Our call for iHV Evidence-based Practice (EBP) Conference 2026 abstracts is now open!

Submit your abstract for our iHV Evidence-based Practice 2026 Conference “From Evidence to Action: Getting it right from the start” which will be held at Bournemouth International Conference Centre on 6 May 2026.

Babies and children’s health and wellbeing has seen a concerning decline in recent years, with children in the UK having some of the worst health outcomes compared to other similar nations. Health inequalities are widening, especially for those living in more deprived neighbourhoods where the poorest babies and children have the worst outcomes.

Early childhood is important as it lays the foundation for lifelong health and without meaningful intervention now, we are on course for a generation of adults facing serious health challenges. Improving our babies and children’s health will take comprehensive effort across all of society.

Innovation, research and new ideas will be critical to driving the change that is needed. And we know that health visiting teams and researchers across the UK are leading the way with so much great work taking place to improve outcomes for babies, children and families.

Join us to celebrate and spread excellence in practice:

Help spread your learning with others facing similar challenges.
Maximise the impact of your work on a bigger scale. Submit an abstract to present at our EBP conference in 2026.

Connect with other local, national, and international experts, who will be sharing their latest developments in practice, innovation, and research to improve the health and wellbeing of babies, children, families and communities.

What are the benefits of presenting at the iHV conference?

It’s an excellent opportunity for you to:

Raise your own profile as a speaker at a UK-wide conference
Raise the profile of your organisation and showcase your work
Connect, collaborate and learn from other practitioners working in the field of health visiting and family public health
Add your experience of presenting to your CV and boost your career

What are the presentation opportunities for accepted abstracts?

A plenary keynote presentation – oral presentation in the main hall (and live-streamed to online delegates), followed by involvement in Q&A panel.
An oral concurrent presentation – oral presentation in one of our concurrent streams, followed by involvement in Q&A panel (note: selected concurrent sessions in the main hall will be live-streamed).
A breakout oral presentation (a 4-minute speed talk) – strictly time-limited presentation delivered in one of our breakout sessions – provides an opportunity to extend the reach of your work, but in a concise form (note: selected breakout oral presentation session in the main hall will be live-streamed).
A poster presentation (for display in the exhibition hall) – posters are a visual display of material and are particularly suited to the presentation of data, project design and findings. Presenters are on hand to facilitate discussion with delegates during the break times.

Abstract Themes/Topics

We encourage submissions that support the conference theme of reducing health inequalities and improving health outcomes for babies, children and families through health visiting (or integrated working involving health visiting) – focused on prevention and early intervention during the preconception period, pregnancy, and early childhood (0-5 years).
Submissions are open to individuals and teams, including researchers, educators and clinicians who have led work in the UK that aligns with our conference theme. Non-UK entrants will also be considered where there is demonstrable transferable learning.
Entrants must be able to demonstrate their work has made an important improvement in promoting, improving and protecting the health of babies, young children and families.
If you are resubmitting a project or innovation that you have entered in previous years, please ensure you show the changes made since your last submission.

Conference themes are focused on the current priority public health topics for health visiting, including:

Transition to parenthood, including preconception care
Improving neonatal and postnatal healthcare
Breastfeeding and infant feeding
Perinatal mental health
Infant and child mental health
Healthy nutrition, physical activity, and healthy weight
Reducing A&E attendance in children: Managing minor illnesses and reducing unintentional injuries, building health literacy.
Keeping children safe – child and family-centred
Improving immunisation uptake
Improving oral health
Child development 0-5 years and improving school readiness
Sleep
Tackling the SEND crisis: Improving provision for children with developmental conditions, disabilities and complex health needs
Tobacco, alcohol and substance misuse
Healthy couple relationships
Young parents
Underrepresented groups
Maximising digital opportunities – including improving health visiting care delivery, enhancing efficiency, and increasing choice for families.

Strengthening the workforce:

Innovations in health visiting workforce education, including safe and effective skill-mix
Approaches to increase workforce capacity – including recruitment, retention and workforce wellbeing
Leadership development, including specialist health visitor roles
Strengthening research

Developing evidence-driven services, including:

Examples of quality improvement methods to improve health visiting services
Examples of effective integrated pathways or service models
Service user engagement, experiences and insights
Quality standards
Evaluation – Measuring impact
Implementation approaches – translating evidence into practice

Conference aims and objectives

Conference Aim:

To integrate the best research evidence with health visiting clinical expertise and parent/carer experiences, to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities for babies, children, and families.

