The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV), alongside 5 health organisations, is delighted to publish the new Recommended National Curriculum for Specialist Community Public Health Nursing – Health Visiting/School Nursing (0-19 child public health nursing services).

The Recommended National Curriculum is a consensus statement of the overarching knowledge, skills and attributes that can be expected of Specialist Community Public Health Nurses delivering health visiting and school nursing services to families, children and young people from age 0-19.  It is the product of a consensus-building partnership between the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV), Unite/Community Practitioner Health Visitor Association (CPHVA), United Kingdom Standing Conference (UKSC), National Forum of School Health Educators (NFSHE), School and Public Health Nurses Association (SAPHNA) and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

Recommended National Curriculum

Developed for use by curriculum developers and providers of health visitor education including higher education institutes, private providers, charities and other voluntary sector organisations, amongst many others, the Curriculum provides authoritative evidence-based guidance applicable across the whole UK in the context of rapid change in policy and practice, fragmentation of services and inconsistency in delivery.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, Executive Director at the Institute of Health Visiting, said:

“Parents, children and young people consistently highly rank having good access to a health visitor or school nurse as being important as a source of advice and support due to their reliable knowledge and expertise on the health issues that matter to them.  The publication of this Recommended National Curriculum provides a consensus statement of the overarching knowledge, skills and attributes for nurses to be educated and trained to deliver this specialist level of community public health nursing across the UK. The partners collaborating in the development of this curriculum commend its use to commissioners and providers of health visiting and school nursing education and services, and to the NMC as it reviews its Standards of Proficiency.”

The Recommended National Curriculum provides a firm basis for future developments in individual higher education institutions and also at a national level, when the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) proceeds with its Programme of Change for Education and reviews the Standards for Specialist Community Public Health Nursing.

The curriculum also endorses health visiting and school nursing as a distinctive level and form of practice that warrants regulation, to assure the public of the professional standards that they can expect of registrants prepared for and practising as health visitors and school nurses.

Today’s #HVWeek topic: Transition: Midwife to Health Visitor, Health Visitor to School Nurse. Now that we are more reliant on electronic communication how effective are these key service handovers. What do you do to facilitate them?

Welcome to Day 5 of national #HVweek

Hard to believe, but it is already Day 5 and the end of the national #HVweek for this year!

It has been a fabulous opportunity to hear from you and see you in action. What you have shared continues to demonstrate the variety, complexity and added value of the work of health visitors nationally.

Don’t stop yet – we are keen to extend the reach of last year’s #HVweek, so please continue to tweet and retweet and send us your final contributions for this excellent #HVweek17.

In turn, we will retweet and share as many of them as we are able – to demonstrate the tremendous energy and significant work of a fabulous profession from across all UK regions. Let us all continue to be #ProudtobeaHV.

Here’s a video of Professor Dame Sarah Cowley on the value of the health visiting service – explaining the unique contribution of health visiting and how to market health visiting to other agencies.

Transitions and electronic communication

It is the Institute’s core mission to strengthen the profession by promoting excellence in health visiting practice. To do this we collaborate and work in partnership in many different ways. Our resources are just one example; produced with subject experts and key individuals who can support us to support you.

Whilst we prioritise meeting face-to-face with many of these partners and having a presence where needed, we also increasingly use technology to work remotely and meet virtually. Our use of electronic communication mirrors the increasing reliance on electronic communication in clinical practice, and our collaboration and partnerships also reflect those sound inter-disciplinary relationships that underpin good transitions between Midwife and Health Visitor, and Health Visitor and School Nurse – with the resulting better outcomes for children, families and communities.

For our contribution today, we are continuing to highlight some of the resources and materials we have produced with the aim of promoting those that align with today’s theme. Do take a look in case you missed any when we originally published them.

Midwife to Health Visitor

We have an insightful statement written by researchers at City University (Dr Ellinor Olander, Ryc Aquino and Professor Ros Bryar – COPE Research team) on electronic communication as part of their original research programme incorporating Midwife and Health Visitor collaborative relationships – with links to their published work. Do take time out to have a look at their work and tweet them.

Health Visitor to School Nurse

PHE Updated 4-5-6 integrated infographic for health visiting and school nursing

In November 2016, Public Health England (PHE) published a new integrated 4-5-6 model for health visitors and school nurses.

PHE – Refreshed High Impact Areas 0-19

This cover refreshed High Impact Areas for early years (health visiting) and the High Impact Areas for school aged years (school nursing).

These documents support local authorities and providers in commissioning and delivering children’s public health services aged 0 to 19 years.  They are mainly intended for use by commissioners of health visiting and school nursing, and local authorities, to ensure that health visiting and school nursing services are commissioned effectively.

These documents identify 6 areas where health visitors have the highest impact on the health and wellbeing of children aged 0 to 5 years and a further 6 areas for school aged children from 5 to 19 years.

Some useful blogs previously published:

Resilience

Resilience relates to the ability to recover and bounce back from adversity and hardship. Resilient individuals demonstrate great flexibility, high energy levels, first rate mental agility and consequently can consistently perform at their highest level. They have strong relationships and robust support networks that help them to amplify their productivity and results.  As health visitors, we need to be resilient!  Below are some resources to help you:

  • helps health visitors to build their own emotional health and stay resilient in what are often challenging and complex work environments. Click your way through the tree to find the answers you need.
  • Based on the iHV’s Developing Resilience with Compassion training, this e-learning helps health visitors to update their knowledge and skills for developing resilience with compassion in practice.

