2023 and blogging again

I was with a colleague this week who reminded me how much I enjoyed blogging, sharing thoughts on key current issues that many of us face across the public sector, particularly those who advocate for improvements in Child Health.

So here I go, I’m committing to blogging regularly again!

So what’s on my radar? Well my heart has gone out to those affected by the earthquake and to amazing colleagues from emergency services grappling with helping. This video highlights the joy of being rescued ‘Six remarkable rescues amid earthquake chaos’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64588602 Organisations such as the International Red Cross have asked us for donations via the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/turkey-syria-earthquake-appeal supporting this through a donation seems like a very practical action we can take.

Closer to home, London held an online discussion about why children die in the Capital, led by the Office for Health Improvement and disparities (OHID) the National Child Death Mortality Database (do follow them on Twitter @NCMD_England) provided data and thematic learning to influence a whole system improvement programme. Poverty and health inequalities are the most significant challenges, yet consistent, understandable, practical information about issues such as safe sleeping are required too. Organisations such as @LullabyTrust do a fantastic job at conveying information to families.

There was also a discussion at our Trust about what we can do to prevent suicide in children and young people following in from the thematic report published by NCMD, https://www.ncmd.info/?s=Suicide online training, using the HEADSSS assessment framework and raising awareness of the issue were areas we agreed we could take action.

Sadly 62% of children who took their life by suicide experienced a significant loss in their life and this led us to explore how we can better identify and support children when we care for their families. The importance of including this element of care in our refreshed End of Life and Palliative Care Implementation plan was reinforced.

We also discussed the importance of supporting staff, who often have concerns about their own children. This led to rich ongoing interactions with our employee wellbeing service and how we could signpost to resources such as Find Help For My Child’s Mental Health | Parents | YoungMinds & PAPYRUS Launch New Guide For Parents | Papyrus UK | Suicide Prevention Charity (papyrus-uk.org)

Finally for this week I want to give a shout out to London Innovation and Improvement Alliance @LondonLiia who have been working with Directors of Children’s services across London, they ran a fantastic event, it was great that health, police and the voluntary sector were part of the collaborative conversations and planning for sustainable improvement for and with London’s Children, you can read more here https://liia.london/news-article?article=39

Have a great weekend! & if you’re working, thank you!