26/11 Healthy start rolls out to North West

Healthy start rolls out to North West


Families from low income households in the North West will benefit from a new scheme from Monday 27 November, giving free milk and fresh fruit and vegetables to children and mums-to-be.

Healthy Start is replacing the Welfare Food Scheme, first brought in during the Second World War to help combat food shortages. Like the Welfare Food Scheme, Healthy Start will provide people who qualify with vouchers to buy milk and infant formula. However, the new scheme will provide greater flexibility, also allowing parents to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. Free vitamin supplements will remain an important part of the new scheme.

The new vouchers will be worth £2.80 each. Qualifying pregnant women and children over one and under four will get one voucher every week, and children under one year old will get two vouchers a week. Vouchers can be spent with participating retailers - including small businesses and milkmen as well as larger supermarkets and chemists.

Around 20,000 individual retailers across the UK have already signed up to participate in Healthy Start, more than had signed up to the Welfare Food Scheme. Retailers include food co-operatives, box schemes, markets, greengrocers and milk roundsmen as well as supermarkets and chemists.

Public Health Minister Caroline Flint said:

"Poor diet can have a real impact on people's health. We want people to have the best possible opportunity to eat healthily. But for families in low income households, this is sometimes easier said than done. This new scheme will not only provide greater choice of healthy food, but will also mean that children can get milk and fresh fruit and vegetables from the cradle up, helping to give them the best possible start in life."

Over half a million low income households across England currently benefit from the Welfare Food Scheme. Eligible families will automatically move over to Healthy Start, but for the first time the scheme will also be open to all pregnant women under the age of 18 - a group known to be nutritionally vulnerable and at risk of having babies with a low birth weight. Pregnant women and children under four in families receiving certain benefits will also be eligible to receive the vouchers.

Health professionals working with pregnant women and families with young children will have an important role in the scheme, providing them with advice and information on healthy eating and breastfeeding and supporting their applications for Healthy Start.

Deana Vearncombe, Assistant Director Public Health at North Lancashire PCT, who works with Healthy Start families said:
The Healthy Start scheme will be an important tool in addressing health inequalities. It provides a great opportunity for public health professionals such as health visitors and others, to address issues of food and nutrition and its impact from the earliest start in life. It enables health care staff to build on the basics of breastfeeding, increasing vitamin supplementation where required, and including a range of foods at the appropriate time. This work has to be targeted at those groups who healthcare professionals have often found the greatest challenge in engaging with on these issues. Healthy Start provides that opportunity.

The scheme is already running in Devon and Cornwall. An evaluation of this first phase showed retailers were eager to get involved. With the number of shops and supermarkets still on the rise, Healthy Start will be even more convenient for those who receive the vouchers.

Debbie Clarke, spokesperson for Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc, said:
Morrisons stores nationwide are pleased to accept Healthy Start vouchers. We believe the scheme is a great way of encouraging customers to eat a balanced diet. As the vouchers have a fixed monetary value, it makes claiming a lot easier for customers and staff. In addition, the scheme offers more choice as the vouchers can be used to buy milk, infant formula milk, fruit and vegetables. So far it has been well-received throughout numerous Morrisons stores.

Pregnant women and families on the new scheme will also be able to use the Healthy Start website to check if they qualify, download an application form, and find local shops participating in the scheme. The website also offers recipe ideas, tips for eating healthily during pregnancy and even recipe suggestions for weaning.

26/11 About The North West

Around one in seven English people call the North West home. Made up of five counties – Cumbria, Lancashire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Cheshire – it is the only English region to have borders with two other countries; Scotland lies to the north and Wales to the west.

The North West economy is comparable to European countries such as Greece, Finland or Portugal. Traditionally, the region was a manufacturing base and it grew rich on the back of the industrial revolution.

Now pockets of prosperity sit cheek by jowl with some of the UK’s most poverty stricken postcodes. One in five of England’s 100 most deprived areas can be found in the North West. Life expectancy is the lowest of any English region.

The region is rich in its diversity, with sizeable Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities in Greater Manchester and Lancashire and strong Chinese and West African representation on Merseyside.

The North West has two major conurbations, both steeped in history and only 35 miles apart.

Liverpool, famously the birthplace of the Beatles, is the region’s major port and in 2008 will be crowned the European Capital of Culture. It is also up for designation as a World Heritage site, which would rank it alongside the Taj Mahal and the Grand Canyon.

Manchester cemented its international reputation with the widely acclaimed 2002 Commonwealth Games. Its international airport is the UK’s largest outside London.

Carlisle is the region’s northern-most city, while Crewe sits close to its southern boundary. At its narrowest, near Carnforth in Lancashire, the region is less than 20 miles wide.

The North West encompasses two national parks – the Lake District and High Peak section of the Peak District – and more than a dozen universities.

It is the home of the motorway. The nation’s first, the Preston bypass, was opened in 1959. Now the M6 is its major North-South route for motorists, which is shadowed by the West Coast Main Line rail route.

The region’s viewers, listeners and readers can pick up their news from three television stations, 30 radio stations and more than 85 evening and weekly papers.

26/11 Fire Minister visits flagship Cheshire community fire safety projects

Fire Minister visits flagship Cheshire community fire safety projects


Fire Minister Angela Smith was in Winsford today (Thursday 16 November) to see for herself why Cheshire is one of the country's flagship fire and rescue services for fire safety.

Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service have led the way in the areas of fire prevention and protection and emergency response.

The Minister said:

"Research shows that over half of all fire fatalities occur before fire and rescue services are called out. Stopping fires in the first place will therefore save more lives and make communities safer, particularly the most vulnerable. Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service are doing excellent work with partner agencies to ensure they reach those most at risk from fire.

"I especially congratulate the fire and rescue service for its pioneering DASH (Disabled and Safer Home) programme which extended additional home checks for people with disabilities to cover issues such as escape, access and safety."

Cheshire pioneered new ways of targeting the most vulnerable with Home Fire Safety Checks by using marketing research to identify areas with a higher than average incidence of home fires. Over 20,000 checks have already been carried out in the 6 months since April.

The fire and rescue service has played a key role in running a highly innovative programme to promote safer driving among 16-21 year-olds.

Drive Survive was launched in 2000 to educate young drivers about the benefits of safe driving. Participants are shown the wreckage of cars mangled in traffic collisions, watch hard-hitting videos with a graphic view of the aftermath of accidents and take part in lively discussions with fire, police and health professionals.

The course, run in partnership with North West Ambulance Service, Cheshire Constabulary and the Accident & Emergency Countess of Chester NHS Trust, covers all aspects of road safety including speeding, failure to wear a seatbelt and the use of mobile phones while driving. More than 80 courses have run, providing vital training to 3500 young people.

Angela Smith said:

"This is very encouraging news but there is still more work to be done - especially with young people in our communities from poorer backgrounds. They are more vulnerable to death and injury by fire and more likely to be responsible for a large proportion of deliberate fires

"That is why, at the end of last month (October), I launched the national strategy for children and young people, which puts existing work done by the fire and rescue service in this area on a more formal footing.

"This new strategy feeds into over-arching Government initiatives by enabling the fire and rescue service to make a stronger contribution to tackling disadvantage, reducing health inequalities and preventing crime, by targeting children and young people at risk of offending or in deprived neighbourhoods."