ChiMat About Us
The Child and Maternal Health Observatory (ChiMat) is a national public health observatory established to provide wide-ranging, authoritative data, evidence and practice related to children's, young people's and maternal health.
This specialist observatory is part of the Yorkshire and Humber Public Health Observatory (YHPHO) which is a member of the Association of Public Health Observatories (APHO).
Our objectives:
- To support a co-ordinated national approach to the development and delivery of child and maternal health intelligence.
- To enable easy access to high quality, up to date information and knowledge to support timely health service decision making.
- To provide a single gateway and signposting service to a wide range of evidence, reliable health intelligence, expertise and support.
What we do
- Provide an authoritative source of data, information and evidence on child and maternal health.
- Offer advice and training in the use of child and maternal health data for decision-making.
- Develop online tools for presenting and analysing data and intelligence to support commissioning of services.
- Support knowledge management though signposting key policy documents, research, sources of information and expertise, and sharing good practice.
- Produce analytical reports.
- Commission, support and undertake research projects.
- Coordinate the development of new indicators and metrics to support delivery of key national objectives.
- Provide evidence and support for the Child Health Strategy
Who is ChiMat for?
ChiMat works with a range of stakeholders, including: children's and maternity leads, commissioners, service improvement leads and performance managers in health and local government roles, government regulatory bodies and government departments, clinicians and health professionals.
Background
ChiMat was established as a pilot project in October 2007 as a collaboration between Yorkshire and Humber Public Health Observatory, Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP) Children, Young People and Families Programme, the Information Centre for Health and Social Care and the Healthcare Commission and is funded by the Department of Health. It launched as the National Observatory for Child and Maternal Health in October 2008.
To read more about the role of Public Health Observatories and the Association of Public Health Observatories (APHO), see the APHO website.