Join us for this open access webinar event as we mark the first anniversary of the iHV UK Preceptorship Framework for Health Visiting: 22 October 2025 (09:30-11:00)

Scroll down for webinar details and booking link.

We are delighted to be hosting a special webinar to celebrate the first anniversary of the UK-wide iHV Preceptorship Framework for Health Visiting — a landmark initiative that is supporting and enhancing the way newly qualified health visitors are supported across the four nations.

The event will bring together national speakers, health visiting leads, preceptors, and preceptees from England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to share powerful examples of how the Framework is being embedded locally. Attendees will hear how the Framework is enhancing preceptorship experiences, strengthening professional development, and fostering a culture of support and excellence in health visiting.

Launched in 2024, the iHV Preceptorship Framework was designed to provide a consistent, high-quality approach to supporting health visitors at the start of their careers. Over the past year, it has been embraced by services across the UK, helping to build confident, well-supported and valued practitioners who are equipped to deliver vital care to babies, children, families and communities – reducing health inequalities and improving outcomes.

Amanda Holland, iHV Professional Education, Learning and Development Lead, and co-author of the Framework said:

“I was delighted to lead the project to co-develop the iHV UK Preceptorship Framework for Health Visiting last year, with co-author Marian Judd and over 40 experts and stakeholders from across the UK. It’s been such a privilege to hear from colleagues across the four nations about how the Framework is already supporting local preceptorship arrangements and enhancing preceptorship experiences. This event is a fantastic opportunity to share and hear about early examples of positive impact and plans for continued quality improvements to preceptorship in health visiting across the UK.

“The Framework has also attracted international attention. I have been supporting Dr Colleen Ryan (Head of Professional Practice, School of Nursing and Midwifery and Social Care, CQ University, Australia) with meeting health visiting and 0-19 services to learn more about how they are using the iHV Preceptorship Framework and their local preceptorship arrangements. Huge thanks to all those who have shared their time to meet with me and Colleen, with special thanks to colleagues at Swindon Borough Council’s 0-19 Public Health Nursing Service – Betheny Oakes, Professional Lead for Practice Education, Jen Cantellow, Practice Educator, and Clare Harrington-Pye, Professional Lead for Health Visiting. Thanks also to Kathryn Stark, Team Manager, Hull 0-19 Integrated Public Health Nursing, and colleagues.”

Members of Swindon Borough Council’s 0-19 Public Health Nursing Service team

Dr Colleen Ryan – Head of Professional Practice, School of Nursing and Midwifery and Social Care, CQ University, Australia, said:

I’m developing plans for using the iHV Preceptorship Framework with Australian healthcare organisations for improving student and staff experiences of clinical placements. I hope organisations may be excited to use the Framework to embed preceptorship as a philosophy for enhancing job satisfaction, career development, student, staff and patient experiences and ultimately workforce recruitment and retention.

3 women standing and smiling into the camera

From left to right: Betheny Oakes – Professional Lead for Practice Education, Swindon Borough Council’s 0-19 Public Health Nursing Service; Amanda Holland – Professional Education, Learning and Development Lead, iHV; Dr Colleen Ryan – Head of Professional Practice, School of Nursing and Midwifery and Social Care, CQ University, Australia.

Betheny Oakes, Professional Lead for Practice Education, Swindon Borough Council’s 0-19 Public Health Nursing Service, added:

“It was a real privilege to host Dr Colleen Ryan and the iHV to showcase how we have embedded the Preceptorship Framework into our local practice. Our service has been proud to contribute to the development of the Framework, sharing our insights and learning to help shape a robust and meaningful approach to supporting newly qualified health visitors and school nurses. Seeing the framework come to life in our day-to-day work, we are positive that the impacts it’s having on our preceptees and preceptors has been incredibly rewarding.

“We’re excited to continue building on this foundation and supporting excellence in health visiting across the UK.”

Dr Michelle Moseley, iHV Director of Programmes (Learning and Development), commented:

“Effective preceptorship is crucial in supporting newly qualified health visitors transition into their roles. With the support of a structured framework, the preceptee is offered an experience which is quality assured, consistent and preceptee focused. This allows the newly qualified health visitor to settle into their role with the necessary support to nurture, empower and develop their practice within their first year.

“We celebrate that our Framework is now one-year-old and starting to embed in health visiting practice across the UK and beyond! Its use is an attractive offer for organisations to recruit and retain their health visiting workforce who are essential in supporting the development of babies, children and their families in reaching their full potential.”

Webinar Details and Booking Link

Celebrating One Year of Impact – The First Anniversary of the iHV UK Preceptorship Framework for Health Visiting

Wednesday 22 October 2025 (09:30-11:00)

This celebratory webinar will not only reflect on the achievements of the past year but also look ahead to the future of preceptorship in health visiting. It promises to be an inspiring morning of shared learning, collaboration, and recognition of the incredible work being done to nurture the next generation of health visitors.

Chairing the event are the co-authors of the iHV UK Preceptorship Framework for Health Visiting – Amanda Holland (Professional Education, Learning and Development Lead, iHV) and Marian Judd (Health Visitor and Practice Lead, Wiltshire Child and Family Wellbeing Service, HCRG Care Group).

