Debate contribution: Children's Year 1 Health Review

Debate contribution by Miss Órlaithí Flynn on 10 March 2025.

MLA

Miss Órlaithí Flynn

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

10 March 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Children's Year 1 Health Review

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4841493

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I support the motion and the amendment. I thank colleagues for proposing the motion, which emphasises the critical importance of the one-year-old health review and the indispensable role of health visitors in ensuring our children's well-being. I had already prepared my speech, but on Friday night, as part of the celebrations to mark International Women's Day, I attended a lecture by Dr Avni Amin at Queen's University. She has worked for the past 30 years in the World Health Organization on issues specifically around ending violence against women and girls. Some of her remarks linked to how health systems and health workers can help deal with that issue. I am digressing a wee bit, but we talk about the importance of health visitors in ensuring the well-being of our babies and children; they also play a critical role in supporting the well-being of the mothers whom they go out to visit in their homes. On Friday night, the contributors talked about our context: sadly, since 2020, 25 women have been violently murdered. When a health worker goes out to a mother's home, at that particular time when she has a young baby, it is a key opportunity to pick up on whether any violence is occurring in that home. The broader conversation on what training we can offer to health and social care workers, particularly health visitors, to try to pick up women who may be suffering violence in the home is one that we can maybe have at a later stage in the Health Committee to bring the issue to the Minister's attention. I return, with apologies, to the specific issue of the motion on the well-being of our children and the importance of our health visitors going into homes. I want to concentrate on my constituency of West Belfast, which, as the Minister will know, is similar to other areas in that these issues are particularly pressing there. West Belfast faces significant health challenges that demand urgent attention. I have to say that the recent inclusion of parts of the Falls Road and Shankill Road in the Minister's Live Better programme is absolutely a step in the right direction in trying to improve health outcomes for our communities. That initiative seeks to ensure that every child, regardless of background, has an equal opportunity to grow up healthy and thrive. However, much more needs to be done. The fact that 15% of children across the North missed their one-year-old health review in 2023-24 is deeply concerning. Even more alarming is the figure that the Southern Health and Social Care Trust mentioned: nearly half of the children there missed that vital check. The stark postcode lottery means that children's access to essential health services is being determined by where they live, which is unacceptable. In West Belfast, where the socioeconomic challenges are pronounced, the inequalities are even more severe. Higher rates of poverty, unemployment and limited access to healthcare only exacerbate the problem. That is why programmes such as Sure Start are so vital: they provide essential support for families, improving child development and well-being, particularly in disadvantaged communities. The evidence shows that Sure Start reduces hospital admissions and enhances school readiness, making a difference in children's lives. However, nearly two decades of British austerity has led, sadly, to the closure of many Sure Start centres, threatening the progress that has been made. That cannot continue. It is imperative that the Minister of Health works closely with all trusts to ensure universal and timely access to health reviews for all our children, with a specific focus on areas such as West Belfast and the Southern Health and Social Care Trust region, which face the greatest challenges.

616 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:06 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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