The Islington Plan for Looked After Children and ... - Islington Council

5.3.4 Priorities 2011-2014
a. To further reduce health inequalities and ensure that Children
Looked After and Care Leavers in Islington are physically and
emotionally healthy.
Preventing Teenage Pregnancy:
To continue to work to reduce rates of pregnancy in Islington’s children
looked after population and support pregnant teenagers to access
targeted support services for example the Family Nurse Partnership.
Mental health and emotional needs:
To analyse SDQ scores and use this to identify and assess the mental
health needs of high scoring children looked after and offer them targeted
interventions.
Substance Misuse:
To improve the uptake of children looked after engaged with substance
misuse services in order to minimise harm.
b. To ensure that the health needs of Children Looked After are fully
understood across Children’s Social Care and Whittington Health.
This will involve improvements to the collation, flow and accuracy of health
information across Children Social Care and Whittington Health in order to
ensure a full understanding of what the health needs of children looked
after are and to assist the Council and health partners to analyse and use
this to plan services accordingly.
c. To ensure timely access to appropriate health and mental health
services for Children Looked After and Care Leavers (in compliance
with the NICE guidance).
This will require improvements to the gathering of a child’s health history
to inform transition planning for older looked after children and stronger
efforts to ensure the attendance of older looked after children at health
assessments. 7
7 NICE Guidance recommendations 22 and 48
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