More help and support for families with young children and greater opportunities to receive support for training have been announced in the Government’s plan to increase the number of health visitors.
The national plan, the Health Visitors Implementation Plan, promises to boost the number of health visitor posts in the region by 403 by 2015, a rise of more than 60 per cent. It sets out aims of bringing new blood to the profession and supporting former health visitors to retrain and return to practice.
As a highly skilled part of the NHS workforce, health visitors engage with children, families and communities to ensure they are well informed about their health, how to keep healthy and the choices they have in the provision of their healthcare.
In the East Midlands, we have already started to encourage former health visitors to return to the profession - with the launch of a Return to Practice programme in September 2010. So far, 12 people have enrolled on university courses and 50 have expressed an interest in the programme.
The regional programme links in with the University of Nottingham and the University of Northampton toprovide a bursary to successful applicants to help to cover costs during the period of study and also fund course fees.
Siobhan Heafield, Deputy Director of Patient Care for NHS East Midlands said:
“Bringing over 400 more health visitors into the region will play a vital role in the health and wellbeing of patients in the East Midlands. This national initiative, combined with our on-going regional programme, is an exciting opportunity to support those health visitors who have left practice but are keen to return and to welcome more new health visitors into the profession and into the NHS.”
The national plan also sets out the range of services that families will be able to expect, depending on their needs.
The service will:
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develop, support and promote the services set up by families and communities themselves as part of the ‘Your Community’ service;
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deliver the Healthy Child Programme - ensuring all children get the essential immunisations, health and development checks - as part of the ‘Universal Services’;
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ensure a rapid response with expert help for problems like postnatal depression or a sleepless baby - as part of the ‘Universal Plus Services’; and
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provide on-going support as part of a range of local services working together and with disadvantaged families, to deal with more complex issues over a period of time - under the ‘Universal Partnership Plus’ service.
