Promoting health of looked after children

doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7257.381

BMJ 2000;321:381 ( 5 August )

Letters

Promoting health of looked after children

Monitoring and documentation should be improved

These children need tailor made care plans

Monitoring and documentation should be improved

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Looked after children are among the most vulnerable in our society, with a higher level of health, mental health, andhealth promotion needs than others of the same age, as discussedby Polnay and Ward.¹ Local authorities should ensure propermonitoring of their morbidity and developmental progress, whichideally should be documented in the annual medicalreports.

In April this year the records of 60 looked after children in the borough where I work were surveyed to find out whether theirhealth needs have been adequately addressed. All of them wereunder 5 years old when they were placed in care, and the recordswere selected randomly from a total of around 150 children ofthat age group who are currently under care. Twenty one of the60 were placed with one of their biological parents, while therest were either with their relatives (11) or with other carers(28).

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