Quick guide: Child Health Profiles
1. What are the system requirements?
To view the Profiles you must have Adobe Flash Player version 9 (or higher) installed on your machine. To install Flash player visit Adobe's Flash install page. You can test your browser support for Flash by clicking on the Adobe Flash version test page.
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2. How do I display data?
When you first open the profiles no data are shown. To view the data you need to select your area as follows:
Step 1. Click the Region button on the top right of the screen and select your region from the list that appears. This list will disappear when you have made your selection.
Step 2. Click the Area button. This displays a list of the areas in your selected region. As you hover over the areas the data are displayed in the profile. Click the area you want to select and then click the Area button again to hide the menu. To display data for more than one area hold down the Ctrl key and select multiple areas.
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3. What do the different elements of the profiles mean?
Click on the elements (highlighted in red) on the diagram below to find out more about them.
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3.1 Metadata button
The Metadata button allows you to see details about the chosen indicator, eg how it is calculated, source of the data, date of publication etc. Click on the Metadata button to open a drop down list of all indicators. To view the metadata click the icon 
next to the indicator.
3.2 Print button
The Print button opens a print dialogue box allowing you to print the profiles. Certain software will also allow you to print to a file - this will be part of your printer set up.
This will print the profiles as currently displayed on your screen. You can move the profile around before printing by using the popup menu in the top right hand corner 
and by clicking on the borders.
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3.3 Labels
3.3.1 Area shows the name of the currently selected PCT(s) or local authority.
3.3.2 Number is the actual number of occurrences related to the value. For example in the breastfeeding profiles the Value for the “Caesarean Section (%)” is the % of total births resulting in a caesarean section where the Number is the total number of Caesarean sections in that area.
3.3.3 Value is the value of the indicator for the selected area. This might be the percentage or rate (dependent on the measure and definition given in the metadata).
3.3.4 Eng. Avg. shows the England average value for the indicator.
3.4 Spine Chart
3.4.1 England Best and Worst shows the best and worst Values across England.
The higher value can be on either the left or right of the spine chart depending on the indicator eg with the indicator for “Tooth decay (5)” the best value is a low one so the highest England Value is to the left of the line, whereas “Physically active school children” the best value is high so the highest England Value is to the right of the line.
3.4.2 Current Performance shows how the area is performing compared to the England average (shown as the red line on the chart).
Red dot - this means that the selected area is performing significantly worse than the England average.
Green dot - this means that the selected area is performing significantly better than the England average.
Yellow dot - this means that the selected area is not significantly different from the England average.
White dot - this means the significance could not be calculated.
Grey diamond - this shows the regional average.
The grey boxes on the spine chart are the upper, middle and lower quartiles.
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4. How do I export the profiles to a file?
You can export the profiles as an image to incorporate into your own reports. To do this right click the profile and select Export. Then select whether you want to export the whole profile or just the Spine Chart (this removes the buttons, title and information at the bottom of the profile) and whether to save as a JPEG or PNG file.
This will save the profiles as currently displayed on your screen. You can move the profile around before printing by using the popup menu in the top right hand corner and by clicking on the borders.
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What the profiles tell you about your local area
Read our short guide to find out more about what the profiles tell you about your local area
