Careers Guide: Health Careers - Essential advice on jobs in child health

1. You must be sensitive to cultural differences.

Ramatu Jalloh, a member of the school nursing team covering Lambeth in south London, says that being culturally aware is part and parcel of community- and school-based work. "You need to be able to communicate effectively, often with many different people from varying cultural backgrounds," she says.

Ellen-Ruth Arnold, a speech and language therapist at Bolton Primary Care Trust, adds that language and cultural differences also affect speech and language therapy. "There is a push to get more bilingual practitioners in many areas to reflect the changes in the population," she says.

2. Be prepared for the challenges of working with children with additional needs.

Ellen-Ruth Arnold says working with children demands patience, a clear empathy with their needs and readiness to develop problem-solving skills.

She says that increasing numbers of children and young people with conditions such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has meant a bigger workload. "We have been working closely with the local education authority to increase provision for those with ASD, so that there is not a postcode lottery," she says. She suggests that anyone thinking of working in this area should consult NHS careers literature carefully and establish what discipline they want to do and ensure they pursue the appropriate qualifications.

3. Don't lecture parents - instead show them the benefits of a health project.

Sue Baugh, a healthy eating adviser for Wolverhampton City Council's healthy schools team, says whenever she talks to parents about the importance of healthy eating, she makes it clear she is not getting at them as parents. "I find it better to give them good examples, so I do workshops on healthy packed lunches and food preparation," she says. "At parents' evenings, I have a stand where I talk to them about what a healthy lunch box should contain and show them a sample. But I do warn them about the consequences of poor diet, such as tooth decay, or illnesses that can occur later in life like heart disease and cancer."

4. Time can be limited.

John Poyton, founder and youth work manager for the Youth Health Initiative, says workers need to be ready to work under tight time constraints. "The average time a doctor spends with a patient is between seven and 10 minutes," he says. "So if you're doing a surgery for young people you need to get used to a tight time frame, which can be strange if you're used to running three-hour sessions in a youth club."

Because time is limited, he advises youth professionals wanting to move into this area of work to undertake additional health-related training. "A qualification in something like counselling can be helpful," he adds. "This way you get experience of one-to-one work with young people, which is usually how things work in health settings."

5. Be open-minded.

Anastasia Morgan-Rose works as a project worker for sexual health charity FPA's Vulnerable Young People's Project. She says a key requirement for anyone entering her field is that they are "aware of their own attitude and ability to talk honestly and openly about sexual health".

She delivers life skills group work sessions with 11- to 14-year-olds in Hackney and promotes core competencies in sexual health to the borough's youth workers and other professionals. The courses provide information about the law and help establish professional boundaries. She explains: "You have to be able to provide advice which is appropriate and doesn't make you vulnerable and that's why you can't rely on personal experience."

THE FUTURE OF THE CHILD HEALTH WORKFORCE

The government was due to publish its vision for child health services in the forthcoming Child Health Strategy, expected in late November 2008. It was set to include several measures to improve the transition from child to adult health services, as well as extra investment for training youth professionals to identify adolescent mental health problems early on.

The government has recently updated its Child Health Promotion Programme, and health visitors have been handed an enhanced role to deliver it to "a defined population at children's centre and GP level".

In May 2008, the government also pledged £372m for the Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives strategy to tackle obesity in England. The strategy promised further investment in areas including walking-to-school projects, healthy-eating programmes and breastfeeding initiatives.