The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has launched their public consultation for specialist community public health nursing (SCPHN) standards – building on ambitions for community and public health nursing.

The new NMC standards offer the opportunity to build on the advances in the evidence base for universal child and family health visiting for the pressing public health challenges of our times. It is vitally important that the views of health visitors are heard and shape these new standards.

We will be responding from the iHV – as well as submitting your own response, look out for our mailings on ways that you can help shape the iHV’s response.

 

The standards, for specialist community public health nursing (SCPHN) and specialist practice qualifications (SPQs), will equip the next generation of community and public health nurses working in health and social care with the right proficiencies to care for people in a rapidly changing world.

These essential education standards were last updated over 15 years ago. But we need fit for purpose standards that reflect the realities of modern nursing in health and social care now

These draft standards, which have been co-produced with subject experts, will provide the right proficiencies these professionals need to support and care for people in a rapidly changing world.

The consultation will run until Monday 2 August 2021. Normally these NMC consultations run for 12 weeks but they’ve extended this one to more than 16 weeks to give you and your colleagues more time to take part given the continued pressures on services caused by the pandemic.

A new consultation, from Department of Health and Social Care and Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, has been launched on proposals to ban online adverts for foods high in fat, sugar and salt in the UK to tackle the obesity crisis and get the nation fit and healthy.

  • Proposal to ban online adverts promoting food high in fat, sugar and salt.
  • Ban would help protect children from developing long-term unhealthy eating habits.
  • Part of government’s landmark obesity strategy to help everyone live healthier lives.

Research shows children are exposed to over 15 billion adverts for products high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) online every year.

Evidence shows that exposure to HFSS advertising can affect what children eat and when they eat, both in the short term by increasing the amount of food children eat immediately after being exposed to an advert, and by shaping longer-term food preferences from a young age.

The new consultation, which will run for 6 weeks, will gather views from the public and industry stakeholders to understand the impact and challenges of introducing a total ban on the advertising of these products online, to help people live healthier lives and tackle childhood obesity.

The Early Years healthy development questionnaire has been extended by one week to help capture a wide range of responses. The new closing date is 11:59pm on Friday 23 October.

The Prime Minister has asked Rt Hon Andrea Leadsom MP to lead a new review into improving health and development outcomes of babies and young children in England. The time from conception to the age of 2 is a critical time for development and can impact physical health, mental health and opportunity throughout life.

They’d like to hear from recent parents, including those who gave birth during the lockdown and public health response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, about the experiences of care and services you received.

They’d also like to hear from health service professionals, charities, volunteer groups and academics.

They will use your views to check where progress has been made and where more needs to be done in the future both locally and nationally.

The questionnaire has been extended by one week to help capture a wide range of responses. The new closing date is 11:59pm on Friday 23 October.

The Prime Minister has asked Rt Hon Andrea Leadsom MP to lead a new review into improving health and development outcomes of babies and young children in England. The time from conception to the age of 2 is a critical time for development and can impact physical health, mental health and opportunity throughout life.

The consultation would like to hear from recent parents, including those who gave birth during the lockdown, and public health response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, about the experiences of care and services you received.

They’d also like to hear from health service professionals, charities, volunteer groups and academics.

Your views can help to shape the outcome of the review – please use this opportunity and share to others to respond too.

The closing date for responses is 11:59pm on Friday 16 October 2020.

Public Health England (PHE) is conducting an evidence review on social prescribing approaches for migrant populations in England in collaboration with University College London (UCL) and International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Social prescribing is a major component of the NHS England Long Term Plan and Universal Personalised Care. It is defined by the NHS as a method by which referrals from primary care professionals and local agencies, as well as self-referrals, are made to link workers, who in turn connect individuals with community, voluntary, statutory and other sector services intended to improve holistic health and wellbeing.

