iHV publishes evaluation report of the iHV PIMH Champions Programme

iHV publishes ‘Transforming Perinatal and Infant Mental Health: A mixed-methods evaluation of the iHV Champions Programme’

The iHV is delighted to share the very positive findings of a mixed-methods evaluation of their flagship Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Champions Training Programme. Results suggest that the Programme is a credible, effective, and scalable approach to workforce development and system transformation. Practitioners who are trained as Champions are shown to become local leaders, driving improved care through enhanced knowledge, motivation, and collaborative practice.

The iHV has been delivering training in mental health since 2013, initially to health visitors and, subsequently, to multi-agency audiences. There are currently over 4,500 Champions trained across the whole portfolio which now includes perinatal and infant mental health, fathers, and LGBTQI+ people programmes. Thanks to generous funding from The AIM Foundation, the iHV research team, led by Dr Sharin Baldwin, conducted a three-part evaluation that included:

Analysis of pre- and post-training data across different training formats
An online survey completed by 111 Champions from across the UK
Thirteen in-depth qualitative interviews supplemented by three case studies

Reflecting the views of a total of 2,151 participants, the evaluation shows that the Programme enhances practitioners’ understanding and capacity to support families, while fostering leadership, advocacy, and system-wide change throughout the UK.

The report findings were launched today, 9 September, at the iHV PIMH Champions Forum. These quarterly online events were established as one of the key elements of the Programme, along with bulletins, webinars, and conferences, that enable continuous professional development for Champions and create opportunities for multi-agency networking across the UK. The evaluation findings highlight the value that Champions place on being part of this wider iHV community of practice, fostering a sense of shared purpose and motivation.

Alison Morton, CEO iHV, said:

“We have known for many years that the iHV PIMH Champions Programme is a clinically and cost-effective model to ultimately make a difference for babies, children, and families. Now we have the evidence to prove it. When Champions are well-supported by their organisations to engage fully with professional networks, and cascade our highly-regarded, evidence-based programme locally, they make a huge difference. We see earlier identification and support for parental and infant mental health problems that lead to better outcomes and reduced health inequalities.”

To read the full report, click here

To cite this paper, please use this link: https://bit.ly/4ngbiOC

For further information on any of the iHV training programmes, click here or contact [email protected]

To find out more about the history of the iHV Champions Programme and its underlying Theory of Change see Research Papers Published – iHV.

What works to prevent domestic abuse & support child victims? New 5-year plan published

A five-year roadmap called Researching Effective Approaches for Children (REACH) has been published today to find out what works to prevent domestic abuse and support child victims. This plan has been produced by Foundations, What Works Centre for Children & Families, who provide answers and practical solutions that empower decision makers to improve policy and practice on family support. The plan shares some sobering statistics and highlights how five million children are affected by domestic abuse in the UK, with the social and economic cost standing at £74 billion a year.

The ambitious plan sets out for the UK to become the first country in the world with a set of proven approaches to prevent domestic abuse and support child victims. The document highlights the lack of knowledge about what works to prevent domestic abuse and support child victims, and the need for rigorous evaluation of programmes and services to determine their effectiveness in improving outcomes.

The REACH plan is underpinned by four principles:

To work alongside services to prepare for impact evaluation. They will not evaluate services before they are ready.
Rigorous impact evaluation – to prove that something works to improve outcomes for children.
Testing approaches across the spectrum, from prevention through to helping children recover. This could include prevention and identification services such as health visiting.
Ensuring that victims and survivors are fully engaged in REACH.

The REACH plan is tightly focused on the end goal of finding results from robust impact evaluation. The plan sets out the following four stages to identify and evaluate promising programmes, with the goal of taking around 20 programmes through to full-scale impact evaluation:

Stage 1: Finding the best bets. Estimated number of programmes: 80
Stage 2: Groundwork for evaluation. Estimated number of programmes: 50
Stage 3: Initial testing Estimated number of programmes: 30
Stage 4: Full impact evaluation. Estimated number of programmes: 20

Each stage of this plan will help the service providers they work with to strengthen their services and increase their readiness for evaluation, as well as enable identification of the strongest delivery models that are ready to be evaluated for impact.

