Bookings now open for iHV Leadership Conference 2024!

We are delighted to launch bookings for our annual iHV Leadership Conference ‘Change for the better: Leading towards a fairer and equitable future‘. This year’s flagship conference will be held on Wednesday 4 December 2024 at De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms, Holborn, London.

The vibrant iHV Leadership Conference has become the highlight of the year for many – bringing together health visitors, health visiting leaders, policymakers, academics and partners from all four nations of the UK, all united in a shared vision to drive meaningful change for babies, children, families and communities through excellence in health visiting.

Be inspired – connect – learn! Lead health visiting into the future…
This conference will provide delegates with an opportunity to explore leadership in action, using examples from practice, research and policy to achieve fair and equitable health provision for all. It also provides an invaluable opportunity to connect with colleagues and leaders from across the UK to share ideas and innovations, stimulate learning and make new connections. Delegates tell us that they leave feeling re-energised and better equipped to lead health visiting into the future.

We have a fantastic line up of high profile and inspirational speakers all focused on equipping us to lead change for the better – the programme is organised around four key themes:

Leading change, improving health equity: Health disparities persist across the UK, and the need for equitable healthcare has never been more pressing. Learn from leading experts in their field and discover actionable strategies that you can implement in your practice, with keynote speakers:

Professor Dame Lesley Regan – Women’s Health Ambassador for England and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Professor Charlotte McArdle – Deputy Chief Nursing Office for England and author of “Nurses for Health Equity: Guidelines for Tackling the Social Determinants of Health”
Rosamund Adoo Kissi Debrah – Founder Ella Roberta Family Foundation

Leading health visiting policy across the UK: We are delighted to be joined by a 4-nations’ CNO panel discussing their strategies for health visiting in the UK, and the importance of leadership to strengthen prevention, population health and health equity:

Duncan Burton – Chief Nursing Officer | England
Karen Jewell – Chief Midwifery Officer | Wales
Anne Armstrong – Chief Nursing Officers Directorate | Scottish Government
Maria McIlgorm – Chief Nursing Officer | Northern Ireland

Leading through research and evidence-based practice: Engage with cutting-edge research that is shaping the future of health visiting. Keynote speakers include:

Dr Christine O’Farrelly – Senior Research Associate at PEDAL – Health visitor “Healthy Start Happy Start”
Hull Health Visiting team – Leading change through evidence-driven health visiting service model
Speaker TBC – The importance of health visiting research

Lead Change, Shape the Future: Focused on leading and equipping the health visiting workforce. Explore the tools, strategies, and mindset needed to lead with impact. Keynote speakers include:

Acosia Nyanin – Deputy Chief Nursing Officer for England – Professional and System Leadership
Dr Karen Whittaker – iHV Education and Workforce Lead – Education project and maturity matrix
Amanda Holland – iHV Professional Services Lead – Preceptorship and workforce retention

Spaces are limited, and demand is high for this popular conference, so early booking is recommended.

Options:

Join us in-person in London:
More and more people are telling us how much they value the opportunity to meet together in-person. London in December offers a unique setting for our conference, with an air of celebration as lights adorn the streets, creating a festive atmosphere unlike any other. This special occasion not only provides an opportunity to engage with thought-provoking discussions and insightful sessions, but also to reconnect with colleagues and build lasting relationships.

Don’t just take our word for it – here is what previous conference delegates said:

“This was probably one of the most inspiring conferences I’ve been to. Such incredible work driven by passionate professionals. My head was buzzing of ideas after I left and still is”

“Wow – Very strong speakers. Wonderful how new innovative practices and policies are shared and to hear it so eloquently from a parent’s perspective too”

Unable to join in person – join online: Thanks to our partnership with Inclusive Digital, a leading digital production company with expertise in online conferences, we have refined the art of online conferences and offer a fabulous experience to online delegates:

“An opportunity to attend virtually was invaluable. I feel I have had the benefits of going – renewed motivation, reminder of why we do this etc – without the long journey and the expense of staying in accommodation”

“The online option is a great inclusion and I really appreciate the opportunity to join…thank you”

“It was an amazing day, even attending virtually I felt part of the room.”

