Tags: roundtable

NSPCC Parliamentary roundtable discussion on safeguarding in Family Hubs

Parliamentarians, safeguarding leaders and early years professionals gathered at a recent NSPCC parliamentary roundtable to discuss the future of safeguarding within Family Hubs and the critical role of workforce capacity in delivering effective support to families.

NSPCC Parliamentary roundtable

The event, chaired by Tom Collins MP for Worcester, brought together representatives from across the early years, safeguarding and family support sectors. Attendees included the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV), NSPCC, British Association of Social Workers (BASW), Local Government Association, National Centre for Family Hubs, Royal College of Midwives, Wigan Council, Blackpool Better Start programme, A Strong Start, and other sector leaders. Jess Phillips MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, also participated in the discussion.

Representing the Institute of Health Visiting, Dr Michelle Moseley contributed the health visiting perspective to discussions focused on strengthening safeguarding arrangements through Family Hubs.

The roundtable followed the publication of the NSPCC’s report, It Takes a Place: Multi-Agency Safeguarding in Family Hubs, released in May 2026. The report draws on interviews and focus groups with Family Hub practitioners across England, an analysis of 15 serious case reviews involving children under five between 2018 and 2025, a rapid evidence review of place-based safeguarding approaches, and polling of 2,084 parents with children aged 0–5.

The report outlines five recommendations for government action, with roundtable discussions focusing particularly on three recommendations most relevant to practitioners and professional bodies:

  • Strengthening the link between Children’s Social Care and Family Hubs
  • Establishing a shared safeguarding approach across services
  • Increasing awareness of Family Hubs and deploying Family Navigators

Notably, findings from the report’s accompanying YouGov survey demonstrated the high level of trust that parents place in health visitors. Of the 2,084 parents surveyed, 70% said they trusted health visitors, while 72% reported feeling comfortable asking their health visitor for help – it is significant that this was much higher than for other groups and provides clear evidence to drive better policy and practice to protect and safeguard children.

These findings reinforced the view that health visitors are uniquely positioned to engage families, identify emerging concerns and support safeguarding efforts at an early stage.

Drawing on the report’s findings, Dr Moseley highlighted both the opportunities and challenges associated with implementing these recommendations in practice. She emphasised the importance of strengthening the health visiting workforce and creating a truly integrated safeguarding approach that enables professionals across health, social care and family support services to work together more effectively.

A key theme emerging from the discussion was workforce capacity. While participants agreed that the Family Hub model offers a strong framework for delivering preventative and early intervention support, concerns were raised about whether current workforce pressures could limit its effectiveness.

Roundtable attendees heard that the success of the Family Hub model depends heavily on maintaining sufficient workforce capacity, particularly within health visiting services – workforce capacity underpins the ‘time’ available for practitioners to support relationship building with families and professional curiosity which has been highlighted as integral to child safeguarding. Participants expressed concern that, without sustained investment in the workforce, workforce shortages could drive a more targeted and reactive approach to service delivery, rather than proactive and preventative, undermining the achievement of key Family Hub objectives, including:

  • Prevention of escalating family difficulties
  • Early intervention and timely support
  • Reduction of health and social inequalities

The discussion concluded with a shared recognition that Family Hubs offer significant potential to improve outcomes for children and families, but that realising this ambition will require a coordinated safeguarding approach and sufficient investment in the professional workforce that underpins it. Health visiting was identified as a key component of that system, with participants acknowledging its vital role in helping families access support and safeguarding children during the earliest years of life.

iHV helps shape new early years data policy at ministerial roundtable

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) welcomes the launch of the new Early Years Kickstarter project – launched today by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology – which aims to explore how improved data sharing can help ensure children are ready for school.

Alison Morton OBE, iHV CEO, and Professor Lucille Poston, Professor of maternal and fetal health at King’s College London, were invited to represent health visiting at a ministerial roundtable convened by The Rt Hon Ian Murray MP, Minister of State (Minister for Digital Government and Data), to launch the project yesterday.

Minister Ian Murray visits a Family Hub in Fulham for the roundtable

The roundtable, held at the Tudor Rose Family Hub in Fulham, brought together representatives from across the early years, health visiting, academics, children’s services and local parents to explore the ways in which better use of data could potentially improve services for parents and children.

Alison Morton OBE at yesterday’s roundtable event

Minister Ian Murray visits a Family Hub in Fulham

The project will explore options for safely connecting data from health visiting, education and childcare providers – helping to join up services and improve outcomes for children, particularly those facing disadvantage.

