NHS Lothian is looking for children, young people and parents to give their views on the services it will provide for children and young people from now until 2020.
A public consultation on the organisation’s draft strategy, ‘Improving the Health and Wellbeing of Lothian’s Children and Young People’, is now underway and will run until 17 January 2014.
The consultation documents and a short questionnaire are available on the NHS Lothian website and have also been sent to the four local authorities and to voluntary organisations that work with children and young people.
NHS Lothian’s vision is that every child should have the best start in life and grow up being healthy, confident and resilient.
The draft strategy and approach has considered the changes that may be made to services in anticipation of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill coming into effect and should allow the Board to respond to this while maintaining high quality healthcare services for children and young people.
The priorities identified in the strategy include a focus on prevention, more integrated working across services and the building of a high quality replacement for the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.
Sally Egan, Associate Director and Child Health Commissioner, NHS Lothian said: “We provide a wide range of services for children and young people, from conception through the life stages, helping them grow up to become confident healthy people. For those young people that need ongoing specialist help we need to ensure a smooth transition to adult services.
“We want to make sure that our vision and outcomes for the next six years fit with those of the Scottish Government’s 20:20 Vision and are areas the people of Lothian want to see us focusing investment and resources on. I hope people take this opportunity to give us their views.”
The consultation documents can be accessed online at: http://www.nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk/OurOrganisation/Consultations/Current/Pages/default.aspx
By email: candypstrategy@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk, or alternatively by phoning, 0131 465 5549 to request a copy.
You can also complete the survey at the following link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NHSLothianCandYPStrategy
