The Healthy Care Programme is supported by the Department for
Children, Schools and Families through regional government offices
and developed by NCB. It is a practical means of improving the
health and well-being of looked after children and young people in
line with the Department of Health Guidance, Promoting the
Health of Looked After Children (2002) and the Change for
Children Programme.
It seeks to improve outcomes by developing good practice through
partnership working, policy development, and with the participation
of looked after children and young people. The programme ensures
that services are child-focused, provide a healthy care environment
and help to support the National Healthy Care
Standard
The Healthy Care Programme provides a tried and tested model of
multi-agency partnership working to promote and affect change for
looked after children and young people.
How the programme was developed
The Healthy Care Programme has been informed by the experiences of
Healthy Care partnerships in 13 local authorities in England
between January 2001 and April 2004. These initial five pilot sites
and eight shadow sites tested how to set up and implement Healthy
Care partnerships and develop local Healthy Care Programmes. There
are now about 80 local authorities delivering the Healthy Care
Programme via local multi-agency partnerships.