In June 2023, our CEO, Alison Morton received a formal request for evidence for Module 3 of The Covid Inquiry from The Rt. Hon Baroness Hallett DBE PC (Chair of the Inquiry). All witness statements for Module 3 are now publicly available.
Alison’s witness statement presents evidence of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on health systems across the UK, between: 1 March 2020 and 28 June 2022. In particular, it provides a historical record of policy decisions and the healthcare systems’ response related to health visiting in England. The scope of the evidence includes people’s experience of health visiting, and workforce implications (including redeployment, access to PPE, the use of technology, and the impact of the pandemic on health visiting practitioners, including those in training).
Background
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is the independent public inquiry set up to examine the UK’s response to and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and learn lessons for the future. The Inquiry is Chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett, a former Court of Appeal judge, who has the power to compel the production of documents and call witnesses to give evidence on oath. The UK Covid-19 Inquiry covers the handling of the pandemic in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (a separate additional Inquiry is taking place in Scotland).
The Inquiry is split into 10 modules, which have different subject topics. Module 3 of the Inquiry opened on 8 November 2022, with a statement from Baroness Hallett:
“The pandemic had an unprecedented impact on health systems across the UK. The Inquiry will investigate and analyse the healthcare decisions made during the pandemic, the reasons for them and their impact, so that lessons can be learned and recommendations made for the future…”
Alison was asked to provide evidence on health visiting, in relation to the following key topics:
- Topic 1: The impact of government decision-making on health visiting during the pandemic
- Topic 2: The use of technology to conduct appointments and meetings
- Topic 3: The impact of Covid-19 on people’s experience of healthcare and quality of care – the impact on those requiring care for reasons other than Covid-19
- Topic 4: Staffing capacity including the redeployment of health visiting practitioners from one area to another
- Topic 5: Infection prevention and control. The availability of appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) for those working in the health visiting during the pandemic. The effect of national guidance on infection control within healthcare settings
- Topic 6: The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Institute of Health Visiting and its members/ practitioners working in health visiting teams, including those in training.
Timeline
The initial period for gathering evidence was relatively short, with the call for evidence received on 20 June 2023 and the first submission due by 15 August 2023. This was then followed by two further rounds of clarification questions from the Module’s legal team and the management of redactions of personal information (unless it related to senior officials), with the final submission completed in February 2024. This evidence will form part of the Inquiry, alongside the evidence gathered through the public hearings for Module 3 which were held between 9 September 2024 and 28 November 2024 (available to access here). The evidence is all currently being reviewed and the recommendations will then be formulated, with a clear monitoring process in place to ensure that they are acted upon.
Commenting on being part of the Covid-19 Inquiry, Alison Morton said:
“When I first received the formal request to provide evidence on health visiting from Baroness Hallett, I felt an enormous weight of personal responsibility for our profession, recognising the importance of telling our story. And a mantle to do justice to the experiences of all my health visiting colleagues across the country, as well as the babies, children and families that we all seek to serve. My witness statement provides an account of the decisions that were made, based on the information that was available at the time. My overriding goal is that it provides a foundation for learning and adds to the weight of evidence to drive lasting change for the better!
“My statement comes with a ‘health warning’ – it is lengthy – and reading it back today, I had vivid flashbacks to March 2020. A time when the world shut down – but babies kept on being born, and the struggles of family life were magnified for so many. A lot happened in the next 30 months. There were so many brilliant examples of the tenacity of the human spirit to care for others, as well as harrowing accounts of the multiple harms experienced by so many people.
“At the iHV, we were involved with national policymakers, frontline practitioners, service leads, researchers, and families with babies and young children. The evidence brings together pieces of the jigsaw from that time, when a pandemic exposed vulnerabilities and weaknesses in healthcare systems, as well as fantastic examples of professionalism and rapid innovations. Health visiting practitioners up and down the country will also have their own stories to tell of this challenging time.
“Since I first submitted the evidence in August 2023, more research and evidence on the wider impacts of the pandemic on babies, children and families has been published – there are also still many unanswered questions. And more learning will no doubt come to light in the years to come. With a growing weight of evidence on the importance of the earliest years of life, and soaring levels of need, we need to learn from the past and now get on with the serious business of building a better future.”
