18th July 2025
We are delighted to share this Voices blog by Amanda Hall, Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) at Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust, as she shares her experiences of leadership development through the iHV Health Visiting Advisory Forum (HVAF).
Amanda Hall , Family Nurse at the Family Nurse Partnership – Shropshire
It has been a privilege to have been a member of the iHV HVAF since January 2024. The HVAF was established in 2021 to provide a voice from practice to assist the iHV in reflecting the views of its members. It comprises members from a breadth of health visiting backgrounds who bring insight into health visiting practice priorities, providing expert professional advice and guidance to influence policy, support innovation and provide constructive challenge. In addition, the HVAF supports quality assurance and quality improvement of iHV resources through peer review.
Being a HVAF member has enabled me to grow, both personally and professionally, providing me with networking opportunities with professionals from around the country, sharing best practice, listening and supporting each other, and being a critical friend to the iHV.
As a member, a vital part of the HVAF role is to ensure that health visiting resources, such as Good Practice Points, are reviewed regularly, ensuring that they are current and up to date. This is something that I see great importance in being involved in and it has allowed me to develop subject matter expertise, as well as develop my critical thinking skills.
I have also been given opportunities to improve my presentation skills while delivering “The Rainbow Baby Pilot” and subsequent audit outcomes to the HVAF group, sharing best practice within the United Kingdom. It was amazing to be able to present and showcase my innovation and receive positive feedback and encouragement from the group.
In addition, the Forum has allowed me to develop strategic thinking and decision-making skills in situations such as being a stakeholder within the NHS Change Consultation, allowing input on how health visiting services should be shaped going forward – something, as HVAF members, we are all passionate about.
We are also very fortunate as HVAF members to be provided with a wide array of additional opportunities which develop us as practitioners, some of these opportunities have enabled me personally to become more confident in high profile situations.
A very memorable experience was taking part in the Radio 4 series, Lockdown’s Legacy – The Medics. The programme set out to establish the lessons learnt, as a consequence of lockdown, on babies, children and young people. It focused on the Covid legacy for the younger generation, its impact on their physical and mental development, and how we would deal with the situation should it occur again in the future.
Within the interview, I was able to share many of my own reflections from working as a health visitor within the pandemic. In addition, I was able to discuss the consequences that redeployment had on our profession and to the children and families we were supporting, enabling me the opportunity to advocate for the health visiting profession.
Appearing on the radio enabled me to enhance my communication skills, taking me out of my comfort zone and is something I am very proud of. I wouldn’t hesitate to be involved again should the opportunity arise.
Furthermore, last month I was extremely honoured to attend Parliament to observe Alison Morton, CEO at iHV, giving oral evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee on the First 1000 Days. Alison eloquently and powerfully provided a voice for babies and families, as well as health visiting services nationally. She relayed to the MPs on the committee the need to invest in health visiting services now for the future of our children.
Labour MP Ben Coleman spoke of his “rising fury” on the “collapse of health visiting numbers”.
I felt hopeful that Alison’s expertise and powerful evidence was taken seriously by the committee and that the decline in health visiting numbers can be reversed with investment in our profession prioritised, leading to the increase in health visitor numbers that is desperately required.
It was a very proud moment witnessing Alison advocate so passionately for our profession and the families we support. This has truly inspired me to develop my own leadership skills and was an experience I will never forget.
Amanda Hall, Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) at Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust
Read more about the iHV HVAF and its members here.
You can watch a short clip of Alison giving evidence here.
And watch the full 2-hour Health and Social Care Select Committee meeting for the First 1000 Days Inquiry here.
