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

Bookings now open for iHV Evidence-based Practice Conference 2023

We are delighted to announce that we will be back in Manchester at King’s House Conference Centre on 21 September 2023 for this year’s iHV Evidence-based Practice Conference.

The focus of this year’s EBP conference is health equity. How can we ensure a brighter future, where all babies can thrive and live healthy lives? How can we use the best available evidence and research to promote health equity and strengthen health visiting practice?

Long-standing healthcare disparities and inequities have been illuminated and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent cost-of-living crisis. Systemic inequities, such as poverty and economic disadvantage are preventing babies, children, and families from achieving optimal health, leading to avoidable differences in health outcomes.

We very much look forward to welcoming you to this popular event.

Don’t miss our special early bird ticket rates, available until 30 June – book your place today! In addition, groups bookings of 5 or more will receive a 15% discount off the total order when booked at the same time.

Programme & Speakers

Our conference programme brings together local, national, and international experts and speakers who are focused on strengthening health visiting practice. The presentations and workshops will reflect the breadth of health visiting practice, within a “whole system” public health approach, with the aim to equip health visitors with new knowledge and skills to address key challenges in prevention and early intervention work with babies, children, and families.

Featured speakers include:

Professor Flora Douglas, Professor of Public Health, Robert Gordon University – Maternal and infant food insecurity
Greg Fell, Director of Public Health in Sheffield – Nanny State
Professor Monica Lakhanpaul, Professor of Integrated Community Child Health Population, Policy & Practice Dept, UCL GOS Institute of Child Health – Homelessness research
Nicky Brown, Senior Nurse and Public Health Specialist BCYP Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, Department of Health and Social Care – Pan-London SCPHN workforce development
Sally Shearer OBE, Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel – Messages for clinical practice
Nicola Jay, Reducing urgent care admissions – a whole systems approach
Mike Hurst, Parent Voice – Lived experience of homelessness
Vicky Gilroy, iHV Head of Projects & Evaluation – Building Research Capacity
Victoria Jackson, iHV Senior Programme Manager – Projects and Evaluation – Strep A, Flu and Respiratory Illnesses
Sally Shillaker, iHV Practice Development Lead – Genomics
Alison Morton, iHV CEO
Vicky Gilroy and Victoria Jackson, iHV Projects Team – Cardiovascular disease, using the Family Partnership Model
Plus, more to be announced soon!

Find out more and book

iHV Evidence-based Practice Conference – September 2022

We had a wonderful day at iHV’s annual Evidence-based Practice Conference – Together, Fairer, Stronger – #iHVEBP2022

The iHV EBP conference, held on 15 September 2022 at King’s House Conference Centre in Manchester, was our first face-to-face conference since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was fantastic to see so many delegates in person!

The focus of this year’s conference was on reducing health inequalities and strengthening integrated working. We explored the learning from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as opportunities to promote health visiting and its role in tackling current public health priorities and improving outcomes for babies, children and families.

Programme and Speakers

Our packed programme brought together local, national, and international experts and speakers, all focused on strengthening health visiting practice through sharing the latest evidence, research, and practice examples.

Our inspirational and passionate speakers included:

Tash Oakes-Monger, National LGBT Project Manager
Kenny Gibson, Deputy Director for NHS Safeguarding
Jim McManus, President Association of Directors of Public Health UK, and Director of Public Health
Alison Morton, Executive Director, iHV
Clare Worgan, Head of Training and Education, Sands
Dr Karen Whittaker, Education and Workforce Lead, iHV
Sammie McFarland, CEO and Founder, Long Covid Kids Charity
Pilar Cloud, Project Lead, Action Cerebral Palsy
Louise Wileman, Health Visitor and CONI Co-ordinator
Dr Kate Abbott, Clinical Psychologist
Dr Lisa Marsland, Consultant Clinical Psychologist
Martha Sercombe, Specialist Perinatal Mental Health, Health Visitor
Jo Claessens, BBC Tiny Happy People
Annalea Staples, Dental Therapist, University of Leeds
Dr Elizabeth Camacho, Health Economist, University of Manchester
Plus many, many more!

A big thank you to all our speakers, presenters and exhibitors for helping to make the day such a success!

