Healthy Child Programme: final report

The objective of the project was to develop an initial standard for sharing information on events taking place as part of the Department of Health’s ‘Healthy Child Programme’. The Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) was commissioned by NHS Digital to consult with parents, healthcare professionals, suppliers and public health professionals to ensure that the standard meets their needs. Clinical leadership was provided by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), and NHS Digital subject matter experts. The work has been conducted in partnership with the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) Health Informatics Unit (HIU). The PRSB work was undertaken in three ‘work packages’, comprising:

1. Events around the birth, up to and including initial six to eight week GP screening check.
2. Routine health visitor, school nurse and primary care events (including immunisations).
3. Developmental checks, developmental firsts and personal information.

Through the consultation the project has developed recommendations for the structure and content of a child health record and information sharing requirements related to events taking place as part of the ‘Healthy Child Programme’. The aim of the project has been to enable all types of users to record information that is important to them in a standardised way. The aim is also to enable parents/carers and children to view and record information in the Electronic Personal Child Health Record (ePCHR). The structure is intended to be flexible to accommodate multiple uses and changes in practice. Whilst the focus has been the Healthy Child Programme, the information models developed may support recording for other purposes within a child health record. NHS Digital are producing information models based on the recommendations made by the PRSB and are producing technical specifications which can be implemented on NHS IT systems. It is anticipated that NHS IT system suppliers will develop solutions for implementation in the NHS based on the following NHS Digital deliverables:

• Healthy Child Record Specification (a separate document. See https://theprsb.org/standards/healthychildrecord)

  This contains the format of an electronic care record supporting the Healthy Child Programme and specifies the clinical headings and information model which provide the standardised structure for that record.

• Healthy Child Events Specification (a separate document. See https://theprsb.org/standards/healthychildrecord)

  This provides the information models setting out the detailed content for the events, including values and business rules used to support the creation of the FHIR Events Catalogue. The events will be used to populate the healthy child record and so the information models also provide the standardised values and business rules needed for the care record.

• Healthy Child Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) Events Catalogue (a separate document) – this provides the technical specification to allow the events to be exchanged as an electronic message.

In addition to these deliverables NHS Digital are developing an implementation guide to support implementers and suppliers with implementation of the Healthy Child Record standard.

This document is the PRSB final project report, describing the methods used, outputs from the consultation, the recommended record structure and associated recommendations to NHS Digital.