Data drives children’s winter warmth project

Children living in fuel poverty in St Helens are being given vital health support thanks to new use of data.

Warm Homes for Young Lungs, run by Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, uses population health data to identify and support children aged two to seven with a respiratory condition.

Health Innovation North West Coast and NHS Cheshire and Merseyside coordinated the project which has helped 156 children at risk of developing breathing problems and worsening respiratory conditions since it was launched in December 2023.

Data is used to identify patients who are likely to become ill or deteriorate if not helped at an early stage and give them the information they need to better look after their own health. They are also referred to weekly in-person clinics with a respiratory nurse specialist.

The team have been using this platform to identify families living in the region’s most deprived areas and families with children who have been prescribed Salbutamol and admitted to hospital in the last 12 months. 

Most children have had changes in their medication and all children received respiratory management plans and inhaler technique advice. 

Sarah Southern, Specialist Respiratory Nurse at Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “This has been the most worthwhile project I have been a part of in my 18-year career as a nurse.

“I feel very privileged to be able to offer a service like this to extremely vulnerable families who deserve to live in a warm home, free from damp and mould. These families are very aware that their living conditions could be affecting their child’s respiratory health and they have been extremely grateful for the help and support we offer in the clinic.

"Lots of families aren’t aware of the household support payments that they can access, or the support available from the voluntary sector, so simply giving them that information has made quite an impact. 

 “There have also been changes to practice based on learnings during this project. For example, all families are now asked about damp and mould when they are seen by respiratory nurses. This is helping us further pinpoint the families that might be struggling with fuel poverty and poor living conditions, which can seriously exacerbate childhood respiratory conditions.”

Lucy Malcolm, Senior Digital Transformation and Clinical Improvement Manager for NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, said: “This is a really exciting project, which has brought lots of partners together across the NHS, Local Authority and the voluntary sector. The data is enabling us to identify the children most in need of support. The pathway of interventions which follows then uses a family-based approach to improve their health as well as their social and financial wellbeing.   

“The success of this project is down to the level of collaboration across St Helens, the willingness of people to work differently and a population health management focus. We are delighted with the positive impact this is having for the families involved.”

The plan is to for the Warm Homes for Young Lungs programme to continue in St Helens, and for the approach to be replicated in other areas of Cheshire and Merseyside. 

The population health platform was created by population health and shared care record specialists, Graphnet Health.

The work forms part of Cheshire and Merseyside's award-winning project to mitigate the impact of fuel poverty on patients with respiratory conditions. The project was originally funded via NHS England’s Innovation for Healthcare Inequalities Programme and was supported by Health Innovation North West Coast.

A toolkit was developed as part of the project to support colleagues who want to roll out similar schemes in other areas, and has recently been refreshed.