Social prescribing models can include:

  • direct referrals from primary health care, social care or local agencies made to link workers, facilitators, coordinators and navigators in the UK, who in turn assist individuals in reaching services and activities
  • self-referral to link workers, facilitators, coordinators and navigators in the UK, who in turn assist individuals in reaching services and activities
  • signposting from health care, social care or local agencies to services and activities

They would like:

  • information published between 1 January 2000 and 1 May 2020
  • unpublished information related to research carried out between 1 January 2000 and 1 May 2020, including any ongoing research
  • reports that summarise or collate migrants’ lived experiences, for example, organisational reports or internal evaluations of projects or services (the views, experiences and opinions of individual professionals, researchers, commentators or patients will not be included, however)

They are especially interested in the following outcomes for key area 2:

  • improved self-esteem and confidence
  • greater sense of control and empowerment
  • reduction in symptoms of anxiety and depression
  • improved knowledge and skills
  • improved social connectivity

This consultation closes at

The draft Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder quality standard consultation period is now open.

Please submit your comments on the form listed on the website and ensure all relevant fields are completed.

Responses must be submitted to [email protected] by 5pm on FRIDAY 3 APRIL 2020.

Following consultation the comments will be considered by the quality standards advisory committee (QSAC) and a record of this summarised in the QSAC meeting minutes. Registered stakeholders that submitted comments will be sent a link to the QSAC meeting minutes on the NICE website when the final quality standard publishes so that they may see how their comments were considered by the committee during the meeting.

Comments received from non-registered organisations and individuals are not summarised in the formal report presented to the committee but are included as an appendix. These comments are not made available on the NICE website. However, if they result in changes to the quality standard this is recorded in the committee meeting minutes.

The Department of Health and Social Care 12-week consultation asks if there should be more restrictions on how retailers promote food and drink that is high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS).

The government is proposing new rules to restrict retailers using promotions thought to cause excessive consumption of HFSS food and drink by children.

The consultation asks people to give their views on:

  1. restricting multibuy promotions of HFSS products, such as ‘buy one, get one free’
  2. restricting promotions of HFSS products at checkouts, end of aisles and store entrances

This consultation also seeks views on:

  • which businesses, products and types of promotions should be included in the restrictions
  • definitions for HFSS products, price promotions and locations in stores
  • how businesses can put this into practice and whether they will face any difficulties.

The consultation is part of chapter 2 of the government’s childhood obesity plan. It will seek views from the public and industry on the potential measures, alongside whether exemptions should be made for small businesses so they are not penalised by the rules.

iHV response to consultation

We are submitting a response from the iHV and would like to include the voices of health visitors, including our members, Champions and Fellows.

Collective professional response:

We are pulling together a collective professional response via the iHV. Please email your comments for the collective professional response to [email protected] by 22 March 2019 so that we can collate all comments, as the consultation closes at 11.59pm on Saturday 6 April 2019.

For Individual/organisational responses:

If you would like to respond individually or as an organisation, please go to the Open Consultation that can be found hereComments for the consultation to be received no later than 11.59pm on Saturday 6 April 2019

We look forward to receiving your responses – and, hopefully, together we can make the HV voice be heard.

 

 

Skills for Health has now published the proposed Apprenticeship Standard for SCPHN in England for wide consultation.

Apprenticeships are employer-led work-based learning programmes in a vocational or professional occupational area. Apprenticeships are approved routes through work-based learning and development that lead to a great variety of occupational job roles at a wide range of levels. They are funded by the Apprenticeship Levy paid by employers. Employers can then use the Levy to pay for staff to undertake a programme of learning and development covering fees and an element of salary costs. For education in the health professions, this replaces current funding mechanisms such as bursaries or salary replacement and the payment of fees administered and overseen by Health Education England.

In order for this scheme to put into operation, each Apprenticeship must have an approved Apprenticeship Standard. This specifies a number of high level ‘Core Duties’ broken down into Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours (KSBs). For the SCPHN, this is further broken down into ‘Option 1’: Health Visitor and School Nurse; and ‘Option 2’: Occupational Health Nurse.

Core duties and KSBs are intended to be equally applicable to all SCPHNs, while subsequent duties and KSBs are specific to Option 1 (HV & SN) or Option 2 (OHN).

Apprenticeship Standards are developed to a prescribed format and method overseen by the Institute for Apprenticeships. Each Standard is developed by an employer-led Trailblazer Group.

