Continuous Professional Development: A cost-saving strategy – make the most of iHV membership

9th June 2025

In challenging financial times, health visiting provider organisations face tough choices. Budgets are stretched, priorities shift, and funding uncertainties loom. But if there’s one investment that remains indispensable, it’s Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for staff. This blog provides a reminder of the wealth of CPD resources available to iHV members.

Our organisation remains committed to its key mission to ensure that health visitors (and their teams) are able to deliver on their key purpose to improve health and reduce inequalities. We do this by advocating for the profession through our policy work and supporting excellence in practice to enable practitioners to deliver the highest standards of care that babies, children and families need.

If you are an iHV member, we encourage you to make the most of your membership – take a look at our large range of CPD options developed to support you to practise safely and evidence your ongoing learning and professional development in line with the requirements of the NMC

Health visiting provider organisations have a legal responsibility to ensure that staff receive the necessary training to perform their role safely and effectively. The iHV is here to help you. We are the “go to” place in the UK for health visiting CPD, providing members with access to exclusive training, resources, networking opportunities and special interest groups to support their professional development, covering a wide range of topics and public health priorities. While CPD is often seen as an additional cost, the reality is that investing in staff development saves money in the long run. Here’s why:

1. Prevention is cheaper than correction

A well-trained workforce reduces incidents, improves efficiency, and enhances outcomes for babies, children and families. Investing in training can prevent costly mistakes that may lead to litigation or reputational damage.

2. Retention beats recruitment

High staff turnover is expensive – make your organisation an attractive place to work by investing in your staff and their development. Replacing an experienced practitioner comes with recruitment costs, training expenses, and operational disruptions. Offering CPD opportunities, enhances job satisfaction, fosters loyalty, and reduces turnover—saving thousands per employee.

3. Innovation drives efficiency

Staff trained in quality improvement and evidence-based decision-making can improve the quality of care and maximise staff time to drive better outcomes for babies, children and families. We ensure that health visitors have instant access to a range of evidence-based resources which will support their practice, saving valuable practitioner time.

4. CPD builds organisational resilience

In a healthcare system that faces constant change—new regulations and policies, evolving clinical standards, and workforce challenges—CPD equips staff with the skills to adapt and innovate. Leadership development and engagement in national communities of practice enable practitioners to manage uncertainty, learn from excellence in other areas and build better services, fit for the future.

Investing in staff development isn’t just about compliance; it’s about ensuring high-quality, sustainable healthcare for all.

Being a member of the iHV is the easiest way to stay up-to-date with CPD. We have so many resources – some get a bit hidden on our website. Here is a quick reminder of just some of our current free training and resources available to iHV members – don’t miss out on your member-benefits, update your CPD today.

Visit iHV LEARN for:

E-Learning (all courses have a test your knowledge and certificate of completion). For example:

• Neonatal families: Working with families to transition from neonatal units to home
  Funded by the The Tiny Lives Trust to improve health visiting support for sick and preterm babies, and their families. By the end of this course, you will be able to:
  • Recognise the specific needs of families on the Neonatal Unit (NNU)
  • Effectively support families of sick and preterm babies with transition from the NNU to home.
  • Understand the ongoing support these families may need through the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme (HCP) and appropriate NICE guidance

• Let’s Talk Heart Health: using the Family Partnership Model (FPM) to support partnership working and behaviour change
  Funded by The Burdett Trust for Nursing, this programme comprises two core FPM modules and four health topic modules focused on the 4 main SNAP risk factors (of smoking, poor nutrition, alcohol and physical inactivity). Develop your skills in having effective and sensitive conversations with families on these important topics – with lots of transferable learning for supporting families across all aspects of health visiting through partnership working and strengths-based conversations, using the Family Partnership Model.

• Sexual and Reproductive Health
  Endorsed by the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health (FRSH), this programme was developed to support practitioners to integrate the promotion of sexual and reproductive health into their work with all families. The course comprises three modules:
  Module 1 – An introduction to sexual and reproductive health, and how to integrate the promotion of sexual and reproductive health into your work with all families.
  Module 2 – Having effective conversations about sexual, reproductive and preconception health.
  Module 3 – The health visitor’s role: how to align sexual, reproductive and preconception health with health visitors’ universal review contacts.

