NEW resource – Parenting Through Coronavirus (COVID-19)

You are not alone

We know that this is a worrying time and it will definitely not be how you had planned your parenting journey. You may have concerns in relation to your pregnancy or your children. You may be wanting to access helpful parenting information.

The iHV is dedicated to supporting the health and wellbeing of all families and we are putting together links and resources from trusted organisations and websites to support you during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will be developing and adding new resources to support families over the coming months, during the COVID-19 outbreak and beyond.

Go to links and resources on Parenting Through Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Please share this link (https://ihv.org.uk/ParentingCOVID19) through your networks

We will be regularly updating this page, so please keep checking back for the latest!

Updated mental health GPPs for #iHVPIMH19

iHV is delighted to share updated Good Practice Points (providing up-to-date evidence and references for our members) in support of our multi-agency Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Conference taking place tomorrow, Tuesday 10 September in London.

Perinatal and Infant Mental Health: Relationships Matter! Conference is being held in collaboration with the Maternal Mental Health Alliance. If you were not able to get a ticket before they sold out, please do follow the day’s conference proceedings on the hashtag #iHVPIMH19 on Twitter!

Printed copied of these updated Good Practice Points (GPPs) will be available to conference delegate members tomorrow – so do pop along to our Training & Resources stand to pick up your copy.

Electronic versions of these updated documents are available to our members on the links below – do remember to sign in to access them:

Go to GPP - Understanding Mothers’ Mental Health & Wellbeing (updated August 2019)

Go to GPP - Understanding Fathers’ Mental Health & Wellbeing (updated June 2019)

Go to GPP - Engaging with Fathers (updated August 2019)

Go to GPP - Postnatal Psychosis (updated August 2019)

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!

Summary of updated iHV resources for #ChildSafetyWeek

It’s been a busy week for Child Accident Prevention Trust’s Child Safety Week 2019 (3-9 June). The focus for the week is Family life today: where’s the risk? to highlight the new dangers facing families today from our modern lifestyles.

Throughout the week, we have been sharing updated resources for Health visitors and updated Parent Tips for families. But today, it is good to share the full list of the week’s updates with you:

Updated Parent Tips:

Go to PT - How to reduce unintentional injuries in children under 5 years (accident prevention)

Go to PT - Safety in the Home/Burns and Scalds

Go to PT - Safety in the Home/Falls

Go to PT - Staying safe in the sun

Go to PT - Safety in the home/ Water safety

Go to PT - Safety in the home/ Suffocation and strangulation

Go to PT - Preventing Choking

Updated Good Practice Points

Go to GPP - How to reduce unintentional injuries in children under five years

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!

2 more updated resources for parents in #ChildSafetyWeek

In our continued support of #ChildSafetyWeek, we are delighted to share 2 more updated resources for families and parents.

Continuing the week’s theme of Family life today: where’s the risk? today’s updated resources are:

Updated Parent Tips – Safety in the Home/ Suffocation and Strangulation

These Parent Tips give parents and families tips on how to reduce suffocation and strangulation as there are a number of hazards in the home which can cause suffocation or strangulation in babies and children.

Go to PT - Safety in the home/ Suffocation and strangulation

Updated Parent Tips – Preventing choking

These Parent Tips give parents and families tips on how to prevent choking. Keeping your little one safe is vitally important to all parents. Babies and small children are at high risk of choking on small items because they examine unfamiliar objects by putting them in their mouths.

Go to PT - Preventing Choking

PHE Healthy weight promotion: consistent messages – resources published

Public Health England (PHE) has published a suite of resources focused on promoting a healthier weight for children, young people and families – a set of training tools providing evidence-based healthy weight messages for health and social care professionals to share.