View the programme here

Conference poster winner

Many congratulations to our best poster presentation winner: Tracey Long – with her poster Transition to adoptive parenthood: a conceptualisation

Best poster presentation winner: Tracey Long receiving her award from Alison Morton

Some of the Feedback

“It was my first iHV conference and it was much better than I expected. Having gone through covid it was lovely to hear people’s positive attitudes to health visiting and the information that was shared by all.”

“It was a fantastic conference, the quality of the speakers and range of topics was excellent. I feel reinvigorated in my purpose and have made some useful connections from other areas to link in with to progress programmes of work. Inspiring, welcoming and meaningful. Well done iHV!”

“Thank you for producing such an informative conference. The passion for the role shone though for me and inspired me as student at the start of my health visiting career.”

“Great venue, great speakers. Thank you for reinvigorating my HV Practice!”

Presentations

Please note that the conference presentations are available to conference delegates only and they will have been sent the password required to access this page:

Go to iHV EBP Conference 2022 speaker presentations - delegates only - password required

Tweets from #iHVEBP2022

For those of you who could not either join us on the day or could not follow the #iHVEBP2022 hashtag on Twitter, we’ve collected and made a little “Wakelet” collection of the day’s tweets so you can follow some of what was shared. Please see below.

Call for abstracts for iHV Evidence-based Practice conference 2022

The iHV is delighted to offer you the opportunity to present your practice or research at our 2022 annual evidence-based practice (EBP) conference – “Together | Fairer | Stronger” on 15 September 2022 at King’s House Conference Centre in Manchester

We are pleased to announce that this will be our first face-to-face conference since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are all looking forward to being able to meet again, network and share ideas together.

Our conference programme brings together local, national, and international experts and speakers who are focused on strengthening health visiting practice through sharing the latest evidence, research, and practice examples.

The focus of this year’s conference is on reducing health inequalities and strengthening integrated working. We will explore the learning from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as opportunities to promote health visiting and its role in tackling current public health priorities and improving outcomes for babies, children and families.

Alison Morton, Executive Director iHV, commented:

“We look forward to welcoming you to Manchester in September 2022 to explore the latest evidence-based practice and research on key public health priorities for health visiting. Everyone is welcome as we come together again, in person, to share best practice and research – let’s build on the present to help shape the future of health visiting and tackle inequalities. We look forward to welcoming as many of you as possible.”

Abstract Themes/Topics

We encourage submissions that support the overall theme of the conference to reduce inequalities.

We are interested to hear from researchers, educators and clinicians who have led work in the following areas from across all nations of the UK (non-UK applicants will also be considered and should demonstrate transferable learning):

Integration: Innovations in health visiting practice or service delivery models that can demonstrate impact within integrated/ ‘whole system’ public health approaches to addressing health inequalities. We are keen to showcase examples from across all nations of the UK.
Improving access/ reducing inequalities: We are particularly interested in submissions that improve the experience and outcomes of health visiting service users who encounter obstacles accessing health care, and/ or people with protected characteristics, for example: people from minoritised ethnic groups; people with disabilities; LGBTQI+ women and people; families experiencing homelessness; domestic abuse; substance misuse problems; mental illness and mental health problems; and safeguarding.
Conference themes may include, but are not limited to, the current priority public health topics for health visitors and health visiting skill-mix teams:

1. Transition to parenthood, including preconception care
2. Breastfeeding
3. Perinatal mental health (mothers, fathers and partners)
4. Infant and child mental health
5. Healthy nutrition, physical activity and healthy weight
6. Managing minor illnesses, building health literacy and prevention of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
7. Reducing unintentional injuries
8. The uptake of immunisations
9. Primary prevention and health promotion in oral health
10. Child development 0-5 years, including speech, language and communication and school readiness
11. Sleep
12. Children with developmental disorders, disabilities and complex health needs
13. Tobacco, alcohol and substance misuse in the perinatal period
14. Healthy couple relationships
15. Teenage parenthood

We would be delighted to receive applications from community nursery nurses and all other health visiting practitioners who support babies and young children. We will be holding a special concurrent session for these valued roles.

Submissions: The abstract submission deadline is 4 April 2022.

See Abstract Submission Guidelines and Timeline for further details on format and how to submit