9th May 2025
Yesterday, we had an amazing day at the iHV Evidence-based Practice Conference 2025: Healthier Beginnings. We had a packed conference hall, with delegates and speakers joining from all UK nations, both in-person in Manchester, and many more online.
The atmosphere at the conference was wonderful, with rooms filled with enthusiasm and inspiration. From start to finish, our conference showcased the very best of health visiting practice, innovation and cutting-edge research all focused on creating “Healthier Beginnings”. Speakers and delegates also presented evidence on the multitude of challenges being faced by services across the UK and the burning platform for change that is needed to ensure that no child or family is left behind.
To ground us in reality, we were privileged to be joined by experts by lived experience who shared their powerful stories and a reminder to all of us to keep the babies, children and the families we serve at the centre of all our work. The day prompted lots of insightful discussions amongst our health visiting community and wider partners across the earliest years.
There is strength as we meet together – and we thank everyone for their input into such an inspiring day!
“The speakers were all amazing. It’s by far the best conference I have been to. It shares evidence-based research which informs and shapes practice. The information stands were also excellent.” (Delegate feedback)
We would like to extend a huge heartfelt thank you to our delegates, our inspiring speakers – including our parent speakers who are experts by experience. We also thank our partners and exhibitors for their support – with special thanks to our main event partner this year, Rocket Healthcare
Kevin Ireson Chief Revenue Officer for Rocket Healthcare opened our conference with the breakfast partnership session focusing on the opportunities that new technologies present and the ways that digital tools are supporting health visiting.
With two plenary keynote sessions, eight concurrent sessions, plus two simultaneous breakout oral presentation (BOP) sessions, the programme covered a breadth of topics for delegates to enjoy. There were so many highlights from the day, here are just a few examples (there are too many to mention):
Keynote session one had a dedicated focus on perinatal and infant mental health. Professor Jayne Brown and Louise Wolstenholme kicked off the session, presenting the findings from the “Surviving Crying” study and discussing the importance of supporting parents with crying babies. We were then delighted to be joined by Sally Hogg from The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, who discussed the importance of nurturing social and emotional development in early childhood.
In an armchair conversation, we then had the privilege of learning from Bethan Shoemark-Spear who bravely shared her LGBTQ+ lived experience of infertility, fertility treatment, pregnancy after loss and parenthood.
Through the medium of poetry, Maria Feguson, award winning poet and author of ‘Swell’ ended the session by speaking about the realities of motherhood, and the motivations for her work. Maria shared one of her powerful poems: ‘In your first weeks I was a baby too’.
Keynote session two focused on the future of health visiting. Professor Jamie Waterall, Deputy Chief Public Health Nurse for England gave an energising presentation and highlighted how health visitors are perfectly positioned to shape, lead and deliver on policy, service and practice developments to improve the lives of babies and children.
Alison Morton, iHV CEO, delivered the final keynote presentation on ‘Drive change: do it with the evidence” and highlighted how “the best way to predict the future is to create it”
Professor Nicola Botting and Jane Flynn won the best presentation for the breakout oral presentation sessions following their successful abstract submission. A huge congratulations once again to all our abstract presenters from #TeamiHV!
Our conference programme brought together local, national, and international experts and speakers who focused on strengthening health visiting practice. We hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did! We thank everyone who has filled in their evaluation so far – here is some early conference feedback:
“This is my favourite conference. I always learn lots and meet new people. I come away inspired and proud of our profession”.
“Thank you for an excellent, stimulating and very positively charged event!”
“I enjoyed the opportunity to meet others and network – listen to all of the presentations and be inspired by the work that is being done”
“I enjoyed all speakers on the day … There was a lot to take out of the day and continue to do my own research around these subjects”
Call for abstracts 2026
Were you inspired by our speakers at our iHV EBP 2025 conference? Next year it could be you!
Our call for iHV Evidence-based Practice (EBP) Conference 2026 abstracts is now open! To find out more, click here.
We are excited to announce that we will be hosting our conference at Bournemouth International Conference Centre on 6 May 2026. So next year you can tie in a little seaside holiday and our conference at the same time. Bring your bucket and spade! 😊
We can’t wait to see you next year!
