Tags: honorary Fellows

Two new Honorary Fellowships

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) is delighted to announce two new Honorary Fellows. Each year the iHV Board of Trustees bestows one or more Honorary Fellowship awards – a mark of the highest esteem. The awards are reserved for individuals who have made an exceptional contribution, not only to the iHV, but also to the profession of health visiting and the families we serve.

This year’s awards were bestowed on two unique individuals at our annual Leadership Conference in London on 4 December – Leanne Howlett and Kieran Anders – who have both supported the iHV for many years as experts by lived experience. Their contributions and experiences have enriched our work in so many ways, making it better and keeping us focused on the people that we are here to serve.

Leanne Howlett uses her own experience to ground our work in the profound reality of lived experience of perinatal mental ill-health. Leanne has consistently demonstrated an exceptional commitment to the iHV and to health visiting through her active involvement in numerous initiatives – supporting our policy work, joining key roundtable discussions, knocking on the door of Downing Street with her daughter Miley as part of the campaign “A Fight for a Fair Start”, and leading a petition calling for more health visitors. Her dedication to co-production and her consistent support has made a tangible impact on the wellbeing of families.

On receiving this award Leanne said:

It’s an incredible privilege to receive the honorary fellowship award and I am truly honoured to have been selected. My incredible health visitor Holly drives me in the work I do because her compassion and knowledge helped me to be the parent I wanted to be, despite the challenges I faced at the time. This award is as much for her as it is me because her care has filtered down to help so many others through the work I’ve done. I look forward to continuing to support the Institute with their work over the coming years.

Leanne Howlett receiving her Honorary Fellowship from Sue Tokley, Chair of the iHV Board

Kieran Anders supports our work around fathers’ mental health, bringing much greater attention to the needs of dads, who can frequently get overlooked in services which have traditionally been built around the needs of women and their babies. Using a combination of his own lived experience and the latest evidence and knowledge from his role as Operations Manager for Dad Matters – HomeStart HOST, Kieran has co-designed and co-delivers the iHV Fathers and Perinatal Mental Health training programmes alongside our iHV Mental Health team. His outstanding ability to connect with fathers during such a critical period transforms individual lives and influences best practice in health visiting, with the aim of improving perinatal care for all fathers and their infants.

On receiving this award, Kieran said:

“I’m so sorry I can’t be with you but I hope you’ve all had an amazing conference, and I hope to be there in person at the next one.

“I can’t begin to tell you just how much of an honour it is to even be spoken about in the same circles as the Fellows who have gone before me, and the pride I feel accepting this honorary fellowship is truly humbling.

“Working at Home-Start HOST and with partners across the Home-start network to help support dads in the perinatal period has been an amazing journey, and has equipped me with the knowledge, confidence and skills to be able to support organisations such as the Institute with their own work. Delivering training with Sylvia, Natalie, Hilda and everyone else has been a joyous experience, and I hope it has made a real difference to the dads, parents and particularly babies, that we all want to reach, support and see thrive.

“Thank you again for this amazing honour, I will forever be proud to be an honorary fellow. I might even have a pin badge made to mark the occasion. 😂”

Kieran Anders

Philippa Bishop, iHV Director of Learning & Development, commented:

“Congratulations to both Leanne and Kieran – these are very special iHV Honorary Fellowships. Recognition of experts by lived experience by the iHV Board of Trustees is a new approach and underpins the importance of keeping the voice of parents central to all that we do. We are thrilled and proud to add both Leanne and Kieran to our esteemed list of amazing Honorary Fellows.”

Institute launches latest Annual Report and announces three new Honorary Fellows

Yesterday evening, senior health visiting leaders, practitioners, iHV Fellows, and partners from across the sector gathered in London for the iHV Leadership Annual Event. We were delighted to be able to meet together, to celebrate our shared achievements over the last year, and thank individuals and organisations who have contributed to so many of our workstreams this year. It really has been a team effort!

iHV CEO, Alison Morton, welcomes guests to the iHV Annual Event 2023

The Annual Presentation was given by Dr Sarah McMullen, Associate Director of Research and Policy at The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, who provided an update on the work of The Centre and their ‘Shaping Us’ campaign. It has been our privilege and pleasure to work with The Centre on numerous projects this year including a research study focused on the use of the ADBB tool to support health visitors’ work in infant mental health, arranging health visiting shadowing visits for Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales, and supporting the production of The Centre’s short film on health visiting and their wider ‘Shaping Us’ campaign.

