NHS South, Central & West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) will take responsibility for the East Midlands Child Health Information Service (CHIS) from December 2023 after winning the tender for a six-year contract. NHS England Midlands (East) has commissioned SCW to create a single CHIS service that combines six existing CHIS providers across Derbyshire (including Glossop), Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, and Northamptonshire so that all child health data is managed safely and securely in one place.
SCW CHIS will ensure that all children aged 0-19 years across East Midlands continue to have an accurate immunisation and screening record, as well as receiving appointment invitations and reminders in accordance with NHS immunisation and national health screening programmes.
The SCW CHIS is a digital service supporting the effective delivery of the Healthy Child Programme 0-19 years, currently serving a total population of 2.4 million children. The service enables an increase in the uptake in health screenings and vaccinations as well as supporting health care professionals in their delivery of clinical interventions.
Access to information and effective information services have a key role to play in supporting and improving outcomes for children’s health and wellbeing as well as in the protection and safeguarding of children.
The NHS England and the National Information Board’s Healthy Children Transforming Child Health Information, published in 2016, aims to deliver a fully digital and interoperable service to achieve two key objectives:
- Knowing where every child (0-19) is and how healthy they are; and
- Providing appropriate access to information for all involved in the care of children.
Robust, and fit for purpose CHIS are considered the cornerstone to achieving these objectives. SCW’s philosophy of care and passion for, “Knowing where every child is and their immunisation and screening status”, drives our service delivery model and reflects our determination to ensure that no child is missed.
Sue Trinder, Director of CHIS comments: “This is very exciting news. I am immensely proud of the SCW CHIS team who work very hard to deliver a well-valued service. The work we will be delivering in East Midlands is an expansion of our current service delivery across, Cheshire & Merseyside, along with the South Central and South West regions. Our focus now is to ensure a quick and seamless transfer and to continue driving improvements which impact on the care and welfare of the children.”
Stephanie Cook – Head of Vaccination and Screening Public Health Commissioning, NHS England – Midlands Region (East) comments: ‘Maintaining accurate records of vaccinations and screening in childhood is so important for families as well as medical professionals. We have been impressed with the digital system that SCW will introduce and look forward to working with them.’
For more information on our Child Health Information Services please contact SCW CHIS Director,