Learning Objectives:

To hear and learn the latest national policy, evidence and research on key public health priorities to improve health outcomes for babies, children, and their families, with recommendations for practice.
To be equipped with new knowledge and skills to address key challenges in prevention and early intervention work, to reduce inequalities and improve access, experience and outcomes.
To explore ways of improving population and neighbourhood health through evidence-driven health visiting service models and/ or integrated ‘whole system’ approaches that include health visiting, to improve health and reduce inequalities – including initiatives that tackle the wider determinants of health, work with local communities, and strengthen diversity and inclusion.
To hear and learn from cutting edge researchers, national and local experts, and parents/carers/those with lived experience.
To gain insight into how integrated working across agencies can support local system planning to improve the health and life chances of babies, children and families.
To gain CPD points to support NMC revalidation.
To have networking opportunities with peers to further develop relationships and share best practice.

Abstract Timeline

Submissions: The abstract submission deadline is 30 September 2025.
Notifications: After an iHV peer-review process, participants will be informed by 17 October 2025 of acceptance of abstracts for:
- an oral plenary keynote
- a concurrent presentation
- a breakout oral presentation (4-minute speed talk)
- a poster presentation (for display in the exhibition hall)

Conference fees

There is no fee for making a submission. However, if your submission is accepted, the presenting author will be required to attend the conference in-person and pay the discounted speaker registration fee that applies to them. Successful entrants will receive a special 25% discount on their conference ticket.

If your organisation is paying for your ticket, please ensure you have their approval prior to submitting your abstract.

To qualify for the discounted speaker rate, you will need to ensure the conference booking form is completed by 31 October 2025 and payment is made by 6 December 2025. Successful entrants are responsible for their own travel and accommodation expenses.

Please note that our conference ticket booking system is not yet live – so please hold the date in your diary – 6 May 2026 at the Bournemouth International Conference Centre

See our conference and events FAQs for more information

How do I submit my abstract?

We have an online submission form which enables you to enter:

Your basic details.
Select your preference for presenting:
- an oral plenary keynote
- a concurrent presentation
- a breakout oral presentation (4-minute speed talk)
- a poster presentation (for display in the exhibition hall)
Relevant conference theme or topic.
Title and summary of your presentation.

Abstract format:

Title: No more than 12 words.
Abstract Summary: No longer than 600 words.
Key references to be included (note: references will not be included in the wordcount limit).
All abstracts must be written in English and free from jargon. Any abbreviations should be spelt out in full.

Your abstract should include the following:

Background
Aim
Methods
Results/outcomes – with demonstrable impact applicable to the field of health visiting
Conclusions and recommendations.

Please submit your abstract via this online form

How are submissions reviewed?

All submissions will be peer reviewed by the iHV conference panel, with two stages of assessment:

Stage one

All entrants will be assessed for suitability against the following criteria:

Relevant: Alignment to conference themes of improving health outcomes for babies, children and families and strengthening health visiting; applicable to all four nations of the UK.
Presentation: Clearly written in English, is free from jargon, abbreviations are written in full, it does not exceed the word limit and is supported by current references.
Conflict of interest: Due to our charitable remit, we are not able to accept abstracts which are submitted by commercial organisations who are looking to promote a product for commercial gain. We invite commercial organisations to contact us separately for details of our partnership opportunities.

Stage two

If candidates pass stage one, they will be assessed for suitability against the following criteria:

Innovation: Originality of the idea. Builds new knowledge/ addresses gaps in research and practice.
Transferable: Clear description of the initiative/ research, what it involves and why it is needed, with ideas that could be adapted for use in other organisations.
Engagement: Clear evidence of engagement with target population, with consultation/co-production used to develop the initiative.
Evidence driven: Makes use of recognised best evidence-based practice, research, quality improvement methods, and/or national standards, as applicable.
Effectiveness: Evidence of impact – data of improving access, experience and health outcomes for babies, children and families; or evidence of positive impact on the health visiting workforce (as applicable).
Leadership: evidence of health visiting leadership of the initiative as well as dissemination to support wider system learning.
Capability, knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours: Supports the principles of health visiting and enhances the capabilities of health visitors, building upon the proficiencies of the Nursing and Midwifery Council SCPHN 2022 standards.
Health equity and inequalities: Supports enhancement of knowledge, skills, and attitudes in working inclusively and effectively with key groups at high risk of health inequities and inequalities.

What if I am unsuccessful?

All entrants will be provided with feedback from the review panel. If you would like to discuss the feedback further, please contact [email protected].

Our call for abstracts receives high volumes of submissions, with limited speaker slots. Allocation will depend on scoring and topic selection (for example, we might receive multiple high scoring submissions for a popular topic, and we can’t include them all). If we are unable to include your work in our conference agenda, we may contact you about being on our reserve list for presenting or displaying your work as a poster presentation in the exhibition hall or featuring your proposed content in our other iHV work.

If you aren’t successful this time, this doesn’t stop you from attending our conference or submitting your work for a future event. We would love for you to join us at our conference as a delegate.

We look forward to reading your abstracts and hearing about your practice innovations and research! Any questions – please email [email protected].