Vox Pop: Do children's centres need a 'new type' of health visitor?
Monday, July 19, 2010
Children's minister Sarah Teather said she wants to develop a new generation of health visitors who don't "just weigh babies".
YES: Claire McCarthy, director of public affairs, 4Children
Children's centres demand a new way of working together. The specialist skills of health visitors are extremely important for families but increasingly, professionals need to integrate across traditional boundaries.
The universal starting point for health visiting means they are ideally placed to be the conduit, bringing together a range of support for vulnerable families. By embracing this approach they will play a key role in holistic support for families, beyond their traditional medical focus.
NO: Dave Munday, professional officer in the health sector, Unite
Our members are dismayed that Sarah Teather appears to have so little understanding as to the role of the health visitor and the impressive range of skills and knowledge that they practise on a daily basis, with many of them rarely getting near a set of scales.
I am sure she will be pleased to find out that the skills she suggests are utilised by health visitors currently.
However, what is needed is an increase in the number of health visitors, which has been recognised by the coalition government. Our members are desperately waiting to see how it will achieve this.
YES: Lynn Bradley, director of services, Bierley, Holme Wood & Tyersal Children's Centres, Bradford
If health visiting is to replace the current family support and outreach work we have in children's centres then we need a very different type of health visitor with different skills and knowledge base.
But in good centres we already have that skill set. I think we should be looking to maximise the worth and value of well-trained family support workers by developing career pathways for them into health visiting qualifications.
NO: Jan Leightley, director of children's services, Action for Children
We do not need to create new roles for health visitors - rather, what we need is to see all health professionals working in an integrated way.
In the most successful children's centres this already happens - health visitors work as part of the children's centre's team, maximising their professional skills and the support they can offer families.
It's vital that the new provision of information and guidance does not simply duplicate what already exists. Instead, we must take learnings from health visitors who already work in a truly integrated way, and apply these across all children's centres.
