Our Tower Hamlets Health Visiting Team in partnership with Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), Barts Health Royal London Child Growth Clinic Paediatric Team, and The Institute of Child Health Growth, trialled a new screening programme to study how well children grow before school age.
We presented at a recent research celebration event in June at QMUL to share the research findings with stakeholders and families involved in the study.
Care Group clinical system managers and health visiting staff held a stall and delivered a presentation on the research findings and our involvement in the project.
Hamida Serdiwala-White, Care Group Interim Head of 0-19 services, Tower Hamlets, said: “It was a wonderfully successful collaborative event to celebrate the end of the research and share the outcome of the research with stake holders, children and families. We look forward to seeing the outcome of the research, which will be published in 2025.”
About the study
This study looked at how well children grow before school age. Currently there is no formal screening programme for monitoring and identifying potential problems with a child’s height in England before school entry. In some children, height that is shorter than expected for the child’s age can be due to medical causes. Short height may also be related to social or economic disadvantage. Children with severe concern with growth are referred to Royal London Paediatric Child Growth Clinic for further investigation.
Our Tower Hamlets Health Visiting Team in partnership with QMUL, Barts Health Royal London Child Growth Clinic Paediatric Team, and The Institute of Child Health Growth, trialled this new screening programme.
The children and parents were offered two appointments; one as part of the universal two years review. Weight and height were taken during the 2-2.5 years child development review. They are invited for follow up weight and height review at 3 years of age.
The parents’ consent were sought to share the child’s NHS number with Tower Hamlets Local Authority to enable review of the child’s height measured at school reception via the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) as well permission for health visitors to collect information about any medical problems or medications from your child’s health records and link this with data collected in the study.
