Alison Morton, Executive Director iHV, joined Lee Thomas at BBC Radio Stoke this morning on an item which is part of a series on the impact of the pandemic on parents – with today’s session on new parents and health visiting.
Alison said:
“It is so sad to hear these stories from those parents who have been seriously let down by a system which is under enormous pressure. And also the health visitors who have worked really, really hard through the pandemic to support thousands and thousands of families, but it hasn’t been enough.”
Alison stated that there are two main drivers for this situation in England: 1) that need has increased; and 2) the capacity of the service to respond has been stretched to the limit – with parents bearing the brunt of this.
“As many of the parents stated, a lot of the health visiting services shifted to non-face-to-face, using video and telephone, but it is not the same as seeing someone face-to-face. The root of this can be traced to the beginning of the pandemic when the Government categorised health visiting as a partial stop service – there was a failure to recognise the health visitor’s vital role and the support that it offers to parents; just being alongside parents.”
She also said that the current ‘sticking plasters are not good enough’ and we need a national plan to put it right for children now.
The news item on parents and the pandemic starts at 1:09:13 into the programme with parents providing their experiences, and Alison joins at 1:11:41 with the item ending at 1:19:33