The implementation of the REACH plan requires an investment of £75 million over five years, which the document highlights is around 0.1% of the estimated £74 billion annual social and economic cost of domestic abuse.

The success of the REACH plan relies on collaboration and engagement with service providers, victims, and survivors of domestic abuse. It emphasises the importance of involving victims and survivors in decision-making and ensuring their experiences and expertise inform the evaluation process. Additionally, partnerships with research funders, trusts, and foundations are sought to support the plan’s implementation.

To read more about the plan and how you can get involved – click here.

Read Researching Effective Approaches for Children: A five-year plan to find out what works to prevent domestic abuse & support child victims

Revamped Outcomes and Evaluation Toolkit

We are delighted to announce that we have revamped the Outcomes and Evaluation Toolkit (published in September 2016) – bringing together all the sections of the toolkit into one, easy to use document.

The Outcomes and Evaluation Toolkit supports the measurement of outcomes in health visiting – to help health visitor service leads to develop outcome measures for their local health visiting service.

Go to Outcomes resource page

Please note that this Outcomes and Evalutation Toolkit is available to iHV members only.

If you’re not a member, please join us to get access to all of our resources.

The iHV is a self-funding charity – we can only be successful in our mission to strengthen health visiting practice if the health visiting profession and its supporters join us on our journey. We rely on our membership to develop new resources for our members.

So do join us now!

New toolkit for measuring outcomes and impact in health visiting practice

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) is delighted to announce the publication of a toolkit during #HVweek to support the measurement of outcomes in health visiting – it aims to support health visitor service leads in developing outcome measures for their local health visiting service.

There is a growing body of evidence which demonstrates that health visitors can have a positive outcome on health improvement (Cowley et al, 2013).

Health visitors are keen to show the impact of their work in early intervention, health promotion, and the prevention of ill health in children and families. But how can this impact be measured? What outcomes are needed?

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE., Executive Director, iHV, said:

“Since the completion of the Department of Health’s Health Visitor implementation plan ‘A Call to Action’ to transform health visiting services, there has been an increased emphasis on the need to measure the impact and effectiveness of the transformed health visiting services in England.”

Health visiting services collect data for key performance indicators as described in the National Health Visiting Core Service Specification (NHS England, 2014). These indicators mainly focus on the number of core contacts achieved, but this does not accurately reflect the depth and breadth of health visiting activity, nor does it describe the outcomes for children and families.

Dr Adams continued:

“There is now renewed pressure to demonstrate outcomes of health visiting services with the recent transfer from NHS to Local Authority Commissioning. Local commissioners are developing their understanding of the health visitor role and how the service contributes to local and national public health outcomes, the local early years strategy and broader social, economic and fiscal outcomes. Health visitors must therefore develop and gather information which is relevant to their practice and which captures the impact of health visiting interventions on health outcomes.”

This new toolkit, written by Ruth Hudson, Professional Officer, iHV, is broken down into six sections to explore both outcomes and evaluation in health visiting. The Practical Guide forms the introduction and background, followed by 5 sections for readers who may prefer to concentrate on a specific topic or aspect of evaluation:

Outcomes and Evaluation in Health Visiting: A Practical Guide
1. Section 1: Research and Outcomes for Children and Families
2. Section 2: Evaluation Guides and Models for use in practice
3. Section 3: National Outcomes Frameworks, Tools and Resources
4. Section 4: Outcomes in Health Visiting Practice
5. Section 5: Presenting Information on Outcomes: Using Case Studies and Scale Measures in Practice

Download the practical guide introduction

To access Outcomes Toolkit Sections 1-5

Great Research Masterclass

Great day in Manchester today looking at evaluation and research in health visiting. 3rd iHV Fellows Research Masterclass (20 Jan 2016) – How do you measure Health Visiting?
It’s not all Black & White!

It’s black & white in Manchester to start….

Research Masterclass in Manchester