The Team
- Vicky Gilroy RGN, RSCN, RHV, PGCE, MSc, FiHV – Head of Projects and Evaluation
- Victoria Jackson, RCN, SCPHN-HV – Senior Programme Manager – Projects and Evaluation
- Sally Shillaker – Practice Development Lead – Genomics
- Louisa Clifford-Taylor – Research Associate
- Nafisa Insan – Research Associate
- Jay Desai – Senior Design & Systems Officer
- Julie Cooper – Communications and Marketing Manager
- Gemma O’Neil – Marcomms & Projects Team Administrator
Prince2 Principles
Vicky Gilroy is a PRINCE2 practitioner and leads the team. PRINCE2 principles are embedded within all our projects, including:
- Continued Business Justification – each project has clearly identified aims, with a clear outline of deliverables and timelines for completion. These are developed in discussion with the project stakeholders/funders.
- Learn from Experience– we recognise that our ability to continuously listen, learn and adapt, whilst staying true to the core principles of health visiting, is crucial for driving change in the complex and integrated world that health visitors work in. We value feedback and evaluation, and actively seek this out. We gather feedback from our stakeholders throughout our projects, training, events and wider engagement with our members, to inform all aspects of our work and future plans. This ensures that we are meeting the needs of our stakeholders.
- Defined Roles and Responsibilities – Each member of the Projects and Evaluation Team has a distinct role and responsibility, with an understanding of each other’s role to ensure business continuity.
- Manage by Stages – all projects are managed using a project plan with 5 distinct stages: inception, scoping, development, dissemination, and evaluation. The project plans are used to schedule work and monitor deadlines to ensure that projects are delivered within the agreed specification for budget, quality and timescale, with any risks identified and mitigated.
- Governance – each project is overseen by a steering group or expert advisory group, with regular meetings. This group oversees all aspects of project governance including, the development of the deliverables, quality assurance, risk and financial management, and reporting.
- Focus on Products – we have considerable expertise in developing a wide range of products to support health visitors and the wider health visiting team – ensuring that our products are fit for purpose and meet our users’ needs remain at the heart of our work. Examples of iHV products include:
- E-learning
- Animations and films
- Quality assured list of resources, policies and guidance related to the topic area
- Training – including face-to-face, virtual and technology enhanced learning
- Webinars and networking events
- Good Practice Points and Top Tips for Parents
- Digital leaflets
- Case studies and personal stories
- ‘iHV Champion’ cascade and ‘Ambassador’ training resources
- Reports – Insights, End of Project and Evaluation
- Resources to support implementation
- Project specific imagery
- Digital toolkits – on a specific topic containing a wide range of resources
- Tailored to Suit the Project – The iHV has a distinct style and range of resource types that provide consistency across our brand; for example, our Digital Toolkit model has proved popular and we have developed these for a number of topic areas. However, each project is unique, and we start with a ‘blank sheet’ that does not presume that ‘one size fits all’. We are constantly exploring new capabilities and opportunities with advancing technologies to tailor resources to best suit each individual project and meet our users’ needs.
Co-production
Co-production is at the heart of all projects, and the principles are embedded at every stage of the process from inception, to completion. Co-production can be defined as an “An equal and reciprocal partnership where everyone’s experience, knowledge and skills are used to create better outcomes”. This starts with the bidding process and the development of the project plan. At this stage, we connect with colleagues, partner organisations (which often include parent representative groups) and practitioners to ensure that the proposed project and key deliverables align with the iHV’s core mission, and the needs of our members.
Co-production continues throughout the project through:
- Establishment of a Steering/Expert Advisory Group, which comprises:
- Health visitors and their teams
- Parents/carers
- Experts – Academics, Medical, Research, and Charity, wider partners (for example: public Health, Early Years, School Nursing, national NHS/ LA Leads)
- Scoping stage – often includes surveys and focus/insight groups with health visiting teams and families. This allows us to gain a full understanding of knowledge and understanding, what the gaps are, and what both health visitors and families would like as the outcomes from the project.
- Development stage – health visitors and families are involved in the development and review of resources. Resources may also include parent/child stories, case studies, or reflections and co-authored Good Practice Points or Parent Tips.
- Dissemination stage – we include the family voice in the training/webinar/stakeholder event.
- Evaluation – all participants complete evaluations after the dissemination event(s) to gather their feedback, against the aims of the project, as part of our continuous cycle of quality assurance and evaluation. This also allows us to identify future areas for development and consider further funding for further topics to support practice.
Interested in working with us to support practice development in health visiting?
- The iHV welcomes opportunities to work with partners from a range of organisations, to achieve our shared ambitions to improve health and reduce inequalities, through a strengthened health visiting service.
- The iHV Projects and Evaluation team have many different skills and we can work with you in a variety of ways. This can include consultancy and giving advice on health visiting practice, or reviewing training and resources to ensure they capture the needs of children from preconception to school entry, as well as their families. We can partner with you on a project, or lead it on your behalf.
- The iHV is a charity. Speak to us about our consultancy and project rates. We also offer competitive rates for accreditation of training and resources developed by other organisations, that align with our business values and ethical principles.
Please contact us via [email protected] to find out more.
