Opinion  

Earlier this month outgoing prime minister Tony Blair announced the start of Nurse Family Partnership pilots. Ten of these schemes have been set up throughout the country and will use nurses and midwives to support, mainly teenage, first-time mothers from early pregnancy through to their child's second birthday.

This scheme, designed by Professor David Olds from Colorado University in the USA, is evidence based and has been evaluated over almost 30 years.

It has had great results on the outcomes both of the parents and children who take part.

Health visitors should see every family

At the Family and Parenting Institute we welcome this scheme which is trying to improve the life chances of some of the most vulnerable parents and children in our society. But these pilots should be part of a strong universal health visiting service where health visitors see every family in the country and offer them a personalised service. Parents of children under five surveyed by YouGov for us overwhelmingly agree.

The problem is that research we have done with PCTs suggests that providing any kind of universal offer in some parts of the country is increasingly difficult. While in Doncaster there is one health visitor for every 160 children under five, in Luton there are only 10 whole-time equivalent health visitors left - one for every 1,355 children under five. Numbers overall are in freefall as PCTs freeze or cut posts.

Unless there is a universal health visiting service many vulnerable people are likely to fall through the net: those mothers with post-natal depression, those who suffer domestic violence, those families who could be helped early on with healthy eating and breast-feeding, and those whose children have or might develop behavioural problems.

The service is vital for key government policies

In government reports from the Department for Education and Skills and the Treasury health visitors are rightly mentioned as being vital for early intervention with parents and for delivering the government's broader parenting agenda. They are the only universal outreach service and they are key to the notion of early identification and support for families with difficulties.

Health visitors are also overwhelmingly popular with parents. Our YouGov poll asked 5,000 parents across social class, income group and region what they thought of health visitors. Some 76 per cent said they wanted parenting support and advice on their child's health and development from a trained health visitor with up to date knowledge.

Sadly, the health visitor seems to be an endangered species. Unless there is a real commitment by government to the service, including better training and career structure, health visitors could disappear. It would be a pity if we then had to reinvent them again as a modern solution in ten years' time.

Sally Gimson is campaigns officer at the Family and Parenting Institute

Resources
For more information on the Family and Parenting Institute's campaign for a well-funded, well-trained, universal health visitor service go to: www.familyandparenting.org/healthvisitors.

What do you think? Email your views to independentnurse@haymarket.com