The Institute of Health Visiting has been actively involved as a member of this Trailblazer group. The iHV has been well-placed to contribute as an independent academic professional body that has also led on the development of a Recommended National Curriculum for Health Visiting and School Nursing over the last two years with all significant stakeholders (this is due for publication later this year). In the last months, these developments have proceeded in parallel and the iHV-led project has provided an evidence and consensus-based source of knowledge to inform our contribution to the Apprenticeship Standard.

Any kind of curriculum or set of Standards reflects a diversity of values, perspectives and priorities as well as the constraints of what can be achieved. It is a collective endeavour.  The proposed Standard is now published for wider consultation.

Please take the opportunity to review the Standard and complete the on-line consultation form by 15th October 2018.

Responses to the consultation can be undertaken either as an individual or as an organisation. The iHV will make its own response to the consultation – we are happy to receive comments from iHV members that you would like us to take into account.

It is worth remembering the following points:

  • the Apprenticeship Standard applies only to England where the Apprenticeship funding mechanism is being rolled out. It does not apply to the rest of the UK.
  • The knowledge, skills and attributes specified will all be assessed by an End Point Assessment (EPO) which is a requirement of the implementation of apprenticeships. (The End Point Assessment is presently under development by the Trailblazer Group).
  • The Apprenticeship Standard does not replace NMC Standards of Proficiency or the requirements of the Higher Education Institution that provides SCPHN programmes in partnership with the employer / placement provider.
  • Once the Standard is approved (projected to be early 2019) the Apprenticeship Levy will be the only source of funding for SCPHN programmes in England. Health Education England (HEE) has designed a toolkit to help employers navigate their way through the apprenticeship procurement process.

If you have any queries or comments you would like to make to the Institute of Health Visiting on the consultation on the Apprenticeship Standard please email [email protected]

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) has published its response to the consultation – Mental Health in the Long-Term Plan for the NHS.

The consultation is to identify opportunities to deliver the NHS’s goal to provide world-class mental healthcare – improving the outcomes for everyone who uses the NHS services.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, Executive Director, Institute of Health Visiting said:

“At the Institute, we firmly believe there is no health without mental health, which is why we have perinatal and infant mental health (PIMH) as a priority focus. We welcome the opportunity to respond to this consultation to ensure that all families get consistent, accessible, high quality care and support for their mental health during the perinatal period. Our response reflects the many consultations and surveys we have done with our members and other stakeholders over the recent months and years.”

The Institute’s response includes its top three priorities in mental health:

  • Resourcing health visiting services through joint commissioning which formally requires health visitors to take a specific lead for perinatal and infant mental health;
  • Closing the gap between knowledge of what affects child and family mental health, and how services are commissioned and organised to implement this knowledge;
  • A need to concentrate efforts to create a much wider understanding of the epidemiology of mental illness with so much of it having its origins in the very first years of life.

Dr Adams continued:

“Early intervention for families in the perinatal period will reduce the burden of mental illness across the life-course! We have to get that message over to politicians and policy makers, so that funding is allocated upstream and not disproportionately spent on secondary and tertiary care, fixing problems that could have been prevented from occurring in the first place.

“This submission focuses on how, with the right support from the NHS and partner organisations, health visitors can ensure that all families with children receive the right care and support for their mental health, at the right time, in the right place.”

 

The Welsh assembly has an open consultation on the proposal to remove  the defence of reasonable punishment.

They encourage more people to respond to this consultation before it ends.  (The closing date is 2 April).  They are keen for professionals who work with children and families to have a say in this consultation.

We have been asked to share this with the health visiting community. Although it is only a legislation proposal for Wales at the moment, it is hoped it will eventually be a UK wide legislation.   It is not about criminalising parents,  but giving children and young people the same level of protection as adults.

Consultation description
It is against the law for a parent or carer to smack their child, except where this amounts to ‘reasonable punishment’ (section 58 Children Act 2004).

The Welsh Assembly is consulting on the development of a legislative proposal to remove this defence. This would not create a new criminal offence, but would remove a defence to the existing offence of common assault or battery.

Consultation closes – 2 April 2018

Consultation documents are available on the link below: