Children and Young People’s Health Services in Aberdeenshire
Within Aberdeenshire, a wide range of NHS Grampian services support children and young people from pregnancy through to adulthood. The Aberdeenshire Health & Social Care Partnership (AHSCP) retains responsibility for key community child health services, specifically Health Visiting and School Nursing, with clinical governance through the Children’s Board. The Board provides assurance to NHS Grampian on child health themes.
The Grampian Child Health Commissioner maintains an overview of services relevant to Aberdeenshire and co‑leads priority work with the AHSCP and Community Planning Partnerships, including early years and parenting support, and actions to mitigate child poverty, aligned with GIRFEC’s focus on early help and interventions.
Maternity: Local maternity care for Aberdeenshire families is delivered through community midwifery and the Community Midwifery Units (CMUs) in Peterhead and Inverurie, with antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care, including breastfeeding support and parent education.
Health Visiting:
What families can expect: Health Visitors deliver the Universal Health Visiting Pathway (UHVP), a core home visiting programme of 11 contacts from the antenatal period (around 32–34 weeks) until school entry, including formal child health and development reviews at 13-15 months, 27-30 months and 4-5 years. The emphasis is on home based, relationship centred support and early identification of needs, with escalation and coordination of help when required.
Named Person and GIRFEC: In pre‑school years, the Health Visitor normally fulfils the GIRFEC Named Person role, acting as a clear point of contact for parents and a coordinator of support when concerns arise, while following national information‑sharing practice guidance.
Action Plan alignment (2025–2035): Scotland’s Health Visiting Action Plan sets the national direction for the next decade, prioritising workforce capacity, skills and confidence; clarity of role and remit; and strong system leadership to enable consistent, high quality delivery of UHVP in every board area. It also underpins the Scottish Government commitments to increase uptake of child health reviews and reduce developmental concerns by 2030, key metrics we monitor locally.
Vaccination and Immunisation: Routine childhood and school age vaccinations are now coordinated and delivered by dedicated vaccination services rather than within Health Visiting and School Nursing services, with central appointment systems and delivery in vaccination centres or schools. Families are invited directly by the health board and can contact the local vaccination hub to reschedule or catch-up missed doses. This reflects the Vaccination Transformation Programme and current national arrangements.
In Grampian, the Vaccination Service manages life course immunisation delivery across Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray, supported by local operational arrangements.
Health Visitors in Local Systems: Aberdeenshire Health Visitors support the Central Early Years Forum and all 17 Local GIRFEC Groups. Health representatives, typically Health Visitors, School Nurses, Midwives and HV Team Leaders, chair GIRFEC groups on a two year rotational basis with partner agencies to drive multi‑agency planning and support. Team Leaders also support local initiatives across public protection, early literacy (e.g., Bookbug), infant feeding improvement, digital health promotion, HENRY and professional forums, aligned to the Children and Young People’s Services Plan priorities and governance.
School Nursing (Refocused Role): School Nurses in Scotland now focus their specialist public health contribution on ten nationally agreed priority areas, with an emphasis on prevention, early intervention and targeted support for vulnerable children and young people:
- Emotional health and wellbeing
- Substance use
- Child protection
- Youth justice
- Domestic abuse
- Sexual health and wellbeing
- Care experienced children
- Homelessness
- Transitions
- Young carers
This refocused role is part of the wider Transforming Roles programme and is designed to reduce the impact of health inequalities and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
School Nursing teams work in partnership with education and wider services, offering direct intervention, coordinating multi‑agency plans and facilitating access to specialist help where needed, fully consistent with GIRFEC and Aberdeenshire’s Children and Young People’s Services Plan.
Allied and Specialist Support:
Speech & Language Therapy (SLT): SLT provides advice, early intervention and targeted support for speech, language and communication needs, working with families and professionals around the child to help them reach their potential in daily activities. (Local access routes and referral options are communicated via NHS Grampian and partner websites.)
Public Protection (Midwifery): The Public Protection Midwife role promotes staff training and awareness, e.g. around alcohol in pregnancy and supports safe, trauma informed practice.
Specialist Child Protection Nursing: Two Aberdeenshire Specialist Nurses for Child Protection provide consultation, supervision and case advice across complex child protection matters. The school age specialist nurse also acts as a single point of contact for children educated at home who have never been registered with a school.
Infant Feeding: Aberdeenshire’s Infant Feeding Co‑ordinator leads the training, audit and improvement programme that sustains Gold UNICEF UK BFI standards, protecting the therapeutic relationship between HVs and families and enabling informed feeding choices.Perinatal & Infant Mental Health (Specialist HV): The developing specialist Health Visitor role champions infant mental health practice, supports Solihull informed approaches across Grampian and offers reflective supervision, aligning with national infant best practice guidance promoted through professional networks.