understand the reasons for a child’s reactions to food to enable them to provide the appropriate support.
• Better Health - Healthier Families (NHS) - Change4life home page for ideas on staying healthy, eating well and moving more.
• Early Movers - Physical development support for early years practitioners to understand and feel confident in providing physical development opportunities to children in your setting or at home.

• Improving oral health: supervised tooth brushing programme toolkit - Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust can help you establish supervised tooth brushing sessions in your setting to improve oral health. They can also offer advice and guidance on supporting children and families. Email SCTR.oralhealthpromotionteam@nhs.net or phone 01273 267345.
• Children's teeth (NHS) - Information about how to take care of your children's teeth.
• Oral Health Foundation - Information and support.
• Dental Wellness Trust - Supervised toothbrushing programme in West Sussex.
• Oral Health (PACEY) - Information and further links.
• Oral health (Help for early years providers) - How to promote good oral health to young children in your setting.
• Find a dentist - (NHS) - Ask parents to contact local dental practices and ask if they can place their children and themselves on a waiting list (you can go in more than one list).

• NHS - Advice and guidance on caring for babies and young children.
• ERIC, The Children's Bowel and Bladder Charity - ERIC provides information, advice and guidance to support bowel and bladder health. The website includes leaflets that can be shared with families to support toilet training.
• The Lullaby Trust: Safer sleep for babies - Safer sleep for babies, Support for families. The Lullaby Trust raises awareness of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), provides expert advice on safer sleep for babies and offers emotional support for bereaved families. For children with SEND which might impact on the child’s sleep arrangements, please discuss with the relevant health professionals.
• Sleep Well e-learning - Online learning for those working with families, covering the importance of sleep and ways to improve it. Access requires you to set up a free account on the West Sussex Services for Education.
• Physical activity guidelines for children under 5 years (NHS) - Advice and guidance on the importance of being physically active everyday for the healthy growth and development of babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers.
• Help for early years providers: Health and wellbeing - Discover resources to help you support children’s wellbeing and enrichment in your setting.
• Early Years In Mind - Anna Freud - A free online network for early years practitioners. The network provides easy-to-read and easy-to-use guidance on supporting the mental health of babies, young children and their families.
• What to expect in the EYFS - Parent guide about the Foundation Stage including further links and advice for additional information around health and wellbeing.
• Local Offer - Information and support about needs and services that can help your child and young person.

• Managing and administering medicine - Refer to points 3.51 to 3.54 (Health>Medicines) of the EYFS Statutory Framework for group and school based providers and 3.50 to 3.53 for childminders, which sets out how settings should manage and administer medicines.
• Health protection in children and young people settings, including education - A practical guide for staff on managing cases of infectious diseases in children and young people settings, including education.

To support you in planning care for a child in your setting with specific medical conditions, follow the guidance provided by the health professionals working with the child.

General information can be also found on the following web sites:

• NHS - General health information
• Medicines for children
• Allergy UK - Allergies and Anaphylaxis
• Asthma.org.uk
• British Heart Foundation
• Diabetes.org.uk
• Eczema.org
• Education for Health
• ERIC - Bowel and bladder
• Pica - National Eating Disorders Association