Child health pre-school review coverage
2023 to 2024

About this release

This annual release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides statistics on the coverage of child health reviews offered to preschool children as part of the nationally agreed child health programme. The ‘coverage’ achieved for a particular review means the proportion of children becoming eligible for that review in the year (for example turning 6 weeks of age) that received their review, and had the result recorded in the national child health information system.

Statistics are shown by NHS Board and council area of residence, deprivation level and sex. Information is provided for children becoming eligible for each of the reviews in 2002/03 (or later if the review has been added to the schedule more recently) to 2023/24. This release includes new analysis on coverage of pre-school vision screening and coverage by ethnicity.

Main points

• Of children becoming eligible for review in 2023/24, across all reviews, coverage was stable or slightly improved compared with the previous year.

Bar chart showing coverage of Pre-school reviews from 2019/20 to 2023/24

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Coverage of Pre-School reviews 2019/20 to 2023/24

• Coverage of the 4-5 year review (75%) is comparable with the previous year at the same time point, allowing for data lag (see technical report).
• Coverage varies by NHS Board and review. It is generally high at the Health Visitor First Visit (majority of areas >95%), but there is greater variation for the 4-5 year review and pre-school vision screening (range 54% to 93% and 53% to 91% respectively).
• Coverage of reviews for children eligible in 2023/24 was generally similar across levels of socio-economic deprivation, with coverage slightly higher among those living in the most deprived areas for the First Visit and 4-5 year review, but higher in the least deprived areas for 27-30 month review and pre-school vision screening.
• Coverage of pre-school vision screening in 2023/24 was slightly higher among children of White Scottish ethnicity (84%) than other groups (range 76-82%).

Background

All children in Scotland are offered a series of child health reviews between birth and starting school as part of the nationally agreed child health programme. Reviews are provided by Health Visitors, and pre-school vision screening by orthoptists. They include ongoing assessment of children’s growth, health, and development and wider family wellbeing. They offer an opportunity for provision of health promotion and parenting support, and also identify children and families who would benefit from additional ongoing services. It is important that all children receive the reviews that are offered. This helps to ensure that any problems are identified and support provided as quickly as possible, allowing children to thrive.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be in April 2026.