With a fantastic line up of speakers:

Dr Michelle Moseley, Director of Programmes, iHV
Lynne Reed, Deputy Director, 0-19 Clinical Programmes Unit, Chief Public Health Nurse Directorate, Director General Office, Global and Public Health Group, Office of Health Improvement and Disparities
Wendy Fowler, Nurse Education Advisor, Nursing and Midwifery Council
Dr Colleen Ryan, Head of Professional Practice, School of Nursing and Midwifery and Social Care, CQ University, Australia

From Swindon Borough Council’s 0-19 Public Health Nursing Service, England:

Betheny Oakes, Professional Lead for Practice Education
Clare Miles, School Nurse Team Lead England
Bree Lucas, Newly Qualified School Nurse

From Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Wales:

Ceri Hughes, Service Manager Health Visiting, School Nursing, Children Looked After and Paediatric Continence
Donna Dobson, Practice Development and Clinical Lead
Melanie Roberts, Newly Qualified Health Visitor

From Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland:

Barbara Keenan, Clinical Educator for Health Visiting
Jade McMurray, Newly Qualified Health Visitor

From Scottish Borders Health and Social Care Partnership, Scotland:

Tania Ferguson, Health Visitor and Team Lead
Danielle Matthewson Newly Qualified Health Visitor

Registration is now open

All those involved in supporting and providing preceptorship —whether seasoned professionals or newly qualified practitioners—are warmly invited to join the celebration.

Book your place today

Podcast

Tune In Before You Join Us! Listen to our new Podcast episode on Preceptorship

Listen to our special podcast exploring the value of preceptorship where Amanda Holland, iHV’s Professional Education, Learning and Development Lead is joined by colleagues from Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland – Newly Qualified Health Visitor Jade McMurray, Barbara Keenan, Clinical Educator for Health Visiting and Caroline Burnside, Health Visitor and Practice Teacher.
Jade, Barbara and Caroline share their insights and lived experiences around the impact of preceptorship and how the iHV UK Preceptorship Framework for Health Visiting is supporting preceptorship arrangements.

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) is delighted to publish the new iHV UK Preceptorship Framework for Health Visiting.

Developed to recognise the higher levels of autonomy and specialist knowledge and skills that health visitors require, beyond their first level registration as registered nurses and registered midwives, this much-needed resource will support best practice for preceptorship programmes for health visitors across the UK.

Newly qualified health visitors represent the future of the profession and are highly valued. It is vital that they are welcomed into the workplace with the right individualised support to enable them to grow and flourish. The provision of high-quality preceptorship for health visitors prepares and enables their leadership development and ongoing practice-based learning – this supports the essential delivery of safe and effective care which contributes to reducing inequalities and improving outcomes for babies, children, families and communities.

Currently, many health visiting services across the UK are experiencing significant shortages and attrition in the health visiting workforce. With challenges to recruitment and retention, health visiting services are looking for ways to reduce the disruption and financial costs of a high staff turnover. The provision of high-quality preceptorship for health visitors is key to attracting and sustaining a highly skilled health visiting workforce.

The iHV UK Preceptorship Framework will complement other relevant country-specific legislation, statutory requirements, organisational policies and procedures for preceptorship for health visiting and keep best practice in mind. We recommend all organisations employing health visitors implement this new Preceptorship Framework for Health Visiting.

Amanda Holland – Professional Services Lead, Institute of Health Visiting and Author of the iHV Preceptorship Framework for Health Visiting, commented:

“In the current climate, with many organisations experiencing significant challenges to recruitment and retention of a highly skilled health visiting workforce, we know high-quality effective preceptorship can be an important part of the solution. Supporting and enabling newly qualified health visitors to lay strong foundations from the beginning of their career is vital to enable them to grow and thrive and achieve their professional aspiration throughout the preceptorship period and beyond. Enabling a good learning environment, where the preceptee is at the centre of preceptorship, and wellbeing and psychological safety is prioritised is key to success.

“It has been a privilege to lead this project to co-develop an iHV UK Preceptorship Framework for Health Visitors and work with a vast group of passionate and dedicated experts and stakeholders from across the UK.”

Marian Judd – Health Visitor and Practice Lead, HCRG Care Group, B&NES and Wiltshire Children’s Community Services, England and Co-Chair of the iHV Practice Education Network, said:

“The new iHV UK Preceptorship Framework for Health Visiting is the fruit of a UK-wide collaboration that has been inspiring and motivating. Its aim and hope is to offer organisations, which employ health visitors from all four nations, a Framework that is preceptee-led, relevant and adaptable to enable new health visitors to embed the NMC Code and NMC 2022 Standards of proficiency for specialist community public health nurse health visitors, evolve into confident practitioners, and thrive to make a difference for babies, children and families.

“This was a wonderful opportunity to co-author this Preceptorship Framework for Health Visiting which stemmed from my contribution to the iHV Practice Education Network (PEN) as co-chair. This partnership with iHV continues to inspire and develop my passion for health visitor education alongside my lead role in B&NES and Wiltshire. Leading practice education has been a consistent theme throughout my health visiting career, from one-to-one student support to developing effective learning environments working collaboratively with the Higher Education Institutions in the South and South West of England, local teams and the iHV.”

The iHV UK Preceptorship Framework for Health Visiting provides:

A Preceptorship Framework to support best practice for preceptorship programmes for health visitors
A valuable overview of the research, evidence and policy on preceptorship
Practical guidance including:
- the key ingredients of an effective preceptorship programme
- the iHV Preceptorship Gradient of Growing, Embedding and Thriving (GET)
- the iHV Hierarchy of Learning Needs
- examples of outputs and outcomes of a preceptorship programme
A Framework for implementation and quality assurance in practice

Alison Morton – CEO, Institute of Health Visiting, added:

“I fully support the aims of this much-needed iHV UK Preceptorship Framework for Health Visiting to facilitate a consistent, personalised approach to preceptorship for every health visitor. The iHV seeks to achieve consensus with organisations employing health visitors actively supporting the Preceptorship Framework and ‘signing up’ to use the Framework in developing locally-agreed programmes, as part of their organisation’s quality strategy.”

The iHV UK Preceptorship Framework for Health Visitors has been developed through an extensive collaborative process with a wide range of experts and stakeholders from all four nations of the UK – iHV extends huge thanks to them for their expertise, guidance and support during this process.