6th December 2024
The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) is delighted to announce two new Honorary Fellows. Each year the iHV Board of Trustees bestows one or more Honorary Fellowship awards – a mark of the highest esteem. The awards are reserved for individuals who have made an exceptional contribution, not only to the iHV, but also to the profession of health visiting and the families we serve.
This year’s awards were bestowed on two unique individuals at our annual Leadership Conference in London on 4 December – Leanne Howlett and Kieran Anders – who have both supported the iHV for many years as experts by lived experience. Their contributions and experiences have enriched our work in so many ways, making it better and keeping us focused on the people that we are here to serve.
Leanne Howlett uses her own experience to ground our work in the profound reality of lived experience of perinatal mental ill-health. Leanne has consistently demonstrated an exceptional commitment to the iHV and to health visiting through her active involvement in numerous initiatives – supporting our policy work, joining key roundtable discussions, knocking on the door of Downing Street with her daughter Miley as part of the campaign “A Fight for a Fair Start”, and leading a petition calling for more health visitors. Her dedication to co-production and her consistent support has made a tangible impact on the wellbeing of families.
On receiving this award Leanne said:
It’s an incredible privilege to receive the honorary fellowship award and I am truly honoured to have been selected. My incredible health visitor Holly drives me in the work I do because her compassion and knowledge helped me to be the parent I wanted to be, despite the challenges I faced at the time. This award is as much for her as it is me because her care has filtered down to help so many others through the work I’ve done. I look forward to continuing to support the Institute with their work over the coming years.
Leanne Howlett receiving her Honorary Fellowship from Sue Tokley, Chair of the iHV Board
Kieran Anders supports our work around fathers’ mental health, bringing much greater attention to the needs of dads, who can frequently get overlooked in services which have traditionally been built around the needs of women and their babies. Using a combination of his own lived experience and the latest evidence and knowledge from his role as Operations Manager for Dad Matters – HomeStart HOST, Kieran has co-designed and co-delivers the iHV Fathers and Perinatal Mental Health training programmes alongside our iHV Mental Health team. His outstanding ability to connect with fathers during such a critical period transforms individual lives and influences best practice in health visiting, with the aim of improving perinatal care for all fathers and their infants.
On receiving this award, Kieran said:
“I’m so sorry I can’t be with you but I hope you’ve all had an amazing conference, and I hope to be there in person at the next one.
“I can’t begin to tell you just how much of an honour it is to even be spoken about in the same circles as the Fellows who have gone before me, and the pride I feel accepting this honorary fellowship is truly humbling.
“Working at Home-Start HOST and with partners across the Home-start network to help support dads in the perinatal period has been an amazing journey, and has equipped me with the knowledge, confidence and skills to be able to support organisations such as the Institute with their own work. Delivering training with Sylvia, Natalie, Hilda and everyone else has been a joyous experience, and I hope it has made a real difference to the dads, parents and particularly babies, that we all want to reach, support and see thrive.
“Thank you again for this amazing honour, I will forever be proud to be an honorary fellow. I might even have a pin badge made to mark the occasion. 😂”
Kieran Anders
Philippa Bishop, iHV Director of Learning & Development, commented:
“Congratulations to both Leanne and Kieran – these are very special iHV Honorary Fellowships. Recognition of experts by lived experience by the iHV Board of Trustees is a new approach and underpins the importance of keeping the voice of parents central to all that we do. We are thrilled and proud to add both Leanne and Kieran to our esteemed list of amazing Honorary Fellows.”
