Weekly News 11th April 2014

Final Year of the Health Visitor Programme
April 2014 has brought us into the 4th and final year of the Health Visitor Programme. Everyone has worked tirelessly to increase the health visiting workforce to levels not seen for many years and work towards making sure that children and families are able to access the full health visiting offer and of course improve their health outcomes. There is still much to do and we will continue working closely with providers, NHSE Area Team colleagues, universities and many others during this period to deliver the ambitions of the programme. As we move nearer the change in commissioning arrangements to Local Authorities from October 2015 there will be an increasing focus on linking with LA partners and amongst other things showing what health visitors can do to work with individuals, families and communities and show that early intervention works.

Welcome to new Programme Team Member
We are very pleased to welcome Jessica Ward to the team who has replaced Sophie Lakes as our Programme Support. Jessica was previously employed by Wherry Housing and was named Apprentice of the Year in 2012 by Great Yarmouth College so we are delighted that she has chosen to make the NHS her latest career move.

Law Commission Report
This project was a review of the UK law relating to the regulation of health care professionals, and in England only, the regulation of social workers.
Of particular interest to health visitors may be section 5.12 Page 57 where it states:
‘We also think that the draft Bill should remove the requirement for
the Nursing and Midwifery Council to keep a separate part of the
register for “specialist community public health nurses”. In practice
this appears to be an umbrella term which includes various
specialities such as health visitors, school nurses and occupational
health nurses. Instead, the Council would be able to use its powers
to include annotations in the public register – where appropriate –
to identify additional qualifications and specialisms’
Clik on the below link for more information:
http://lawcommission.justice.gov.uk/areas/Healthcare_professions.htm

Recent Publications

Public Health Updates

April increase in cases of diarrhoea linked to school holidays and visits to petting farms.
Click on the link below for more details.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/april-increase-in-cases-of-diarrhoea-linked-to-school-holidays-and-visits-to-petting-farms

Update on rising scarlet fever numbers across England.
Click on the link below for more details.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/update-on-rising-scarlet-fever-numbers-across-england

Child and Maternal Health Knowledge Update – 11th April 2014
To access this weekly bulletin highlighting the latest news, events, reports, research and other resources relating to children, young people’s and maternal health please use the link below.

http://www.chimat.org.uk/resource/view.aspx?QN=CHMK9

Spreading the word more widely – sharing practice Sustaining the Rapid Appraisal of Organisations in the East of England. I have recently been fortunate to be seconded to Sustain to participate in the Rapid Appraisal of organisations in the East of England. These reviews look at where each Health Visiting Service is in terms of its plan to deliver A Call to Action by 2015. Some of you will have been involved in your own organisations review. My role in the process has been that of Peer Reviewer bringing knowledge of Health Visiting services. All peer Reviewers were fully trained around the techniques and tools used by Sustain to deliver the appraisal. I have felt privileged to be part of this process and gain an insight into the progress of Health Visiting Service colleagues around the East of England. It has made me appreciate what we all do well and what we could do better and how many of us face similar challenges in terms of population and vulnerability. I have been amazed at how resilient Health Visiting teams are in managing the delivery of A Call to Action. We are almost there and should be proud of what we have achieved. For more information please contact: Karen Jordan (Karen.Jordan@nhs.uk) Clincal Locality Manager

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