Whether you join us in the heart of London or from the comfort of your home, you can expect a truly enriching and connected experience.

Click here to view the full programme

Click here for ticket options and booking details

Extra discounts and concessions are available for iHV members, early booking and group bookings. Our Early Bird offer ends on 31 October 2024.

iHV EBP Conference 2025 | Healthier Beginnings: Calling all health visiting team members for abstracts!

Are you a health visiting team member contributing to a health visitor-led service improvement initiative, which is aimed at improving outcomes for babies, children and families? (for example, oral health, healthy weight and nutrition, infant feeding)
Are you a health visitor with innovative ideas and successful initiatives that have made a difference in the lives of children and families?
Are you a researcher or academic with examples of cutting-edge developments in health visiting practice, innovation or research?

Then don’t delay – submit your abstract today to join us at iHV Evidence-based Practice Conference 2025 “Healthier Beginnings”. It will be held at King’s House Conference Centre in Manchester on Thursday 8 May 2025.

Healthier Beginnings

Call for Abstracts

With a new government and changes in nurse leadership across many UK nations, we are entering a transformative era for child and family health in the UK. Change brings opportunity, and health visitors across the UK are poised to lead our profession into the future. We believe in the power of innovation, research, and evidence-based practices in health visiting to create a brighter, healthier future for all babies, children, and families. Our impact is amplified when we unite and learn from one another.

Join us on our conference platform in 2025

Connect with local, national, and international experts and speakers to share your developments in health visiting practice, innovation, and the latest research aimed at addressing health inequalities and improving health outcomes for babies, children, and families. Be a part of this important event and help shape the future of health visiting.

Why submit an abstract?

Top-scoring abstract authors have the chance to present their work as an oral breakout session speaker, a concurrent session speaker, or even a plenary keynote speaker. You can indicate your preferences in your submission and allocation of presenter sessions will depend on scoring and topic selection.

The benefits of presenting include:

Recognition: Raise your own profile as a speaker at a UK-wide conference
Showcase your work and raise the profile of your organisation
Networking and learning: Connect, collaborate and learn from other practitioners working in the field of health visiting and family public health
Boost your career: Add your experience of presenting to your curriculum vitae (CV)

Important dates:

Submission deadline: 7 October 2024.
Notification of acceptance: After an iHV peer-review process, participants will be informed of acceptance of abstracts for either oral keynote/concurrent presentation, or an oral breakout presentation, by 24 October 2024.
Conference Date: Thursday 8 May 2025. Successful entrants will receive a special 25% discount on their conference ticket. If your organisation is paying for your ticket, please ensure you have their approval prior to submitting your abstract.

Click here for further details and how to submit your abstract

We look forward to reading your abstracts and hearing about your practice innovations and research!
Any questions – please email [email protected].

Open access to ‘UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) Pertussis Update’

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) recently presented a national update on Pertussis at the iHV Evidence-based Practice Conference on 3 July 2024. With UKHSA’s permission, we have now made the recording of this session ‘open access’ so it can be shared and viewed more widely with health visitors and health visiting team members across the UK.

UKHSA is calling on frontline clinicians to promote the uptake of the pertussis vaccine. Pregnant women should receive a pertussis-containing vaccination between 20- and 32-weeks’ gestation and with every pregnancy. Health visitors have a crucial role in discussing vaccinations with pregnant women and promoting vaccine uptake.

Watch the recording of the UKHSA Pertussis Update at iHV Evidence-based Practice Conference here.

In her presentation, Dr Helen Campbell (Lead Clinical Scientist at the UKHSA Immunisation team) highlights the clinical features of pertussis:

It is a bacterial infection affecting the lungs
Initial symptoms resemble a cold, such as a runny nose and sore throat
After about a week, severe coughing bouts can develop, typically worse at night (known as the 100-day cough)
Young babies may make a distinctive ‘whoop’ sound or have difficulty breathing after coughing.

