Posted on: 2 September 2022
Children and young people in Hillingdon and their families can now get support 24 hours a day with common health, development and wellbeing concerns through a dedicated website.
The website has been developed by CNWL’s health visiting and school nursing teams with collaboration from parent’s, carers and young people to provide information about children’s health, development and wellbeing.
Samantha Spence, Hillingdon 0-19 Service Improvement Manager, said:
“We’re here to support parents and carers to become confident in looking after the health and development needs of their child from the moment they are born right through to adulthood.
“Local families have consistency told us that they want to be able to access information quickly and easily online and find answers to concerns in one place. This site allows them to do just that and also means they can reach out to us through our contact forms if they need additional support.”
The website was co-designed by parents and young people who reviewed the initial designs, helped develop the name and advised on the structure, features, amount of information, and the need for an urgent help button. The website also has accessibility tools including a translate button to reduce barriers people may have.
Feedback also came from partners and wider stakeholders including:
- Hillingdon Children’s Centres
- Young Healthwatch
- REAP (Refugees in effective partnership)
- Hillingdon Homestart Volunteers group
Samantha said: “We welcome more feedback now we’ve launched too. This is just the beginning of a bigger project in how we can collaborate with our community and empower them in the steps they make to take care of their own health. We will also be on social media and are looking to see what parents and young people want to see next.
"At a recent mother and baby group, parents were very supportive of the site. One parent said “It’s great; it will reduce my anxiety as I’ll know where to go now and I don’t have to rely on Google searches.”
Other feedback included:
- “Well thought through and user friendly, seems to link and cross reference really well”
- “Our teams can use it to signpost families to and give advice out”
The website covers many of the topics and questions that the service receives through email and phone calls.
This is the first phase of an improvement programme to:
- offer early outreach to families and prevent ill health as soon as possible
- develop the service for the twenty-first century family and make it easier to access the service online and locally
- develop community collaboration opportunities with local groups and key partners including the voluntary sector.
- contribute to the development of family hubs in Hillingdon