 


Please note that some of these resources are available to iHV members only.

Many of the products highlighted will be those that are freely accessible on our website to non-members. However, as a not-for-profit organisation we are reliant on our members to contribute and to support us in our journey supporting you.

Remember, if you do like what you see and you would like to access the full range of resources you can join us as an Associate member or Friend for just £6.50 a month. Your subscriptions for professional membership will attract tax relief as the iHV is now HMRC approved. As a basic rate tax payer, this could mean relief of over £15 a year on your annual subscription.

So do join us now!

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Public Health England (PHE) has published a new integrated 4-5-6 model for health visitors and school nurses, together with refreshed High Impact Areas for early years (health visiting) and the High Impact Areas for school aged years (school nursing).

These documents support local authorities and providers in commissioning and delivering children’s public health services aged 0 to 19 years.  They are mainly intended for use by commissioners of health visiting and school nursing, and local authorities, to ensure that health visiting and school nursing services are commissioned effectively.

These documents identify 6 areas where health visitors have the highest impact on the health and wellbeing of children aged 0 to 5 years and a further 6 areas for school aged children from 5 to 19 years.

New Infographics

New integrated 4-5-6 model

New integrated 4-5-6 model

Download 4 supporting infographics aimed at health visitors and school nurses for:

  • the 4-5-6 approach for health visiting and school nursing (see above infographic)
  • helping children and families achieve their potential: the Troubled Families programme
  • immunisation: protect, prevent, promote
  • improving oral health for children and young people

There is also a pathway and infographic for understanding female genital mutilation (FGM) to help midwives, health visitors, school nurses and practice nurses support women and girls at risk of or following FGM.

 

 

iHV is a signatory to a letter, lead by the Royal College for Paediatric and Child Health (RCPCH), which was sent to the Health Service Journal (HSJ) in response to an article written last week about how public health cuts are damaging to child health.

The HSJ investigation revealed that services aimed at children and young people are bearing the brunt of cuts to public health spending by local authorities.

Overall, their analysis identified planned spending reductions worth £50.5m in 2016-17, across 77 local authorities which provided information. Of the £50.5m cuts in 2016-17, the biggest single area was a £7m reduction to services directly aimed at improving the health of children and young people, such as health visiting, school nursing and childhood obesity programmes. These represented 14% of the total.

The letter signed by 12 leading specialists, warned that any spending cuts imposed by local authorities could have a “significant impact on the future health of children”. Scaling back spending on health visitors, child obesity programmes and school nurses will have a detrimental effect on the future health of children and young people in the UK it said.

A copy of an article in relation to this can be found on the HSJ and you can see a copy of the letter in full on the RCPCH’s website.

The letter is also shared below:

Dear Sir,

At a time where child wellbeing in the UK ranks a poor 16th out of 29 income rich countries, putting us below Slovenia and the Czech Republic, children are becoming overweight or obese earlier and breastfeeding rates are deemed the worst in the world, it is highly concerning to learn that of the £50.5m spending reductions planned for 2016-17 by local authorities, the biggest single area affected was services directly aimed at improving the health of children and young people (‘Children’s services hardest hit by public health cuts,’ 4 July 2016). Cuts are also affecting services for pregnant women such as smoking cessation and this could have a significant impact on the future health of children.

If we are to improve outcomes for children and young people in the UK, then it is vital that services provided by local authorities such as health visiting, school nurses and weight management programmes are protected. Without them, obesity rates will rise and the associated health costs will spiral, breastfeeding rates will fail to get better and thousands of babies each year will miss out on the many benefits it provides. In addition, obesity prevention, school nurses and health visitors are all important in the prevention and early detection of mental health problems, so these services are vital for maintaining both the physical and mental health of our children. We call on Government to invest in child health now because by doing so, it will protect the future health of the nation.

Professor Russell Viner, Officer for Health Promotion, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH)
Shirley Cramer, CEO, The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH)
Professor John Middleton, President of the Faculty of Public Health
Sarah Carpenter, head of Health, Community Practitioners’ & Health Visitors’ Association
Sarah Carpenter, head of Health, Unite
Dr Ingrid Wolfe, Chair, British Association for Child & Adolescent Public Health
Janet Davies, Chief Executive & General Secretary at the Royal College of Nursing
Dr David Richmond, President, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG)
Dr Cheryll Adams, CBE, Executive Director, Institute of Health Visiting
Cathy Warwick, CEO, Royal College of Midwives
Jane Barlow, President, Association of Infant Mental Health
Stephen Dalton, Chief Executive, NHS Confederation
Bernadka Dubicka, Vice-chair, faculty of child and adolescent psychiatry, Royal College of Psychiatrist, Honorary reader, University of Manchester; Consultant psychiatrist, Lancashire Care Foundation Trust
Prof Karen Middleton, chief executive of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy

Please do share this update with your school nurse colleagues.

‘A Clean & Healthy Start to School’ is aimed at parents with young children, helping to them to prepare their children for school life and teach them good hygiene habits. Regularly updated, this booklet has been distributed widely for many years, primarily by school nurses.

This is a free healthcare resources for a range of healthcare professionals and their clients.

Its just been updated (Fourth Edition).

The booklet is available as a downloadable pdf, and also in printed copy.

Boxes of approx. 115 copies can be mailed out directly, either to individual schools or to local/regional centres. Please contact Michelle Short [email protected] Tel: 00 44 7970 852191