Helen shared a very powerful video which shows a young baby who is experiencing a long bout of coughing and whooping: https://youtu.be/S3oZrMGDMMw (WARNING: this video may be upsetting for some viewers).

New data published by UKHSA show a concerning increase in Pertussis cases:

May 2024: 2,591 confirmed cases
April 2024: 2,106 confirmed cases
March 2024: 1,427 confirmed cases
February 2024: 920 confirmed cases
January 2024: 555 confirmed cases

This brings the total number of cases from January to May 2024 to 7,599.

Sadly, there have been 9 infant deaths since the current outbreak began in November last year with one death in December 2023 and eight deaths between January and May 2024.

Young babies are at the highest risk of severe complications and death from pertussis. Evidence from England shows that vaccination at the right time in pregnancy is highly effective, giving 92% protection against infant death. However, the latest uptake data for the vaccination offered to pregnant women shows a decline:

March 2024: 58.9% coverage
March 2017: Peak coverage of 72.6%

Timely vaccination during pregnancy and in childhood is crucial to protect vulnerable and young babies from serious diseases. Babies should receive three doses of the 6-in-1 vaccine at 8, 12, and 16 weeks, followed by a pre-school booster. Health visitors have a vital role in:

recommending pertussis vaccination
checking vaccine status
providing guidance on where and when to obtain vaccinations
addressing any queries parents or caregivers may have.

For further information and to access UKHSA resources on Pertussis, click here.

UKHSA has recently published a powerful new blog post by Jenny, a parent who shares her terrifying experience of her three week old daughter, Layla and her struggle with pertussis.

Call for iHV EBP 2025 abstracts now open!

Healthier Beginnings

Call for Abstracts

Want to be part of our fantastic conference next year?

Call for abstracts for iHV Evidence-based Practice Conference 2025 is now open!

Submit your abstract for our iHV Evidence-based Practice conference “Healthier Beginnings” which will be held at King’s House Conference Centre in Manchester on Thursday 8 May 2025.

With a new government and changes in nurse leadership across many UK nations, we are entering a new era for child and family health in the UK. With change, there is also opportunity – and as a profession, health visitors across the UK will be leading our profession into the future. We believe in the power of health visiting innovation, research, and evidence-based practices to create a brighter, healthier future for all babies, children and families – and the impact that we have is magnified when we come together and learn from each other.

Be part of our conference platform in 2025 – join local, national, and international experts and speakers and share your cutting-edge developments in health visiting practice, innovation and the latest research to address health inequalities and improve health outcomes for babies, children and families.

What are the benefits of presenting at the iHV conference?

It’s an excellent opportunity for you to:

Raise your own profile as a speaker at a UK-wide conference
Raise the profile of your organisation and showcase your work
Connect, collaborate and learn from other practitioners working in the field of health visiting and family public health
Add your experience of presenting to your CV and boost your career

Top-scoring abstract authors have the chance to present their work as a concurrent session speaker, or even a plenary talk in the main auditorium (you can indicate your preferences – allocation will depend on scoring and topic selection).

What are the presentation opportunities?

A short oral breakout session presentation
An oral concurrent presentation
A plenary keynote presentation

Abstract timeline:

Submissions: The abstract submission deadline is 7 October 2024.
Notifications: After an iHV peer-review process, participants will be informed of acceptance of abstracts for either oral keynote/concurrent presentation, or an oral breakout presentation, by 24 October 2024.

For further details and how to submit

We look forward to reading your abstracts and hearing about your practice innovations and research! Any questions – please email [email protected].

Another fabulous conference! And call for abstracts for 2025!

Yesterday, we had an amazing day at the iHV Evidence-based Practice Conference 2024: A Healthier Future. We had a packed conference hall, with delegates and speakers joining from all UK nations, both in-person in Manchester plus many more online – there was an incredible buzz in the room! Our conference showcased the very best of health visiting practice and research. From start to finish, the event was packed with examples of the difference that health visiting can make, led by practitioners and with families at the heart of our work.

