NHS South, Central & West Commissioning Support Unit (NHS SCW) will take responsibility for the Greater Manchester Child Health Information Service (CHIS) from December 2023 after winning the tender for a six-year contract. NHS England (Greater Manchester) has commissioned NHS SCW to create a single CHIS service that combines three existing CHIS providers across ten boroughs (Bury, Rochdale, Oldham, Salford, Bolton, Manchester, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, and Wigan), so that all child health data is managed safely and securely in one place.
NHS SCW CHIS will ensure that all children aged 0-19 years across Greater Manchester 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 NHS SCW CHIS is a digital service that supports the effective delivery of the Healthy Child Programme 0-19 years for more than 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 Greater Manchester 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.”
Dr Helen Wall, practising GP and Clinical Director for Population Health, NHS Greater Manchester, said: “In Greater Manchester we are committed to improving the health and wellbeing across our city region. A single Child Health Information Service will support this goal, helping us to ensure that our children and young people have a good start in life.
For more information on our Child Health Information Services please contact NHS SCW CHIS Director,