There is a clear need for change. Currently, nearly a third of children (32%) start school without the basic skills they need to thrive, rising to almost half (48%) among children eligible for free school meals. This has a significant impact on their educational outcomes and future opportunities. Whilst early intervention can make a big difference, in many areas services can operate in isolation with separate digital systems that aren’t connected and paper-based processes, meaning support is less well-coordinated and risks children falling through the gaps between services.

Starting with Leeds City Council, the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, and councils within the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, the project will explore how better-connected services can improve coordination and provide more effective support for young children and their families.

Alison Morton said:

“Too often, opportunities to support children early are missed because information is held in separate systems. Improving the way data is shared across public services – including improved data quality, interoperability and analytical capability – is long overdue.

At the roundtable, we spoke about the importance of ensuring that advances in digital technologies are shaped around the needs of babies, children and families and the frontline practitioners who will be using these systems – an ambition that is at the heart of this project. We are delighted to be able to support the Kickstarter project. There is so much potential to make better use of data to help practitioners see the full picture, enabling families to access the right support sooner and ensuring children receive the help they need to thrive.” 

Technology Secretary, Liz Kendall, said:

“Too many children are arriving at school without the skills they need, and too many parents have had to fight through a complex, disconnected system to get their child the support they deserve. That burden falls hardest on disadvantaged children.

“We are determined to change old fashioned public services where assessments are recorded by paper and children’s needs are missed.

“Parents, carers and children deserve better and our hard-working early years and healthcare professionals deserve the tools they need to do their jobs – not blockers. The more connected we make our services, the greater the difference we can make for children and families.”

Have your say – take part in the project:

The Department of Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) invites parents, health visitors, educational professionals, data professionals and Local Authorities to share their experiences with health and education data for children aged 0-5 years. Your insights will help the project team understand pain points, successes, and areas for improvement to better support early identification of child needs.

If you would like to participate and share your views, please sign up via the form here.

Institute supports smokefree legislation

On behalf of the Institute of Health Visiting, Alison Morton, iHV CEO, joined key stakeholders yesterday at a roundtable to discuss the government’s proposed smokefree legislation. The meeting was hosted by Public Health Minister, Neil O’Brien, and the Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Sir Chris Whitty. The group discussed the large body of evidence on smoking-related harms and also the challenges around youth vaping.

The group was convened following the government’s announcement on 12 October that they plan to create a ‘smokefree generation’ and will:

  • Legislate to raise the age of sale one year every year from 2027 onwards
  • Double the funding for local authority Stop Smoking Services from next year
  • Increase funding for awareness raising campaigns by £5 million this year and £15 million from next year onwards
  • Increase funding for enforcement on illicit tobacco and e-cigarettes by £30 million from next year
  • Launch a consultation shortly on specific measures to tackle the increase in youth vaping

At the roundtable, Public Health Minister Neil O’Brien said:

“Smoking kills, and this government is committed to taking action to protect a generation of children from ever experiencing the harms associated with tobacco. Working with our stakeholders to deliver this historic legislation will be vital, and I will continue to engage with these organisations to create legislation that prioritises the health of the next generation.”

Attendees included members of the Smokefree Action Coalition committed to ending smoking. The coalition is coordinated by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

Smoking is the UK’s biggest preventable killer – causing around 1 in 4 cancer deaths and 64,000 deaths in England alone – costing the economy and wider society £17 billion each year.

Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, said:

“Smoking causes significant health harms at every stage of life – including stillbirths, many cancers, heart disease, stroke and dementia.

“To improve smoking-related ill-health, it is important to both ensure people do not become addicted to smoking and that those who smoke are supported to overcome addition.”

Alison Morton, iHV CEO, said:

“Health visitors see first-hand the devastating impacts of smoking-related harms in pregnancy and childhood that are almost entirely preventable. They also work with parents who are addicted to nicotine – the majority regret starting smoking and they recognise how difficult it is to quit.

“The iHV fully supports this ground-breaking legislation which presents an historic opportunity to break the cycle and prevent the next generation from becoming addicted to this lethal product.

“We are also committed to play our part in driving this change by ensuring that all health visitors are equipped to support families with babies and young children to quit smoking and provide smokefree homes.”

An online consultation is currently open on the proposed actions the UK Government and devolved administrations will take to tackle smoking and youth vaping, which we would encourage people to complete and support the legislation.

Access the full DHSC press release

Read the government’s report on yesterday’s roundtable

Find out more about iHV projects to reduce smoking in pregnancy and its harms in childhood:

NSPCC – Many new parents may be ‘suffering in silence’ during lockdown

On Maternal Mental Health Awareness Day (6 May), the NSPCC highlights rising concern that many new parents may be ‘suffering in silence’ during lockdown.

