Asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, oral health and mental health have been identified as the five key clinical areas of health inequality for children and young people.
NHS England’s has published an infographic outlining its plan on reducing healthcare inequalities for children and young people using the Core20PLUS5 approach designed to support ICSs drive improvements.
The Core20 refers to the most deprived 20% of the national population as identified by the national Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). PLUS refers to the ICSs chosen population groups experiencing poorer-than-average health access, experience and/or outcomes, who may not be captured within the Core20 and would benefit from a tailored healthcare approach such as inclusion health groups – an umbrella term used to describe people who are socially excluded.
The five key clinical areas and targets for children and young people are:
Asthma: Address over reliance on reliever medications and decrease the number of asthma attacks.
Diabetes: Increase access to real-time continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps in the most deprived quintiles and from ethnic minority backgrounds and increase proportion of children and young people with Type 2 diabetes receiving annual health checks.
Epilepsy: Increase access to epilepsy specialist nurses and ensure access in the first year of care for those with a learning disability or autism.
Oral health: Address the backlog for tooth extractions in hospital for the under 10s.
Mental health: Improve access rates to children and young people’s mental health services for 0-17 year olds, for certain ethnic groups, age, gender and deprivation.
The Core20PLUS5 for adults was published in November 2021 and it’s five key clinical areas and targets are:
Maternity: Ensuring continuity of care for women from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities and from the most deprived groups. This model of care requires appropriate staffing levels to be implemented safely.
Severe mental illness (SMI): Ensuring annual health checks for 60% of those living with SMI (bringing SMI in line with the success seen in learning disabilities).
Chronic respiratory disease: A clear focus on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) driving up uptake of COVID, flu and pneumonia vaccines to reduce infective exacerbations and emergency hospital admissions due to those exacerbations.
Early cancer diagnosis: 75% of cases diagnosed at stage 1 or 2 by 2028.
Hypertension case-finding and optimal management and lipid optimal management: To allow for interventions to optimise blood pressure and minimise the risk of myocardial infarction and stroke.