These resources are intended to support health and care professionals to be consistent and provide a core set of healthy weight messages throughout the life course. This suite of resources is part of Public Health England’s All Our Health ‘call to action’ for health and care professionals. Resources can be accessed here and include:

Consistent messaging infographics: For use in practice. Each infographic highlights the key evidence-based healthy weight messages for specific age or target groups.
Consistent messaging slide sets: The aim of these slides is to be used as a training tool to inform workforce development. It provides detailed evidence-based healthy weight messages from preconception through to age 18 years. It includes links to a range of useful free resources including e-learning and guidance documents.
Child obesity animation: This animation demonstrates for all health and care professionals their vital role in supporting children, young people and families to maintain a healthier weight to prevent and reduce childhood obesity, from pregnancy through to the transition to adulthood.

Go to PHE: Healthy weight promotion: consistent messages

PHE: Measles outbreak awareness resources

Public Health England has recently published new posters and leaflets for use by health professionals and community engagement groups to raise awareness of measles.

Posters and leaflets includes information on vaccination and symptoms of measles. These are available for download only from Gov.uk.

Go to Gov.uk to download posters and leaflets

New resources for health visitors to help parents understand childcare choices

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) is delighted to work with PACEY (Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years) on their campaign to help parents understand the childcare options available to them and also to explain the recent changes to the early years entitlement with the roll out of 30 hours.

The PACEY campaign forms a key part of the Childminder Champions campaign funded by the Department for Education to increase parental knowledge and understanding of childminding as a high-quality childcare option. By working with the Institute to share information with health visitors across the country, the campaign aims to help parents understand what childcare options are available to them, including the important role that childminders can play, through sharing information with health visitors.

Karen Stansfield, head of education and quality, iHV, said:

“The Institute of Health Visiting is delighted to be working with PACEY on promoting the different childcare options available to parents. Health visitors meet all new parents several times during the first two and half years of a child’s life through the mandated contacts of the Healthy Child Programme and are well positioned to share lots of useful and important information with parents on child development.

“Together with PACEY, we have helped develop new resources for health visitors so that they are aware of the different childcare options available, including the extended 30-hour entitlement which started this month (September).

“These new resources include a briefing for health visitors to help them understand the childcare options, a short FAQ fact sheet on the new 30 hours entitlement and a childcare options leaflet to share with parents.”

See links below to access the resources:

Quick links to PHE child oral health tools and resources

The Children’s Oral Health Improvement Programme Board (COHIPB) has published a document containing quick links to tools and resources to support child oral health improvement.

This document provides an easily accessible list of all the tools and resources. Please let COHIPB know if there are other tools or resources that you feel should be included. The intention is that the quick links will be updated as new work is published.

Download COHIPB quick link document

MindEd – educational resources on children and young people’s mental health

MindEd is a free educational resource on children and young people’s mental health for all adults.

MindEd is suitable for all adults working with, or caring for, infants, children or teenagers; all the information provided is quality assured by experts, useful, and easy to understand. We aim to give adults who care for, or work with, young people:

the knowledge to support their wellbeing
the understanding to identify a child at risk of a mental health condition
the confidence to act on their concern and, if needed, signpost to services that can help

MindEd for Professionals & Volunteers

This is for you if you volunteer, work or are studying to work with infants, children or teenagers. MindEd has e-learning applicable across the health, social care, education, criminal justice and community settings. It is aimed at anyone from beginner through to specialist.

MindEd for Families

Are you a parent or carer who is concerned about your child? Or perhaps you just want some hints and tips on parenting? MindEd for Families has online advice and information from trusted sources and will help you to understand and identify early issues and best support your child.

Go to MindEd for Families

Minister launches over 70 new information sheets for families and health visitors

This morning Minister Dan Poulter MP launched a fantastic new iHV resource to drive health improvement in the early years during his speech at the ‘At the Heart of it All’ public health conference in Birmingham.

The information sheets provide key evidence based advice for parents faced with a range of dilemmas such as how to introduce vegetables into their toddlers diet.

They also provide a unique collection of evidence from research and health visiting specialists for student and new health visitors to drive practice improvement.

Go to resources for Parents

Go to Good Practice Points for health visitors

Dan Poulter MP with iHV Professional Development Officer Elaine McInnes