Alison Morton opens iHV EBP 2024

iHV EBP 2024

We would like to extend a huge heartfelt thank you to our delegates, our inspiring speakers – including our parent speakers who are experts by experience – our wonderful exhibitors and our generous sponsor – the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

UKHSA Sponsor stand at iHV EBP 2024

Dr Helen Campbell, Lead Scientist in the Immunisation Division at the UKHSA, opened our conference with the breakfast sponsor session by delivering a very important national update on pertussis. She shared data on the worrying rise of pertussis cases in infants in 2024 and called for health visitors to promote the uptake of the pertussis vaccine for pregnant women.

Dr Helen Campbell presenting the iHV EBP 2024 Sponsor Breakfast Session

Dr Helen Campbell, Lead Scientist in the Immunisation Division at UKHSA, giving the Sponsor Breakfast Session

With two plenary keynote sessions, eight concurrent sessions, plus two simultaneous oral breakout sessions, there was plenty for delegates to learn and enjoy. There were so many highlights from the day, here are just a few examples (there are too many to mention):

Keynote session one focused on tackling inequalities in both maternal mortality and racially-driven inequalities for babies and children. We were delighted to be joined by expert speakers from MBRRACE (Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audit and Confidential Enquiries) and the NHS RHO (Race Health Observatory). This session also included a very powerful ‘armchair’ conversation with Lauren Clarke and Matt Wynter who are parents and experts by experience – they described their personal experiences of having serious neonatal jaundice missed due to poor recognition of the condition in babies with darker skin colour.
Keynote session two explored the evidence and research to reduce health inequalities. Professor Sally Kendall and Dr Erica Gadsby focused on health visiting research during the COVID-19 pandemic and Professor Helen Bedford shared the national data and research on vaccinations focusing on the vital role that health visitors play in improving vaccination uptake.
Alison Morton, iHV CEO, delivered the final keynote presentation on ‘Radical health visiting – driving change’ and shared 3 key messages – “Get real, get radical and get on!”
Chris Whitman and Hannah Potter, both from Leeds Community Healthcare, won best poster presentation for the oral breakout sessions following their successful abstract submissions. A huge congratulations once again from #TeamiHV!

Winners of the iHV EBP 2024 Poster Award: Chris Whitman and Hannah Potter, receiving their awards from Alison Morton

Our conference programme brought together local, national, and international experts and speakers who focused on strengthening health visiting practice. We explored together how we can build on the present to help shape the future of health visiting and tackle inequalities and improve outcomes for babies, children and families. The day was a huge success, and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! Some early conference feedback we have received so far includes:

“Really effective speakers – enjoyed the sessions and learned so much”

“Just totally absorbing”

“Really good to hear what’s happening around the country”

“Really good hearing what a diverse range of research that is going on in health visiting and public health”

“Go out there and be brave”

“Feel totally motivated and fired up. Exactly what was needed”

“It was just an excellent experience”

Call for abstracts 2025

If you would like to be part of our EBP conference next year on 8 May 2025 at King’s House Conference Centre in Manchester, our call for abstracts for iHV EBP Conference 2025: ‘Healthier Beginnings’ is now open! To find out more, click here.

We can’t wait to see you next year!

Bookings now open for iHV PIMH Conference 2024

We are delighted to announce the launch of our 6^th annual Perinatal and Infant Mental Health (PIMH) Conference ‘Dismantling the Barriers: collaborative approaches to perinatal mental health care’, taking place on Thursday 19 September 2024 as a half-day virtual conference.

Anyone can experience mental health problems during pregnancy or after having a baby. Without adequate support these problems can impact negatively on short and long-term outcomes for the whole family. Stigma and fear of child removal remain significant barriers to families seeking support for perinatal mental health concerns. Some families are at greater risk of experiencing poor mental health, particularly where they face multiple disadvantages and systemic inequalities. They’re also less likely to be offered the care they need.

Evidence suggests that improved professional competence, closer multi-agency working and training, and collaboration with parents from diverse backgrounds can improve outcomes for families experiencing poor perinatal mental health, particularly where multiple adversity exists.

