Cornwall’s children’s community health services have been rated as ‘good’ in the latest report by the Care Quality Commission.
It follows a comprehensive inspection of the community care provided by health visitors, school nurses, assistant family health practitioners, community nurses, community nursery nurses, and family health workers, infant feeding peer support coordinators and Best Start in Life (BSiL) practitioners across the county of Cornwall and Isles of Scilly.
The inspection is the first carried out since the services were integrated in 2019, which saw the launch of the new Together for Families service.
The CQC report highlights a number of areas for specific praise including:
- Staff understood how to protect children and young people from abuse, and managed safety well.
- Staff provided good care and treatment, including helping families with ongoing developmental health needs for children and young people.
- Staff treated children and young people with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity and took account of their individual needs.
- Feedback from families was complimentary of the service, recognising professionalism, respect and compassion given from staff.
- The service planned care to meet the needs of local people, with initiatives and strategies to provide care and treatment to minority communities in each of the localities inspected.
- Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills.
Cllr Barbara Ellenbroek, Cornwall Council’s cabinet member with responsibility for Children and Families, said: “I was delighted to receive this report, it just confirms to me how well our staff are performing, and how well we dealt with the hugely challenging circumstances of the pandemic.
“The integration of services under the Together for Families service has proved a real success, meaning we work closely with our partners to provide the best possible care for our residents at all times.
“One of this council’s priorities is to ensure that people can start well in life – and this report shows that we are delivering on this for Cornwall’s children and families.”
