Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help improve the understanding of first-line healthcare professionals of atypical motor development in children.

The Royal College of General Practitioners has produced an e-learning module, Motor development in children: assessment and red flags. This module is designed to help general practitioners (GPs) assess children’s motor development. It identifies opportunities to perform a brief developmental assessment, describes an approach to assessing children of different ages, and highlights what typical and atypical motor development looks like, including important red flags. It also advises GPs on what steps to take if they do have concerns about a child’s motor development. Further details about the module are available at the following link:

https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/info.php?id=601

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has also produced an e-learning module on neuromuscular disorders, which includes guidance to clinicians on how to apply a clear, structured approach to assessing motor development in children aged zero to five years old, and how to use their skills and knowledge to recognise atypical motor development. Further details about the module are available at the following link:

https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/recognising-neuromuscular-disorders-online-learning.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance on developmental follow-up of children and young people born preterm, which is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng72

The NICE guidance recognises that children who are born preterm are at an increased risk of developmental problems, including motor function problems and cerebral palsy.

The NICE has also produced a quality standard on cerebral palsy in children and young people and the guidance, Cerebral palsy in under 25s: assessment and management. The NICE quality standard includes specific reference to referral for children with delayed motor milestones. Further information on the quality standard on cerebral palsy in children and young people and the guidance on cerebral palsy in under 25-year-olds is available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs162

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng62

The NICE guidance also recommends using the General Movement Assessment during routine neonatal follow-up assessments for children between zero and three months who are at increased risk of developing cerebral palsy. It recommends that all children with delayed motor milestones should be referred to a child development service for further assessment. Additionally, the guidance states that clinicians should recognise that the most common delayed motor milestones in children with cerebral palsy are:

• not sitting by eight months, corrected for gestational age;
• not walking by 18 months, corrected for gestational age; and
• early asymmetry of hand function, hand preference, before one year, corrected for gestational age.