This conference will focus on raising awareness of families whose perinatal mental health needs are less well met and understood. It will be suitable for all practitioners working with families in the perinatal period as well as service leads, commissioners, researchers and policy makers.

We are delighted to have expert speakers sharing their experiences about:

Young parent families
Gypsy Roma and Traveller families
Families with mothers in prison
Asylum-seeking families

By considering recommendations from recent research, reflections on best practice examples and powerful accounts from parents, we’ll think about how we can work together to improve experiences and dismantle barriers for these families in receiving equitable, high quality perinatal mental health care.

If you are passionate about improving the emotional health and wellbeing of all families, then book now and join us for what promises to be a dynamic and inspiring event!

Go to our conference website to find out more and see our fabulous ticket offers

Don’t miss our special early bird ticket rates, available until 19 July 2024 – book your place today! In addition, group bookings of 5 or more will receive a 15% discount off the total order when booked at the same time.

Bookings now open for iHV EBP Conference 2024

We are delighted to announce that we will be back in Manchester at King’s House Conference Centre on 3 July 2024 for this year’s iHV Evidence-based Practice (EBP) Conference ‘A Healthier Future’ – with options to join us in-person in Manchester, or online, to give you flexibility.

The focus of this year’s EBP conference is on addressing health inequalities, a topic that has never been more poignant, with more babies and children experiencing poorer outcomes and living in poverty than ever before. How can we ensure a healthier future, where all babies and children can thrive? How can we use the best available evidence and research to reduce health inequalities and strengthen health visiting practice?

Our conference will provide a platform for local, national, and international experts and speakers to come together and share excellence in health visiting practice, public health, innovation, and the latest research focused on improving outcomes and reducing inequalities for babies, children and families.

Speakers

We have a fabulous line up of speakers, including but not limited to:

Dr Allison Felker, Senior Researcher, MBRRACE-UK – who will share the findings from the MBRRACE-UK Report with a focus on inequalities in women’s health.
Dr Ngozi Edi-Osagie, National Clinical Director neonatal Critical Care, NHS England, Arnie Puntis,Research and Policy Manager, NHS Race and Health Observatory and speakers from the RHO Maternal and Neonatal Health Advisory Group (to be confirmed) – who will be presenting on tackling inequalities for babies, children and families with black and brown skin.
Professor Helen Bedford– who will share her expertise on the world of childhood vaccinations, highlighting the current measles surge and falling rates of MMR vaccine uptake.
Dr Erica Gadsby and Professor Sally Kendall– who will present their RREHOPE study – an evaluation of the impacts of the pandemic (and service work arounds) on health visiting.
Alison Morton,CEO, Institute of Health Visiting – speaking about radical health visiting and driving change.
Michele Lawrence,Head of Safeguarding, Chief Public Health Nurse Office, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities – who will be presenting about the new Working Together to Safeguarding Children 2023 Guidance.
Ana María Narváez, Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer, The Food Foundation –who will be sharing The Food Foundation’s annual flagship report, The Broken Plate, and sharing vital metrics revealing the health of our food system and its impact on our lives.
Sharin Baldwin, Senior Health Visitor Research Lead, iHV/MECSH, and Hilda Beauchamp,iHV Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Lead – who will be sharing the findings from the Alarm Distress BaBy Scale (ADBB) feasibility study.
Plus, more to be announced soon!

Our conference programme also includes a wide range of interesting topics and presentations drawn from the highest scoring submissions to our call for abstracts from researchers and leaders in practice. We will be adding their details to our programme soon, once final confirmation is received.

See our fabulous ticket offers!

Don’t miss our special early bird ticket rates, available until 19 April 2024 – book your place today! In addition, group bookings of 5 or more will receive a 15% discount off the total order when booked at the same time.

Find out more about our programme, speakers and how to book

Supporting children with SEND is a key priority for 2024 – iHV highlights vital role of HVs at APPG

It is great to see that supporting children with SEND is a key priority across government and the healthcare system in 2024. The year will get off to a flying start in parliament with the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Special Needs and Disabilities (SEND) meeting on Tuesday 9 January.

