The North East and North Cumbria are challenged with high and increasing rates of admission for children and young people (CYP) aged 10-18 with asthma, it also has a higher population (29.4%) of CYP living in the most deprived areas of England than the national average (20.2%).
Locally in the NENC footprint we have undertaken a programme of work to support improvement of asthma care in the community, which includes the recruitment of a team of community asthma advisors and pharmacy asthma advisors who are undertaking education and coordination across the systems, including engagement with
- LA Education colleagues as well as
- school heads and
- SENCOs,
- primary care,
- universal services, and
- hospital and community pharmacy.
Part of this is the exciting, multi-agency development of an Asthma Friendly Schools Framework which has been piloted in approximately 13 primary education settings in the NENC footprint.
Children and Young Person’s Transformation Agenda
An Asthma Leadership Group (ALG) has been formed by the Child Health and Wellbeing Network (CHWN) to ensure the key deliverables associated with The National Asthma Care Bundle are met across the whole Education, Health, Social Care and Universal and Community Service. The aims are to:
- Reduce avoidable harm from Asthma (control and reduce the risk of asthma attacks)
- Improve quality of life
- Whole system approach (environment, education, personalised care, preventative medicine and improved accuracy of diagnosis)
The reports provide details of:
- The research methods employed as part of the scoping exercise and reports on project milestones as well as identifying positive practice.
- The programme has identified seven key recommendations for improvement relating to pathways, referrals, process and procedural development and training across the healthcare system.
- In addition several of the recommendations relate to the wider system for example priorities for pharmacy and education settings and highlight the potential for wider system working.
Training resources
Training compentencies and training offer is available at Asthma (Children and young people) - elearning for healthcare (e-lfh.org.uk)
Showcasing some of our work
There has been significant interest from ICBs from across England in relation to the Beat Asthma Friendly Schools (BAFS) programme and Community Asthma Advisors were invited to present a poster at the RCPCH conference in Birmingham in March 24 to showcase the BAFS innovation.
Resources and useful links
Presentations:
The group have created two presentations to support and raise awareness of the National Asthma Care Bundle and to provide an update of the work so far. They are seeking to engage partners in the roll out and establishment of systemwide improvements in relation to asthma care and specifically asthma care in the community.
For more information please contact Louise Dauncey via the Child Health and Wellbeing Network (nencicb.northernchildnetwork@nhs.net)
Presentation links: Schools Presentation short, Primary Care TITO Presentation Short Version
