Interview: Kate Billingham, DoH, Prevention as the cure

When the Government's nurse family partnerships scheme launched earlierthis month it was met with sensationalist headlines about criminalisingfoetuses.

Yet many of the hardest-to-reach parents have already come forward totestify to the project's potential to deliver its real role - to engagethe most disadvantaged parents before children are born, in an effort tobreak the cycle of deprivation.

According to deputy chief nursing officer, Kate Billingham, who managesthe project, uptake is already much higher than expected.

"It's anecdotal but we're talking about 90 per cent uptake," she says."Parents really want to be involved."

The 7m two-year programme also has the potential to revitalisehealth visitors, deeply demoralised after two years of cuts. The projectis effectively developing a new role for them, says Billingham. "Whathas completely caught me personally - and other people on the projectsites - is the potential to transform services as well as transformingthe life chances of children," she says. "What's interesting is to watchhow the practitioners who deliver the programme have somehow beenreleased. They're saying: 'This is what I came into health visiting todo. I've been a health visitor 20 years, why did no one teach methis?'"