Surrey Heartlands Health and Care Partnership has formed a new partnership for children’s health services.
The new initiative, the Birth to Five Community Health Partnership, was devised by both staff and locals to represent families across the area.
The idea is to talk about experiences of health visiting and therapy services as well as an invitation to work alongside with staff in co-producing community health services to make change.
The partnership is made up of eight independent representatives called ‘Lay Chairs’ across four different areas of Surrey – the North West, South West, North East and South East.
They are reaching to talk to families at locations such as family centres, toddler groups and other local communities. Families are asked to share experiences of health visiting and therapy services, and also invited to work with stuff in co-producing community health services.
Lay Chair Charlotte Swann explained: “I know from my own experience how important it is to have good community health care services around you as a parent, and with families and staff working together I believe we can really make a difference. Our initial focus is going to be talking to families about the 10-12 month and 27 month reviews for infants provided by health visiting teams.”
Trudy Mills, Executive Director for Children’s Community Services in Surrey, added: “By creating this partnership we are giving families in Surrey a continuous voice in heath improvements and developments. This is part of work across Surrey Health and Care Partnership to create services that serve the needs of our communities well.”