  We also have a wealth of evidence-based resources for iHV members to support your work in sexual and reproductive health:

• Literature and Policy review to support Sexual and Reproductive Health
• Preconception Nutrition and Healthy Eating in Pregnancy Infographics
• Good Practice Points on sexual and reproductive health
• Films and Webinars
• Parent interactive leaflet
• Postnatal Contraception Awareness Session for Health Visitors – Facilitator Guide.

 

• Taking care of children’s teeth: A guide for Health Visitors – Brush DJ
  This 1-hour course improves your knowledge, skills and confidence in promoting oral health, with evidence-based information and resources/ videos to share with parents and carers to help them look after their children’s teeth.
• iHV Toolkits – iHV Motor Development toolkit
  The iHV has been working with leading paediatricians and experts in motor development and neurodisability to develop a “Motor Development Toolkit” for health visiting and bespoke training which incorporates the key recommendations outlined in the new Cerebral Palsy Framework (see recent iHV news story on this). Our iHV-member resources and training are due to be launched at the end of June. Don’t miss out, look out for further details on our website and via social media – or contact us at [email protected] to discuss your workforce CPD needs.
• iHV Website – Visit our Resources – Resource Library A-Z
  Contains a vast wealth of resources to support your practice, with just a few highlighted below as examples:
  • Autism in the Early Years Factographic – Funded by NHS England, and co-designed with professionals and families, to support learning and understanding of autism in the Early Years and support needs pre-diagnosis. Content is presented in four sections:
    • Working with families – insights from parents of autistic children, and those with lived experience, about what life is like with autism, and before diagnosis.
    • Key facts – on autism and signs of autism in the early years. Aims to dispel some common myths.
    • Communication – information on the different ways autistic people may communicate, as well as tools to support communication development, and understand what behaviour may be communicating.
    • Support for you – signposts to various organisations that support families and professionals with different aspects of autism.
    • iHV Good Practice Points on:
      • Understanding behaviour to support the sensory needs of children with autism
      • Supporting children on the autistic spectrum and their families
      • Supporting families with pre-school children to promote speech, language and communication development when there are signs of autism.
  • Behaviour – Evidence-based resources, including a short animation and Good Practice Points to inform your practice when supporting families with understanding behaviour, including guidance on alternatives to restrictive practices.
  • Respiratory Illness, Strep A and Flu – e-learning, resources (for practitioners and families), webinars and podcasts to support health visitors to raise parental awareness of respiratory illness in children and babies under three-years-old. Resources include “When to worry” guides for parents (on bronchiolitis and RSV, croup, difficulty breathing and wheeze), short films, and useful links to other organisations that provide support for families.

Being a member of the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) offers so many benefits for health visitors and multi-disciplinary members of health visiting teams. The iHV is a charity and our member benefits are heavily subsidised to keep our membership fees as low as possible – we want as many practitioners as possible to benefit. Here’s what members gain:

• Professional Development: Access to training, workshops, Insights webinars and resources to enhance skills and knowledge.
• Networking Opportunities and Special Interest Groups: Connect with other health visiting practitioners and experts in the field.
• Advocacy & Influence: Be part of a collective voice shaping policies and best practices in health visiting and child/ family health.
• Exclusive Publications & Research: Stay informed with reports, guidelines, and evidence-based insights, research and innovations.
• Discounts on Training & Events: Reduced fees for CPD courses and conferences.

Here’s what some of our corporate members have to say about their membership with us:

“Excellent source of information and the iHV do a lot of groundwork I don’t have time to do in practice”

“I feel appreciated by my organisation as a valued part of the health visiting team, being a corporate member – having access to all the resources and information”

“Providing evidence-based information and excellent training. I am aware that the iHV are working hard in the background on our behalf”

If you are a health visiting service lead and you would like to enquire about iHV corporate membership for your whole service – please contact [email protected] today – you can find out more about iHV corporate membership here.