10th February 2026
The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) is delighted to announce the publication of its updated Good Practice Points (GPP): Improving Vaccination Uptake During Pregnancy and Early Childhood. This new resource supports health visitors and the wider health visiting workforce to strengthen their role in improving vaccination confidence and uptake during pregnancy and the early years – a crucial public health priority.
Recent national updates, including the UK’s loss of its measles elimination status, highlight the impact of declining vaccination rates and the urgency of supporting families with clear, evidence-based information. Through their universal reach, health visitors can engage early with parents, build trust, and help overcome both hesitancy and barriers to accessing vaccination-based information.
The updated GPP was created with the support of Dr Helen Bedford, Professor of Children’s Health, Population, Policy and Practice Programme, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, iHV Trustee, and iHV Expert Adviser: Immunisations.
iHV GPPs provide busy practitioners with easily accessible and up-to-date information on key public health priority topics. This updated GPP contains the latest data and evidence on improving vaccination uptake, with an overview of:
- UK childhood vaccination coverage and the impact of declining rates
- Inequalities, declining uptake, and approaches to tackling these disparities
- A whole system approach to improving vaccination rates
- Vaccine access, vaccine hesitancy, and strategies to support families
- Key messages and top tips for health visitors and health visiting skill mix teams.
The iHV would like to thank the iHV Health Visiting Advisory Forum (HVAF) members for their valuable contribution to the review process, helping ensure this refreshed guidance reflects current evidence and the realities of frontline practice across diverse communities.
Note: iHV GPPs are free-to-access for all iHV members.
The iHV is a self-funding charity – we can only be successful in our mission to strengthen health visiting practice if the health visiting profession and its supporters join us on our journey. We rely on our membership to develop new resources for our members.
If you’re not a member, please join us to get access to all of our resources.
