Last month (Saturday 29 November) Sparkbrook Children’s Zone brought local families together for a vibrant Family Health Day at Birmingham Central Mosque.
The event, funded by Young Peoples' Education Community CIC, offered local families health checks, social support and fun activities for children and young people as well as a hot healthy lunch free of charge.
Sparkbrook Children’s Zone is a pioneering integrated health and social care service funded by NHS England and delivered in partnership with GSA, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and South Doc Services in a local Primary Care Network of nine GP surgeries.
Simarjeet Kaur, Programme Manager at Sparkbrook Children’s Zone, said: “We know that health inequalities are a big challenge within the communities we serve. We have designed our Family Health Day events to reduce barriers which prevent access to both health and social care in a fun and family-friendly setting.
“Events like these are vital in tackling health inequalities and building stronger, healthier communities. We look forward to continuing this work with our partners next year.”
The event was attended by over 150 people from over eight different ethnic groups. Over 80% of the households that attended live in areas that are in the top 10% of deprivation nationally, according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation.
The Family Fun Day was supported by more partner organisations offering advice for issues which occur in family life such as bereavement, SEND, addiction, sexual health. The event supported the whole family with receiving health checks, which included our Sparkbrook Children’s Zone Medics conducting 62 Well Child Checks*, and our NHS health partners providing health checks for adults such as including checking blood pressure, and giving cervical cancer screenings.
To ensure the day was child friendly and enjoyable for all face painting, fruit bowl workshops and dance workshops were available.
Sparkbrook Children’s Zone provide four clinics a week in Balsall Heath, Highgate, Sparkbrook, and Fernley medical centres which are accessible for under 16s registered with a GP in the Balsall Heath, Moseley and Sparkhill PCN.
Since 2022, 1,494 families have received support from the medical staff within Sparkbrook Children’s Zone Clinics, and of this figure, 798 of them have also received Early Help support after their medical appointment.