EARLY YEARS
The government has pledged to provide every Sure Start children's centre in the country with "access to a named health visitor". Further information on their role and the support they require will be published during 2009.
But the government has not provided details of how many new health visitors the pledge requires or how many it intends to recruit.
A decline in the number of health visitors over the past decade means that some look after more than 1,000 pre-school children each.
"It is not enough," says Karen Reay, national officer for health at trade union Unite, which represents the Community Practitioners' and Health Visitors' Association. She says a manageable caseload for a health visitor is no more than 250 children, and what is required should go beyond children's centres.
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