We are delighted that Alison Morton, iHV’s CEO, has been asked to provide a keynote presentation on the vital role that health visitors play, supporting both parents and babies and young children during the earliest years of life.

The session is being hosted by cross-party MPs, Olivia Blake MP (chair) and vice chairs Sally-Ann Hart MP, Marsha De Cordova MP, James Sunderland MP, Andy McDonald MP, with secretariat provided by the National Association of Head Teachers. The APPG session will concentrate on the critical importance of early intervention in the context of SEND. This includes:

The significance of early identification of SEND.
Ensuring timely and appropriate support for those identified.
The barriers in place and proposed solutions.

Other speakers on the panel are: Claire Bithall – Parent of a 9-year-old autistic son; Allison Walker – SENCO at Lloyd Park Children’s Charity; Alex Dale and Phil Haslett – f40 Group; Beatrice Merrick – Chief Executive, Early Education; Cath Lowther – General Secretary, Association of Educational Psychologists; and Natalie Browne – 0-5 Team Manager Havering Council.

In 2024, the Institute of Health Visiting will be leading and engaging in a number of other programmes of work to improve the support for babies and young children with SEND and their families. This is an area that will demand increased attention from health visiting teams and we encourage all health visitors to keep abreast of the latest evidence and policies in this space.

iHV SEND conference

To support health visiting teams, we are hosting our very first iHV SEND conference on 14 March 2024 just outside London in Hertfordshire. The one-day conference will be jam-packed with updates from across a breadth of SEND priority areas and is available as an in-person or online delegate options.

Providing better joined-up support to improve the outcomes for children with SEND is a national priority and requires a multi-agency approach. Our SEND conference aims to equip health visitors and early years practitioners (and anyone looking to improve outcomes for babies and young children with SEND and their families) with new knowledge and skills to support better early identification of need and joined up support.

We have a fantastic line-up of high-profile national speakers including: Dame Rachel de Souza – The Children’s Commissioner for England; and Professor Simon Kenny OBE– national clinical director for children and young people and national cerebral palsy pathway group chair. With a breadth of experience, our speakers will present on the current national SEND priorities and encompass evidence-based practice and the latest research on a wide range of SEND topics from experts in their field, including experts with lived experience.

Our conference will also provide an excellent opportunity to network with multi-agency professionals and leading SEND experts from across the UK, as well as charities and exhibitors to support your work in this area.

Don’t miss out on this wonderful opportunity to enhance your health visiting practice and make a difference to babies and children with SEND.

All our conference tickets are subsidised to keep ticket prices as low we can and ensure that as many people as possible can attend. Our early bird ticket sales are open – book at further discounted rates by 31 January 2024.

See here for more details and how to book

iHV Leadership conference 2023 recordings available

Last week, health visiting leaders, practitioners, policy makers and partners joined together in London for the Institute of Health Visiting’s annual Leadership conference. The event was held at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists/ Royal College of Midwives’ headquarters at 10 Union Street in London. Despite significant travel disruptions caused by the rail strike, 162 delegates were able to attend in-person, with a further 102 delegates registered online – with many saying that they wouldn’t miss it for the world! Thank you, we really value all your support.

The title of the conference was “Leading in a complex world” – if we have ever needed strong leaders, we need them now! With so much rapid change, it is even more important that we take time out to take stock, and learn, and reflect together. The aim of the iHV Leadership conference is for everyone to leave the conference feeling proud of the work that they do, valued, inspired, connected and energised with lots of new ideas to lead health visiting into the future.

iHV Leadership Conference 2023

The conference had a stellar line-up of national expert keynote speakers and panellists who skilfully covered an extensive breadth of topics including the impacts of child poverty, preconception care, preventative approaches to address the pressures on urgent care, health visiting research and education priorities (read the programme here). We were also delighted to be joined by Dame Ruth May DBE, the Chief Nursing Officer for England, who shared her new Vision for Nursing and Midwifery (including health visiting), hot off the press after it was launched at the CNO Summit a couple of weeks ago. Whilst this Vision is aimed at health visitors in England, a number of the priorities that the Vision is addressing will be similar priorities for all UK nations, with lots of transferable principles wherever health visitors are working.

