Health secretary Alan Johnson's call for health visitors to have a more active role in children's centres is to be warmly welcomed (CYP Now, 12-18 September). However, is he aware that in some areas health visitors are being withdrawn from children's centres due to their falling workforce numbers?
It was clear from the early evaluation of Sure Start that health-led schemes had the best results. This is what we would expect, given health visitors' unique understanding of children, families and communities.
We hope that now Johnson has publicly recognised the health visitor contribution, he will also instruct primary care trusts to reinstate training places and frozen posts, which are currently inhibiting the outcomes the profession could be delivering.
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