Early years: promoting health and wellbeing in under-5s

NICE has released a new quality standard to ensure young children are given a healthy start to their lives. The standard focuses on identifying risk, and the importance of speech and language when caring for a young child.
It covers poor social and emotional wellbeing, which increases the likelihood of antisocial behaviour and mental health problems, drug or alcohol misuse, and teenage pregnancy in later life. The objective of the standard is to reduce incidence of infant mortality, the proportion of five-year-old children free from dental decay, and the mortality rate from preventable causes.

It also states that health practitioners should ensure that family members and carers are involved in the decision-making process about investigations, treatment and care unless there is a specific reason why they should not be involved.