Thursday 26 February 2009
NCB has warmly welcomed the government's child
health strategy, Healthy Lives, Brighter Futures, which aims to
improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people in a
number of crucial areas and has a strong focus on empowering
children to make and sustain healthy lifestyle choices.
The strategy includes an allocation of £340m for disabled
children, which is a significant achievement for the Council for
Disabled Children and the Every Disabled Child Matters campaign,
both of which are based at NCB and have campaigned for additional
funding for many years.
Other initiatives include the extension of the Healthy Schools
programme to further education settings, fostering positive
relationships between parents, children and practitioners, and
increasing the number of child health visitors - a recommendation
that came out of NCB research in 2004/2005.
Paul Ennals, chief executive at NCB, said:
"Improving child health calls for real partnership between
government departments, between local health services and local
authorities, and between local service providers and the children
and families they serve. This strategy takes forward partnership at
all those levels."