Dr Sarah McMullen, Associate Director of Research and Policy at The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, delivers the iHV Annual Presentation

iHV Annual Report

At the Annual Event, the Institute launched its latest Annual Report, detailing the progress and many highlights of the iHV over the last year. Thanks to the support of our members, and the generosity of our grant funders, partners and parents who are experts by experience, we have been able to increase our policy influence and deliver more education, training, resources, networking opportunities, and research than ever before! We have also supported quality improvements in practice through our projects and programmes, including leadership development and sector-led improvement work.

Alison Morton, CEO of the Institute of Health Visiting, commented:

“I am absolutely delighted to share our latest annual report. This is packed full of the Institute’s achievements over the last year. None of these would have been possible without the support of our members, partners, trustees and the incredible #TeamiHV. I would like to thank everyone who has helped to make the Institute the organisation it is today. Together, we will continue to work hard to build a strengthened health visiting profession to ensure that all babies, children and families are supported to achieve the very best health now and into the future.”

Honorary Fellows

Every year, the iHV Board of Trustees bestows Honorary Fellowship awards at its annual event. We were delighted to award this year’s Honorary Fellowships to Professor Jane Barlow, Pamela Goldberg OBE, and Jane Williams. The awards, in recognition of their encouragement and continued support of both the iHV and the health visiting profession, mark the high esteem in which they are held by the Institute’s board.

Professor Jane Barlow’s Honorary Fellowship is awarded in recognition of her ongoing support for our work over many years. Jane is a staunch and vocal advocate for early intervention – and a champion of health visiting – and has worked tirelessly with us at the iHV on numerous shared projects, including our current research partnership with The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood. We are particularly grateful for Jane’s ongoing contributions to our work in perinatal and infant mental health and her weight of support for our call for more Specialist health visitors in this field. Unfortunately, Jane was not able to join us during the evening to collect her Honorary Fellowship due to travel disruptions.

The iHV awarded two Honorary Fellow awards to individuals who have served the iHV generously through their tenures on our Board as iHV trustees. At the iHV, we want to thank all our Trustees for the time, commitment and effort they bring to our organisation.

The first of these awards was conferred to Pamela Goldberg OBE who was the Chair of the iHV Board for 7 years, until her tenure came to an end in July this year. Prior to joining the iHV, Pamela had a distinguished career in both the commercial and voluntary sector, latterly as CEO of Breast Cancer Campaign. This wealth of experience was so valuable to our organisation which was only a few years old when Pamela joined as its Chair. During Pamela’s two terms at the helm of the iHV, the organisation has grown considerably into the successful organisation that it is today. Pamela has also overseen considerable change, with a new CEO and ways of working during the pandemic.

Pamela Goldberg OBE receiving her Honorary Fellowship of the iHV from iHV Chair, Sue Tokley

The last, but by no means least, Honorary Fellow award this year was awarded to Jane Williams. Jane is regarded by many as one of the ‘giants’ of health visiting. She joined the Institute’s Board after running one of the most successful health visiting services in England – and generously shared her wealth of rich experience from her long career. Jane was a Trustee for nearly eight years and her tenure ended during the pandemic in 2021 – which meant we couldn’t celebrate all of Jane’s contributions in person as we had hoped. Some of Jane’s particular contributions were in helping the Board to understand how the Institute’s work could successfully dovetail with the needs of local health visiting managers, as well as with practice.

Jane Williams receiving her Honorary Fellowship of the iHV from iHV Chair, Sue Tokley

Alison Morton, CEO of the Institute of Health Visiting, said:

“It was a real pleasure to award Honorary Fellowships of the Institute this year to Professor Jane Barlow, Pamela Goldberg OBE and Jane Williams. In their individual ways, they have all played key roles in shaping the Institute through their wisdom, guidance and support over so many years. These well-deserved awards are an acknowledgement of the highest esteem that they are held by the Board and the team at the iHV. We thank them for their continued interest in our work.”

