7th December 2023
Yesterday evening, senior health visiting leaders, practitioners, iHV Fellows, and partners from across the sector gathered in London for the iHV Leadership Annual Event. We were delighted to be able to meet together, to celebrate our shared achievements over the last year, and thank individuals and organisations who have contributed to so many of our workstreams this year. It really has been a team effort!
iHV CEO, Alison Morton, welcomes guests to the iHV Annual Event 2023
The Annual Presentation was given by Dr Sarah McMullen, Associate Director of Research and Policy at The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, who provided an update on the work of The Centre and their ‘Shaping Us’ campaign. It has been our privilege and pleasure to work with The Centre on numerous projects this year including a research study focused on the use of the ADBB tool to support health visitors’ work in infant mental health, arranging health visiting shadowing visits for Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales, and supporting the production of The Centre’s short film on health visiting and their wider ‘Shaping Us’ campaign.
Dr Sarah McMullen, Associate Director of Research and Policy at The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, delivers the iHV Annual Presentation
iHV Annual Report
At the Annual Event, the Institute launched its latest Annual Report, detailing the progress and many highlights of the iHV over the last year. Thanks to the support of our members, and the generosity of our grant funders, partners and parents who are experts by experience, we have been able to increase our policy influence and deliver more education, training, resources, networking opportunities, and research than ever before! We have also supported quality improvements in practice through our projects and programmes, including leadership development and sector-led improvement work.
Alison Morton, CEO of the Institute of Health Visiting, commented:
“I am absolutely delighted to share our latest annual report. This is packed full of the Institute’s achievements over the last year. None of these would have been possible without the support of our members, partners, trustees and the incredible #TeamiHV. I would like to thank everyone who has helped to make the Institute the organisation it is today. Together, we will continue to work hard to build a strengthened health visiting profession to ensure that all babies, children and families are supported to achieve the very best health now and into the future.”
Honorary Fellows
Every year, the iHV Board of Trustees bestows Honorary Fellowship awards at its annual event. We were delighted to award this year’s Honorary Fellowships to Professor Jane Barlow, Pamela Goldberg OBE, and Jane Williams. The awards, in recognition of their encouragement and continued support of both the iHV and the health visiting profession, mark the high esteem in which they are held by the Institute’s board.
Professor Jane Barlow’s Honorary Fellowship is awarded in recognition of her ongoing support for our work over many years. Jane is a staunch and vocal advocate for early intervention – and a champion of health visiting – and has worked tirelessly with us at the iHV on numerous shared projects, including our current research partnership with The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood. We are particularly grateful for Jane’s ongoing contributions to our work in perinatal and infant mental health and her weight of support for our call for more Specialist health visitors in this field. Unfortunately, Jane was not able to join us during the evening to collect her Honorary Fellowship due to travel disruptions.
The iHV awarded two Honorary Fellow awards to individuals who have served the iHV generously through their tenures on our Board as iHV trustees. At the iHV, we want to thank all our Trustees for the time, commitment and effort they bring to our organisation.
The first of these awards was conferred to Pamela Goldberg OBE who was the Chair of the iHV Board for 7 years, until her tenure came to an end in July this year. Prior to joining the iHV, Pamela had a distinguished career in both the commercial and voluntary sector, latterly as CEO of Breast Cancer Campaign. This wealth of experience was so valuable to our organisation which was only a few years old when Pamela joined as its Chair. During Pamela’s two terms at the helm of the iHV, the organisation has grown considerably into the successful organisation that it is today. Pamela has also overseen considerable change, with a new CEO and ways of working during the pandemic.
Pamela Goldberg OBE receiving her Honorary Fellowship of the iHV from iHV Chair, Sue Tokley
The last, but by no means least, Honorary Fellow award this year was awarded to Jane Williams. Jane is regarded by many as one of the ‘giants’ of health visiting. She joined the Institute’s Board after running one of the most successful health visiting services in England – and generously shared her wealth of rich experience from her long career. Jane was a Trustee for nearly eight years and her tenure ended during the pandemic in 2021 – which meant we couldn’t celebrate all of Jane’s contributions in person as we had hoped. Some of Jane’s particular contributions were in helping the Board to understand how the Institute’s work could successfully dovetail with the needs of local health visiting managers, as well as with practice.
Jane Williams receiving her Honorary Fellowship of the iHV from iHV Chair, Sue Tokley
Alison Morton, CEO of the Institute of Health Visiting, said:
“It was a real pleasure to award Honorary Fellowships of the Institute this year to Professor Jane Barlow, Pamela Goldberg OBE and Jane Williams. In their individual ways, they have all played key roles in shaping the Institute through their wisdom, guidance and support over so many years. These well-deserved awards are an acknowledgement of the highest esteem that they are held by the Board and the team at the iHV. We thank them for their continued interest in our work.”
