emergency

Exclusive iHV Insights webinar recording is now open access: The Public health role in reducing A&E attendances

To help raise awareness of health visitors’ role in tackling the current crisis in urgent care services, we are delighted to share the recording of our recent iHV Insights webinar: “The Public health role in reducing A&E attendances” held on 16 January 2025.

Tackling increasing demands on urgent services is a national priority as too many patients are waiting too long in overcrowded A&E departments across the country. Our iHV report and film, published in December 2023, highlighted that babies and young children are the highest users of A&E, with the rate of children aged 0-4 years attending A&E in England increasing by 42% in the last 10 years. When reviewed, a large proportion of these attendances did not require hospital treatment and were for non-urgent conditions (for example, minor illnesses, feeding problems, and parental distress due to infant crying), suggesting that they could be managed and supported by other means, including health visitors in the community.

Following the Darzi review, the new government has proposed three “shifts” in health care to ensure that services are fit for the future – this includes shifting care from the hospital to the community and a much greater emphasis on prevention. Health visitors can play an important part of the solution to addressing increasing demands on urgent care services through their ‘upstream’ work in prevention and early intervention – supporting parents to manage minor illnesses by improving health literacy is a central function of health visiting.

This webinar brought together a leading panel of expert speakers who explored the health visitors’ public health role in reducing A&E attendances alongside the latest national data and context of 0–4-year-olds attending A&E:

Honorary Professor Damian Roland, Consultant in Paediatric Emergency Medicine, Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland Urgent and Emergency Care System Clinical Director
Georgina Mayes, iHV Health Visiting Professional Lead (Quality and Policy)
Kate Walters, Divisional Director of Nursing & AHPs, Children & Family Services and CAMHS

This webinar brings into sharp focus the unique needs of babies, young children and their families and the importance of ensuring that they can access the right healthcare support when they need it – right person, right place, right time.

Help us raise awareness and drive meaningful change to improve healthcare support for families. Please share the webinar and short iHV film “Can you see my baby? Health visitors prevent emergencies” on the vital role of health visitors in reducing A&E attendances for babies and children aged 0-4 years with your commissioners, local MPs and Health Boards.

Honorary Professor Damian Roland said:

“Emergency Department attendances reflect inequalities in society and the systems response to them. Understanding, and addressing, underlying reasons for Emergency Department attendances will ultimately improve the long-term life chances of Children and Young People.”

Georgina Mayes, iHV Health Visiting Professional Lead (Quality and Policy), said:

“Health visiting is an important part of the solution to reducing A&E attendances. This webinar highlights the vital role of health visitors in providing expert, professional support to families when their baby or child is unwell. More health visitors are urgently needed now to ensure all families can get the support that they need, which will in turn take pressure off overstretched A&E departments.”

Kate Walters, Divisional Director of Nursing & AHPs, Children & Family Services and CAMHS, said:

“Parental confidence and the importance of understanding your baby is crucial to the decisions that parents and carers make about accessing health care – where to go, what to do and what is the most appropriate. Health visitors play a key role in building this understanding and helping parents to navigate the health system. Health visitors can provide signposting, advice, digital support, and are accessible to all.”

Watch the full iHV Insights recording:

Watch short iHV Film, “Can you see my baby? Health visitors prevent emergencies ”

Join the conversation and share your thoughts on how we can work together to support babies, young children, their families and communities more effectively #HealthVisiting #ReduceA&EAttendances #Prevention.

This webinar is part of a series of iHV Insights events produced for iHV members to support their continuous professional development and help them keep abreast of the latest issues in child and family public health. Not a member? Consider joining us. Our corporate membership provides exclusive access to expert-led events, resources, and networking opportunities designed to support health visitors’ professional development and practice. Individual UK membership is also available in four different categories: Associate, Student, Friend, and Retired

During #BreastfeedingCelebrationWeek, the first European report on infant and young child feeding policies and practices was launched yesterday. It compares 18 countries and identifies the considerable improvements they need to make in supporting mothers who want to breastfeed.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how important it is for countries to protect their citizens from illness. Babies who are breastfed have better health and resistance to infection, and most mothers want to breastfeed. Yet many European mothers stop or reduce breastfeeding in the early weeks and months, and bottle feeding is prevalent, due to inadequate support from health systems and society.

This new report, Are our babies off to a healthy start?, compares the implementation of WHO’s Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding by 18 European countries. The comparisons show clearly that inadequate support and protection for breastfeeding mothers is a Europe-wide problem. The health of babies, mothers and whole populations loses out as a result. However, countries do differ considerably. Turkey rates highest overall; the five countries with the lowest scores belong to the European Union.

The scope of the assessment is wide-ranging, with ten policy and programme indicators, including national leadership, hospital and community practices, marketing controls on breastmilk substitutes, health professional training, emergency preparedness and monitoring. There are also five feeding practices indicators, such as exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, a WHO recommendation.

The indicators with the poorest overall scores are national leadership and, shockingly, emergency preparedness, where the UK scored 0/10.