More new iHV member resources launched this week

Working in a pandemic has brought many challenges to both families and the health visiting service – but, unsurprisingly, the health visiting service in many areas has risen to these challenges with great professionalism, developing many innovations and workarounds to ensure that children and families receive the support that they need.

But you can’t pour from an empty cup and it is still important for health visitors to have time to reflect and learn during this pandemic which may continue for many weeks. To help you, we are pleased to publish today a bundle of five fabulous Good Practice Points, as well as hold our first virtual online iHV Member Event tomorrow (Thursday) on “COVID-19 in children and managing minor childhood illnesses”.

As a Centre of Excellence, the Institute supports the development of universally high quality health visiting practice so that health visitors can effectively respond to the health needs of all children, families and communities, enabling them to achieve their optimum level of health, thereby reducing health inequalities. To achieve our aim, we are constantly working to improve and develop benefits for our health visitor Associate and Student members, and our Friend members who work closely with health visiting services.

We know through feedback from our membership surveys that our Good Practice Points (GPPs) are the resources most valued by our members. We try to write Good Practice Points that are relevant to health visitors and where there might be gaps currently. We write GPPs with the help of authors that are experts and informative, give the evidence base and enable health visitors to be better equipped in their clinical practice.

Good Practice Points (GPPs) are available for members of the iHV; and Parent Tips (PTs) are available to parents who access our website or via health visitors sharing them – we work with parents to develop our Parent Tips.

New resources

Today, we are pleased to publish a selection of new GPPs to support our members in practice. These are:

GPP - Enhancing maternal recovery following caesarean birth

GPP - Managing Cradle Cap

GPP - Working with parental substance misuse (illicit drugs)

GPP - Atopic eczema in children from birth up to the age of 12 years

GPP - Helping parents and carers manage children’s behaviour

Any new GPP/PT Topics or would you like to be involved?

We would really love to hear from you if you have any specific topics that you think would benefit from having a GPP and/ or PT created, or if you would like to write a GPP or PT, or if you would like to be involved in our peer review process. Peer reviewers look at all GPPs and PTs during our production process and we feed their comments back to the author.

Please contact [email protected] if you would like to find out more about getting involved or with your thoughts and ideas of new GPPs and PTs.

Please note that GPPs are 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 Trustees required

Exciting and unique opportunities with the Institute

The Institute was set up in 2012 to support the work of health visitors to help give every baby the best start in life and in so doing to reduce health inequalities. It is now a very well established academic professional body which reaches across the UK and internationally and works with many partners including, increasingly, users of health visiting services.

The main areas of focus of this award-winning organisation are on research, education, quality assurance, leadership and partnership work which come together to develop practice in health visiting. However, we also have a significant social media and online presence which reaches very many others who either work with health visitors, are parents or are interested in learning about the work of the Institute. In particular, we produce a unique set of Parent Tips offering best evidence in a range of areas to parents, our most popular product.

The iHV is seeking to appoint two new trustees who have expertise in either:

Business development

Marketing/External relationships

The new Trustees will be passionate about the importance of investing support at the start of life to improve every child’s outcomes and will be experienced professionals in their fields. Previous experience in the charity sector would be helpful but not essential.

Applications close: 12 noon on Friday 28 June. Successful applicants will be informed as soon as possible after that.

Interviews: Interviews will take place on Thursday 11 July in London. We advise all applicants to keep this date free.

For further details including a description of the role and how to apply

New resource for iHV members – GPP Working with birth trauma

During Infant Mental Health Awareness Week, iHV is delighted to share new Good Practice Points providing up-to-date evidence and references for our members:

NEW: GPP – Working with birth trauma

The iHV partnered with Dr Kirstie McKenzie-McHarg (Consultant Clinical Psychologist, South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust), Dr Camilla Rosan (Head of Early Years, Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families) and Professor Susan Ayers (Professor of Maternal and Child Health, School of Sciences, City University of London) to produce this new GGP.

The majority of women in the UK have birth experiences which are not traumatic, but for those that do a percentage may go on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Birth trauma and PTSD can leave parents distressed and struggling with their mental health, their relationship with each other and their relationship with their infant.

It is vital that health visitors and others working with families in the perinatal period understand the potential impact of birth trauma, how to recognise it and what to do.

Go to GPP – Working with birth trauma

Please note that GPPs are available to iHV members only.

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

So do join us now!

Two exciting and unique development opportunities in research with the Institute

Research Assistant and Research Associate

Based East or South East of England

The iHV is seeking to appoint a part-time (2 days a week) Research Assistant and a full-time Research Associate.

The post holders, who will have a Masters’ degree and/or Doctorate relevant to requirements of the post, will be based in the South or East of England and will be prepared to travel within their post.

The individuals would need to be dynamic, proactive, flexible and have the ability to work independently. They will both carry out a range of work, including literature reviews, qualitative data collection and analysis, quantitative data analysis and report writing.

The Research Associate will project manage an 18-month project looking at “breaking different news”. The Research Assistant will contribute to the running and management of an evaluation of a Perinatal Support Service in Medway. Both will work closely with community members, families, health professionals and other members of the research team.

Both posts will suit candidates who want to have a research career as they provide excellent experience for a growing CV, albeit at different levels.

Research Assistant: 10 month fixed-term contract in the first instance: May/June 2017 – March/April 2018.

Research Associate: 18 month fixed-term contract in the first instance: June 2017 – December 2018

Download the Job Description - Research Associate

Download the Job Description - Research Assistant

To Apply:

Please complete the application form and send this together with your current CV to [email protected]

Applications close for both posts: Monday 8 May at 9.00 am

Interviews: Wednesday 17 May

For further information or an informal conversation about this post please contact Dr Esther Mugweni: [email protected]