Our work

The Healthy Care Programme provides:

• a national standard of healthy care that reflects best practice and contributes to the ECM national outcomes for children: Healthy Care Standard and ECM and Healthy Care Outcomes [PDF 30KB]
• a manual on how to set up a local multi-agency Healthy Care Partnership: The Healthy Care Programme Handbook [PDF 220KB]
  an audit tool to assist the development of a locally responsive Healthy Care Programme: Healthy Care Audit Tool [PDF 53KB]
• an outcomes focussed Healthy Care Action Plan template: Healthy Care Action Planning Tool [PDF 226KB]
• a means of collecting evidence for monitoring and reviews
  information on key health and well-being issues for looked after children and young people: Healthy Care Briefings
• a training programme for foster carers and residential social workers: Healthy Care Training Manual [PDF 220KB]

Children and young people’s participation
A key principle identified in the Department of Health guidance: Promoting the Health of Looked After Children (2002) is the direct involvement of children, young people and their carers.

Children and young people’s participation is a cornerstone of the Healthy Care Programme

Healthy Care partnerships have found that the involvement and participation of children and young people is critical in the development of successful local work on healthy care – it makes sure that the issues children and young people think are most important to their health and well-being are addressed.

The Healthy Care Training Manual for foster carers and residential social workers includes an easy to do activity the 'Clouds activity' [PDF 96KB] to use with children and young people to identify priorities for healthy care work.  A magazine for carers  ‘Carers Can’ [PDF 1.5MB] on play and creativity is also available.