Proposals for expanded health visiting service focus on early intervention

8 February 2011 1 min read Lauren Higgs Early Years Children's Services Early help

Families with young children are to be offered improved support under government plans to expand and rejuvenate the health visiting service.

The Health Visitor Implementation Plan, which is published today (8 February), sets out proposals to recruit an extra 4,200 health visitors by 2015.

It addresses concerns that some health visitors feel undervalued and reinforces the importance of children’s centres, by pledging that every centre should have access to a named health visitor.

The plan promises that the "rejuvenated" health visiting service will:

Public health minister Anne Milton claimed that the extra 4,200 health visitors would be key to revitalising services.

"Health visitors play such an important role — they give families that vital extra bit of support they need in their children’s early years," she explained.

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