Download iHV Annual Report 2022-2023

Institute awards two honorary Fellowships as it launches annual report

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) is delighted to announce two new honorary Fellows and the launch of its seventh annual report, detailing the progress and many highlights of the iHV over the last year.

Professor Mitch Blair and Sir Al Aynsley-Green both received an honorary Fellowship of the Institute of Health Visiting at the iHV’s seventh annual celebration event held in London last week (Tuesday 3 December 2019).  Professor Blair’s honorary Fellowship is awarded in recognition of his early and continued support to both the Institute and the health visiting profession; and Sir Al’s honorary Fellowship is in recognition for his significant continued advocacy for children and particularly the lives of vulnerable children.  Honorary Fellowship is a mark of the high esteem in which those awarded it are held by the Institute’s board.

Professor Mitch Blair is Professor of Paediatrics and Child Public Health at Imperial College London and a consultant paediatrician at Northwick Park Hospital.  His primary research interests are in preventative child health programmes, child health indicators and international child health services research.

Professor Mitch Blair receiving his honorary Fellowship from Pamela Goldberg OBE, Chair of iHV

Sir Albert Aynsley-Green is a paediatric endocrinologist and Professor Emeritus of Child Health at University College London. He was appointed as the first Children’s Commissioner for England in 2005 and was knighted by the Queen in 2006 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the education and health of children. More recently Sir Al has served as President of the BMA and he is currently visiting professor of advocacy for children and childhood at Nottingham Trent University. He is also author of ‘The British Betrayal of Childhood’.

Sir Al Aynsley-Green receiving his honorary Fellowship from Pamela Goldberg OBE, Chair of iHV

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

“It was a great pleasure to welcome both Professor Mitch Blair and Sir Albert Aynsley-Green onto the stage at our annual celebration event to receive their honorary Fellowships of the Institute. Both are great supporters of the Institute and the health visiting profession, and we are thrilled and proud to add them to our list of amazing Honorary Fellows.”

The seventh iHV annual report was also launched during the iHV’s annual celebration event. It details the Institute’s developments, partnerships and projects over the past 12 months.

Dr Adams commented:

“I am delighted to share our latest annual report as we celebrate our seventh birthday. A big thank you to all our members, Fellows and partners, we look forward to continuing our work with you to protect and strengthen the health of children, families and communities into the future.”

Download iHV Year seven Annual Report 2018/19

Photos from the launch of the Institute of Health Visiting on 28 11 2012

Director and Chair with guests Dr Dan Poulter, M.P. and Director of Nursing, Professor Viv Bennett

 

 

From Left to Right:

 

Dr Cheryll Adams, Foundation Director

Sally Russell, Foundation Chair

Dr Dan Poulter, M.P. Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department of Health

Professor Viv Bennett, Director of Nursing and Government’s Principal Advisor for Public Health Nursing, Department of Health

 

Founders, Foundation Chair and the Minister, Dr Daniel Poulter M.P.

 

 

 

From left to right:

 

Professor Ros Bryar

Professor Sarah Cowley

Professor Sally Kendall

Dr Dan Poulter M.P. , Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Sally Russell, Foundation Chair

Dr Cheryll Adams, Foundation Director

 

Launch proceedings

 

 

 

Minister launches the iHV

 

 

 

 Dr Dan Poulter, M.P. Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department of Health

 

Guests enjoying the occasion

iHV launch event 28 November 2012

 

 

The Institute awards its first Fellowship certificates

Professor Viv Bennett receiving her honorary Fellowship from Dr Dan Poulter at iHV launch event 28 November 2012

Richard Parish receiving his honorary Fellowship from Dr Dan Poulter at iHV launch event 28 November 2012

 

At the launch of the iHV two Honorary Foundation Fellowships were awarded to Professor Richard Parish and Professor Viv Bennett.  They were awarded to acknowledge the support given to the Institute during its development by Professor Parish and Professor Bennett.  However, also to acknowledge Professor Parish’s lifetime contribution to Public Health, and Professor Bennett’s unprecedented leadership of government policy to reinvigorate the health visiting profession.

 

Guests enjoy the reception