The Institute was pleased to support an NSPCC virtual roundtable looking at the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on new mothers’ mental health, and the risk of potential long-term consequences on babies’ health and development. The panel said their services had adapted to support parents digitally, but they shared concerns about the effect of the COVID-19 crisis on mothers and babies.

The NSPCC reported an increase of 28% in calls to its helpline about parental mental health in the first three weeks of lockdown.

Before the pandemic, up to one in five mothers and one in 10 fathers experienced perinatal mental health problems, the charity said.

Eileen O’Sullivan, a specialist health visitor in Warwickshire, said:

“Supporting mothers digitally can be challenging and there is a concern that some may be suffering in silence, too scared to share how they are really feeling over video.

“I am also seeing that my colleagues are being extra vigilant because we don’t want to miss anything.”

The NSPCC cited data from the Institute of Health Visiting, which found in some areas of England at least 50% of health visitors, including some from perinatal mental health and parent-infant teams, were redeployed into other health services in the initial period of the lockdown.

The NSPCC is urging the Government to ensure support is provided to parents as the country comes out of lockdown, and to come up with a plan to rebuild health visiting and perinatal services after the crisis.

Andrew Fellowes, public affairs manager at the NSPCC, said:

“At the NSPCC we know that, if undetected and untreated, perinatal mental health problems can have a devastating impact on women, partners and babies, both immediately but also long after the COVID-19 situation has passed.

“It is imperative that families continue to have access to services during the lockdown so that mental health problems can be identified and specialist support provided if needed.”

The iHV continues to support health visitors, our perinatal mental health champions and specialist health visitors in perinatal and infant mental health to deliver their services to families who may be adversely affected by the lockdown, particularly with respect to safeguarding and mental health issues. We have produced specific guidance to help which can be found in our COVID-19 (coronavirus) guidance for health professionals webpage: https://iHV.org.uk/COVID-19

iHV attends maternity roundtable meeting with The Duchess of Cambridge

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) was delighted to be invited to attend a virtual round table meeting about supporting new and expectant mothers with The Duchess of Cambridge this week to highlight the essential work and support that health visitors provide to new mothers.

The Duchess of Cambridge spoke with leading sector experts about the challenges and impact that COVID-19 is having on new and expectant mothers and their families ahead of the UK’s Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week (4-10 May).

• Top line L-R: Jessica Read, Deputy Chief Midwifery Officer for England, Julia McGinley, Head of Parent Support, Netmums (an inclusive online parenting community), Katie Massie-Taylor, Co-founder of Mush (an online community and app for mums)
• Second line L-R: Dr Edward Morris, President, The Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RCOG), Dr Alain Gregoire, Chair of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, Executive Director, Institute of Health Visiting

On this call, the group discussed key concerns that new and expectant parents had during this time, including apprehension about going into hospital and for community appointments, isolation, reduced support systems and increased anxiety. They also discussed a potential silver lining of lockdown being the increased presence of supportive partners, and new families being able to spend more time together with their newborns. The experts also spoke about the importance of community and emotional support for mothers which has been made more difficult by social distancing.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, Executive Director iHV, said:

“We want to get the message to families that the health visiting service is open, and we encourage all parents who would value some support to use their health visiting service when they need to.  Many areas now have advice lines that are manned throughout the day, in some cases into the evening.  If a health visitor isn’t immediately available a message can be left and one will ring back.”

Health visitors, alongside GPs, are the only health professionals who routinely see and support all families from pregnancy to when the youngest child goes to school.

The Duchess praised the resources developed by key institutions who are providing advice at this time saying:

“As organisations you’re playing such a vital role giving key information. You’re hugely trusted by the public and therefore the information you provide is a lifeline to a lot of people.”

The iHV has an area on their website for families which includes a section on Parenting through COVID-19. It can be found here: https://iHV.org.uk/ParentingCOVID19

The Institute of Health Visiting team would like to say thank you to every single health visitor and member of a health visiting team across the UK – we know that they are all going the extra mile to support the children and families in their areas. They are all heroes, our heroes.

More information about The Duchess’ meetings and round table call:

The Duchess took part in a call with midwives from Kingston Hospital last week and on Wednesday held a roundtable call with representatives from the sector including:

  • Dr Alain Gregoire, Chair of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance UK
  • Dr Eddie Morris, President, The Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RCOG)
  • Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, Executive Director, Institute of Health Visiting
  • Jessica Read, Deputy Chief Midwifery Officer
  • Katie Massie-Taylor, Co-founder of Mush Mums (an online community and app for mums)
  • Julia McGinley, Head of Parent Support, Netmums (an inclusive online parenting community)