Dame Ruth May DBE, CNO England, addressing iHV Leadership Conference 2023

In her keynote address, Dame Ruth said:

“I’ve been wanting to set out a Vision for nurses, midwives – and now health visitors – going forwards into the future… the Institute of Health Visiting has played a real part in that, wanting to make sure that health visiting, and school nursing, and public health nursing were definitely part of it.”

Dame Ruth went on to explain that it was “no accident” that “Prevention, protection promotion and reducing health inequalities” is the first priority area in her Vision. When the order of the priority areas were being decided, amongst 6 other competing important priorities, Ruth explained that it was important to highlight the “step change” needed to prioritise this area by putting it first. The remaining six ‘priority areas’ of Ruth’s Vision will also need to be translated into key actions for health visiting to ensure that they are achieved. The seven priority areas are:

Prevention, protection, promotion and reducing health inequalities
Protecting our planet
Person-centred care
Public and patient safety
Professional leadership and integration.

With two additional enabling areas focused on:

Professional culture
People and workforce development.

Ruth called on health visitors to join with her in delivering this Vision, which would start with understanding the data on health visiting workforce and service delivery – Ruth made a plea for help with this. The keynote address concluded with Ruth reiterating her commitment to health visiting, her desire to work with practitioners and the iHV, and to use her voice with the government of the day, stating, “I look forward to working with you – I look forward to working for you – and look forward to you challenging me, making sure we make this a reality”.

Ruth’s keynote address was then followed by an interesting panel discussion which included reflections and comments from Dr Helen Duncan (National Lead for Lifecourse Intelligence, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities), Liz Fenton (Deputy Chief Nurse, Workforce, Training and Education Directorate, NHS England) and Nicky Brown (Senior Nurse/Public Health Specialist Babies, Children and Young People, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities).

iHV Leadership Conference 2023

Overall, the conference has received excellent feedback in the post-event evaluations received so far. There was an incredible buzz in the room as delegates connected with old friends and made new ones – there is something very special about meeting together as a health visiting community in London in the festive season.

The conference was recorded and all delegates will have received links to access all conference materials today that we have received permission to share to support further reflection and learning (if you have not received these, please do get in touch with [email protected] who can help).

Posts from #iHVLeadership2023

For those of you who could not either join us on the day or could not follow the #iHVLeadership2023 hashtag on X (formerly known as Twitter), we’ve collected and made a little “Wakelet” collection of the day’s posts so you can follow some of what was shared. Please see below.

Bookings now open for a brand-new national SEND conference!

We are delighted to announce the launch of a brand-new national SEND conference: ‘A Different Journey – The best life from the start’. This conference is being co-delivered by the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) and Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust on Thursday 14 March 2024 at Hertfordshire Development Centre in Stevenage.

The SEND conference aims to equip health visitors and early years practitioners with new knowledge and skills to support babies and young children with SEND, with a focus on early support and early identification of need.

Our conference programme includes inspirational local and national guest speakers and will encompass a wide range of SEND topics from experts in their field including:

Overview of national picture and SEND policy
Improving seamless support through Integrated Care Systems and pathways
Reaching underserved communities with SEND
Enhancing communication
Understanding Cerebral Palsy
Supporting a child with a cleft palate
Understanding Down’s Syndrome
Neurodiversity in the early years
Safeguarding is everyone’s business

Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust previously hosted a SEND Health Conference in October 2022 which attracted national interest and requests for a national SEND conference. In collaboration with the iHV, and in response to demand, we are delighted to launch our first national SEND conference. This has been made possible through a partnership collaboration between the iHV and Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust. Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust received excellent feedback from delegates stating that it was ‘unique’, and they left feeling ‘inspired’ and had ‘new knowledge and tools to improve their practice’!

Don’t miss out on this wonderful opportunity to enhance your health visiting practice and make a difference to babies and children with SEND.

Our early bird ticket sales are now open – book at discounted rates by 31 January 2024.

Find out more about our programme, speakers and how to book