Missing NHS information on households getting assist with meals and nutritional vitamins raises alarm
Crucial data on low-income families and pregnant women getting help with food and vitamins has been removed from the NHS website.
Raising alarm at the issue, campaigners have today written to Health Secretary Wes Streeting saying the Healthy Start programme is in need of “urgent attention”.
The scheme provides women more than 10 weeks pregnant or those with children under four a pre-paid card to buy essentials such as vitamins, fresh fruit, and milk formula. Those eligible can receive up to a maximum of £8.50 each week for children up to one and £4.25 for kids between the ages of one and four.
But the Co-operative Party has warned data spanning 18 months showing the number of eligible people who have taken up the support have been erased from NHS figures. Labour’s sister party said it is now unclear how many families are missing out and said the Tories’ failures mean the scheme “is not meeting its full potential”.
In his letter to Mr Streeting, the General Secretary of the Co-Operative Party Joe Fortune,said : “These numbers have not just been removed for this year, but for every month since January 2023. This lack of data makes it impossible to understand what proportion of eligible children are receiving this vital programme.
“It also means that local authorities lack the information they need to understand what further promotion of the scheme is needed in their areas to reach eligible families.” The Co-operative Party is concerned that this will lead to a worsening of existing issues with low uptake, especially in parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland where uptake has been a longstanding issue.”
Requesting a review of the scheme, he added: “Healthy Start should also be a cornerstone of this Labour government’s opportunity mission and meeting its aims of boosting child development and giving every child a healthy start. However, failures by successive Conservative governments to grip the scheme mean it is not meeting its full potential.”
A Government spokesman said:“The Healthy Start scheme helps thousands of families on very low incomes with the cost of healthy foods and we are committed to this as part of our promise to create the healthiest generation of children ever.
“We agree with campaigners it is vital the information provided is accurate and reliable so efforts to promote uptake are targeted where they are most needed. Families can still access this scheme but an error with the data means publication of uptake has been temporarily paused and previous figures removed while this is fixed.”
