Twenty health
visiting sites across the country have been selected to lead the
way in fast tracking the delivery of the Government’s vision to
improve the health and well being of children, families and
communities, Public Health Minister Anne Milton announced today.
Speaking at a launch event, the Minister also announced the start
of a national recruitment drive to increase the numbers of health
visitors - attracting more people to train to join the profession,
as well as encouraging former health visitors back into practice.
The initiatives are part of the Government’s commitment to
increase the health visitor workforce by 4,200 by 2015 and are
backed by education institutions, NHS Careers and Strategic Health
Authorities who will be on hand to advise and support on local
opportunities. Boosting the numbers of health visitors is key to
delivering the Government’s new vision for the profession and the
service on offer for families and communities.
The twenty ‘Early Implementer Sites’ will showcase the new
service model for health visiting, which has been developed with
the profession, and was recently set out in the Government’s
Health Visitor Implementation Plan ’A Call to Action’. Health
visiting teams in these areas will work with other local health
and children’s services, as well as with families themselves, so
that by April 2012 they can provide this dynamic new service in
ways and at times and places that suit their local community.
The twenty teams selected are already delivering parts of the new
service and will be supported to quickly progress to the full
family offer, as well as helping other areas develop their service
by sharing learning and best practice.
Prime Minister David Cameron said:
“We are determined to give parents the support they need to give
their children the best start in life. Health visitors are trusted
by parents and have the training and experience to provide a
helping hand when families need it most.
“That is why we are committed to building a universal health
visiting service with an extra 4,200 health visitors. So
I'd like to encourage nurses to come forward to train as
health visitors and any former health visitors to consider coming
back to the profession."
At the launch event today at the Department of Health, Anne
Milton and the Chief Nursing Officer Dame Christine Beasley, met
with some of the practitioners and leaders from the twenty sites,
as well as with professional bodies.
Anne Milton said:
“It is essential for families that we have the numbers of health
visitors we need. By recruiting more and developing the profession
they will be able to deliver sound preventative health care based
on the evidence about the importance of the early years of life.
“The twenty sites announced today will be at the forefront of
implementing our vision for health visiting services. As well as
ensuring all families get the service they should, they will also
focus on vulnerable and disadvantaged families. Health visitors
will be supported to use their skills to work with local
communities to develop services. This will put health visiting at
the heart of achieving better health outcomes in our communities.”
Chief Nursing Officer Dame Christine Beasley
said:
”The Early Implementer health visiting sites will help showcase
some of the best practice in the country. With our support they
will be able to build on this success and share expertise but also
provide inspiration across the whole profession.
“It is an exciting time to join the health visiting service. Our
new vision and our commitment to expand the workforce promises to
ensure this is a rewarding, dynamic and vital service.
“As well as attracting new recruits, we also want to encourage
those who have left the profession to return. And we will offer
existing health visitors the chance to refresh and develop their
skills - helping to improve career opportunities and retention.”
Notes to Editors
1. The Twenty Early Implementer Health Visiting sites comprise
two from each Strategic Health Authority: Early Implementer HV
sites by SHA 1. East Midlands SHAA. NHS Northamptonshire Provider
ServicesB. Derbyshire Community Health Services2. East of England
SHAA. NHS Norfolk B. NHS Great Yarmouth and Waveney3. London SHAA.
City and Hackney – Homerton Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Inner
North East London cluster B. Haringey and Islington – Whittington
Hospital NHS TrustNorth Central London cluster 4. North East SHAA.
County Durham and Darlington PCT clusterB. South of Tyne and Wear
PCT cluster 5. North West SHAA. Blackpool Health Visiting
ServicesB. Wirral Health Visiting Services 6. South Central SHAA.
NHS Buckinghamshire B. NHS Solent 7. South East Coast SHAA. NHS
East Sussex Downs and Weald and NHS Hastings & Rother PCT
B. Medway Community Healthcare8. South West SHAA. Banes PCTB.
Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Community Health Services Trust9.
West Midlands SHAA. NHS Stoke on TrentB. NHS Warwickshire
Community Health10. Yorkshire and Humber SHAA. NHS LeedsB. NHS
Doncaster 2. The purpose of the Early Implementer Sites will be to
lead the way in: realising the Government’s ambition to improve
local child and family services through increasing the number of
health visitors resulting in, better health outcomes for children
and families;higher job satisfaction, for health visitors and
their teams;stronger local partnerships across health and early
years services;mobilising and supporting health visitors and their
teams to develop and deliver the new service model and family
offer;demonstrating how local commissioners and their providers
can implement the service model and family offer - ensuring that
increased capacity delivers a transformed service;strengthening
the Healthy Child Programme by drawing on learning from the Family
Nurse Partnership Programme and other evidence based methods and
programmes;sharing learning from the development process and
demonstrating early success. By April 2012 these sites will offer
families a four tier model comprising Community, Universal,
Universal plus and Universal Partnership Plus - as detailed in ‘A
Call to Action’. Each Strategic Health Authority has identified
two sites in their region that are close to providing this new
service and can act as Early Implementers. 3. The key elements of
the new service to be in place by next year are: Community – the
needs of local communities are understood and a directory of
services to meet those needs is in place or being progressed.
Health visitors in the local area are supported in community
development work and have undertaken (or will soon) the new
‘building community capacity’ training module.Universal – all
elements of the Healthy Child Programme are being delivered.
Contacts with families are increased, especially for first time
parents, and there is good coverage of the two - two and half year
review.Universal plus – evidence based care packages offered to
families are clearly defined. Providers ensure that continuing
professional development plans clearly show that health visitors
can access any specialist training required.Universal partnership
plus – as a minimum there is a named health visitor on the
management board of the local Sure Start Children’s Centre and
there are services/drop-in sessions provided by health visitors
through the centre.Safeguarding children - there are effective
partnership arrangements in place. 4. Return to practice training
scheme The return to practice scheme will run across the country,
with education and training places being made available in each
region. Two Strategic Health Authorities are already running
return to practice pilots, and these have helped us learn about
the training needs of ex-health visitors, as well as providing
other Authorities with evidence of the best way to structure
courses around the needs of the students. The results from the
pilots have been promising – in London alone, 47 ex health
visitors are due to return to the profession this year.
Contacts:
Department of Health
Phone: 020 7210 5221
NDS.DH@coi.gsi.gov.uk