Children and Young People’s Plan 2019-2023

All children and young people deserve to be healthy and happy. Good physical and emotional health plays an important part in helping them to live a fulfilled life.

For most children, the family and community ensure their health and wellbeing.

Families need access to good information and advice, and our Ante-natal, Maternity, Public Health Nursing Services and Children’s Centres will all work together to ensure that no infant, child or family slips through the net, with support tailored to their needs.

We will continue to improve care for children with long term conditions such as asthma and diabetes, and focus on prevention to tackle issues like child obesity and tooth decay.

Our priorities to 2023 are:

Emotional wellbeing, mental health and self-harm

Supporting the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people with their families continues to be a priority.  We will continue to embed preventative strategies and support across schools, public health nursing and wider support services.

For more information, please refer to our CAMHS Transformation Plan.

Early support for autism

We will continue to work together to develop our local offer to autistic children by working with parents and children to make sure we make an impact and improve life chances. We will:

  • Not wait for a diagnosis before giving support to children who display behaviours linked to autism
  • Support the emotional health and wellbeing of children, young people and their families who may be living with autism
  • Provide more self-help information for parents

For more information please see our Community Health & Wellbeing Service Strategy

Improving speech and language services

Speech, language and communication needs must not prevent a child in Devon achieving in school and will be better understood and responded to by all professionals and practitioners. We will:

  • Intervene early and offer ongoing support for the communication needs of children
  • Adapt school and community environments to ensure communication barriers are removed
  • Continue to develop and provide training for schools and settings to support early communication, speech and language development

For more information please see our Community Health & Wellbeing Service Strategy