4,200 new health visitors
to boost young children's and families' health and wellbeing
Thousands more
families will benefit from an increased number of health visitors
who give advice and support and play an important role in
safeguarding children, Public Health Minister Anne Milton
confirmed today.
A national recruitment drive to create 4,200 new health visitors
and build a rejuvenated profession is being announced today. This
means the numbers of health visitors working closely with families
in the community will increase by almost 50 per cent.
Creating a new modern health visiting profession will be achieved by:
* creating 4,200 new health visitor positions;
* a new
improved training programme;
* a focus on recruiting and
retaining workers; and
* creating a new vision and identity
for the profession.
Anne Milton, said:
"Health visitors play such an important role. They give
support and advice to families and can make a huge difference to
the lives of children.
"The health visiting profession has been eroded
dramatically over the past decade. That's why we are
funding 4,200 new posts and improving training.
"We need to attract new people into the profession and
to keep the health visitors we have. We will fund a national
recruitment drive that will show the vital work health visitors do
in supporting families and boosting public health.
"Investing in health visitors is investing in the future
health and well being of our children, families and communities."
This commitment is a mark of how central health visitors will be
in the Government's future plans. Health visitors,
working at the front line in young families' homes, are
in a unique position to help:
* prevent illness and injury;
* children get the best start
in life; and
* ensure wider community support is at hand for
families who need it.
Over the past 25 years society and families have changed. There
are now more families with complex needs and health visitors need
to be able to respond to these changes. As well as the traditional
aspect of the role, giving advice and support to new mothers,
health visitors also have an important role in safeguarding
children and referring onto specialist services.
To ensure the process of referrals is as easy and smooth as
possible a new SAFER referral tool has been developed and is being
launched today at the Unite Community Practitioners and Health
Visitors Association conference.
Chief Nursing Officer, Chris Beasley, said:
"This new SAFER referral tool will improve
communications between key health and protection agencies and
support us in making our children safer.
"We have worked closely with health visitors to develop
this new way of working to ensure referrals to specialist services
work better for families that are vulnerable and have complex needs.
"By working together we can move health visiting in a
very exciting direction and make an even bigger difference to
family health and well being."
Notes to Editors
1. Anne Milton was speaking at the Unite Community Practitioners
and Health Visitors Association (CPHVA) conference today in Harrogate.
2. The commitment to fund 4,200 new health visitors was confirmed
in the Spending Review. The level of funding will be announced in
due course.
3. The SAFER tool has been developed using the
Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation technique widely
used by health care teams.
4. It will provide all health visitors with a standardised
framework to refer children quickly and effectively who are, or
maybe, at significant risk to a social care children's
team. It will help health visitors make a critical decision more
easily and in a more focused manner. It will set out what needs to
be communicated and how to social care colleagues. It will support
health visitors in what can be stressful and emotional situations.
Contacts:
Department of Health
Phone: 020 7210 5221
NDS.DH@coi.gsi.gov.uk