Another one for the ‘at risk’ list

NICE is consulting on sharing information to identify families who live in the kind of homes where children might have an accident

Recommendation 1: identifying and prioritising households at greatest risk

Who is the target population?
Children and young people aged under 15 years at greatest risk of an unintentional injury, their parents and carers.

Who should take action?
Local strategic partnerships (LSPs), children and young people’s strategic partnerships (where they are not part of the LSP), local safeguarding children boards (LSCBs) and children’s trusts.

What action should they take?
• Use local information to identify and prioritise households where children and young people aged under 15 are at greatest risk of unintentional injury. Factors could include overcrowding, a low income and a lack of appropriately installed safety equipment. The data could come from surveys and needs assessments and existing datasets (such as hospital episode statistics). Or data could be gathered as part of routine practice (for example, during home visits by community practitioners).

• Consider establishing or using an existing database to share information on high-risk households with other statutory agencies. For example, social workers, GPs and health visitors could identify overcrowded dwellings and notify others via a database accessible to all statutory organisations.

Yet again, it seems that poverty trumps Article 8.

The consultation closes on December 2nd.

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