Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she expects every child to have a personal child health record.

Every baby is allocated a National Health Service number as soon as their birth is notified by the attending midwife. This is linked to the NHS number of the birth mother. Once registered at a general practice (GP) surgery, a baby will also have a GP record. This is the first digital health record which most babies will receive, and is linked to their existing NHS number.

The aim of the Digital Personal Child Health Record programme is not to create a new, standalone record, but to use existing infrastructure to facilitate better coordination between existing records. This will support families in accessing the information they need when they need it, and for professionals to offer more informed, joined-up care.

We have improved access to relevant content and information about maternity, early years, and Start for Life, via the NHS App, and made it easier for families to register a new baby digitally at a GP practice. Over 2000 practices have already adopted the solution, which consists of an online registration service and a new paper form. GPs will be contractually required to adopt and offer both formats, from October 2024.

We have also prepared the launch of a pilot programme which will allow anyone with parental responsibility to apply digitally for access to their child’s record, for any child up to 13 years old. This has now launched in 70 GPs in England, and will make it much easier for parents to manage a child's digital health record. For example, once rolled out across England, this will enable the parent or carer to view their baby’s digital GP record, book appointments, and request prescriptions, all via the NHS App.