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1240/5/1(16)
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS BY DEPUTY S.Y. MÉZEC OF ST. HELIER
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 17th JANUARY 2017
Question
Will the Minister list each public service which has seen its quality improved, or the number of Islanders who benefit from it increased, as a direct result of policy changes inspired by the '1,001 Critical Days Manifesto'?
Answer
The goal of the 1001 Critical Days manifesto is for every baby to receive sensitive, appropriate and responsive care from their main caregivers in the first years of life.
As a result of policy changes inspired by the 1001 Critical Days programme in Jersey, all expectant mothers and babies in Jersey have benefitted from the development of a range of services delivered by maternity, education, health visiting and adult mental health. This includes the scaling up of the Coping with Crying programme and the embedding of the MESCH programme (Maternal Early Sustained Child Health Visiting) delivered in partnership with Family Nursing and Home Care. Specialist maternal mental health support is being piloted in the antenatal clinic and perinatal mental health is prioritised by Jersey Talking Therapies.
Partnerships and increased collaborative working between all perinatal services including the many voluntary and community services have improved the experiences of the services for families and expectant mothers.
There has been a considerable amount of publicity in relation to the work of the 1001 Critical Days Taskforce, raising awareness generally with Islanders and particularly with professionals who work in the related environment. Events include presentations to States Members from the NSPCC and NCB about effective Better Start' programmes.
To raise awareness amongst the population, a week long publicity campaign was delivered in May – the message to parents was to go home early from work to read together, play together, cook together and be together'. The benefits of breastfeeding were promoted through the Big Latch' event in June.
To better inform professionals, the Taskforce established a 1001 Reasons to Listen' seminar series where experts talked about the importance of evidence and early intervention to improve outcomes.
In partnership with the UBS Optimus Foundation, the National Children's Bureau have worked with the 1001 Critical Days Taskforce to develop an outcomes framework and to deliver Knowledge Makes Change' bulletins to 500 practitioners to expand local knowledge on early childhood development.
The appointment of an independent chair for the Early Years and Childhood Partnership ensures that the progress made by the Taskforce will be maintained and further improvements and progress guided, monitored and evaluated. In addition, plans are under development to introduce new services in this area during the course of 2017.