Celebrating One Year of Impact

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.

Exclusive iHV Insights webinar recording is now open access

Exclusive iHV Insights webinar recording is now open access: The Public health role in reducing A&E attendances

To help raise awareness of health visitors’ role in tackling the current crisis in urgent care services, we are delighted to share the recording of our recent iHV Insights webinar: “The Public health role in reducing A&E attendances” held on 16 January 2025.

Tackling increasing demands on urgent services is a national priority as too many patients are waiting too long in overcrowded A&E departments across the country. Our iHV report and film, published in December 2023, highlighted that babies and young children are the highest users of A&E, with the rate of children aged 0-4 years attending A&E in England increasing by 42% in the last 10 years. When reviewed, a large proportion of these attendances did not require hospital treatment and were for non-urgent conditions (for example, minor illnesses, feeding problems, and parental distress due to infant crying), suggesting that they could be managed and supported by other means, including health visitors in the community.

Following the Darzi review, the new government has proposed three “shifts” in health care to ensure that services are fit for the future – this includes shifting care from the hospital to the community and a much greater emphasis on prevention. Health visitors can play an important part of the solution to addressing increasing demands on urgent care services through their ‘upstream’ work in prevention and early intervention – supporting parents to manage minor illnesses by improving health literacy is a central function of health visiting.

This webinar brought together a leading panel of expert speakers who explored the health visitors’ public health role in reducing A&E attendances alongside the latest national data and context of 0–4-year-olds attending A&E:

Honorary Professor Damian Roland, Consultant in Paediatric Emergency Medicine, Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland Urgent and Emergency Care System Clinical Director
Georgina Mayes, iHV Health Visiting Professional Lead (Quality and Policy)
Kate Walters, Divisional Director of Nursing & AHPs, Children & Family Services and CAMHS

This webinar brings into sharp focus the unique needs of babies, young children and their families and the importance of ensuring that they can access the right healthcare support when they need it – right person, right place, right time.

Help us raise awareness and drive meaningful change to improve healthcare support for families. Please share the webinar and short iHV film “Can you see my baby? Health visitors prevent emergencies” on the vital role of health visitors in reducing A&E attendances for babies and children aged 0-4 years with your commissioners, local MPs and Health Boards.

Honorary Professor Damian Roland said:

“Emergency Department attendances reflect inequalities in society and the systems response to them. Understanding, and addressing, underlying reasons for Emergency Department attendances will ultimately improve the long-term life chances of Children and Young People.”

Georgina Mayes, iHV Health Visiting Professional Lead (Quality and Policy), said:

“Health visiting is an important part of the solution to reducing A&E attendances. This webinar highlights the vital role of health visitors in providing expert, professional support to families when their baby or child is unwell. More health visitors are urgently needed now to ensure all families can get the support that they need, which will in turn take pressure off overstretched A&E departments.”

Kate Walters, Divisional Director of Nursing & AHPs, Children & Family Services and CAMHS, said:

“Parental confidence and the importance of understanding your baby is crucial to the decisions that parents and carers make about accessing health care – where to go, what to do and what is the most appropriate. Health visitors play a key role in building this understanding and helping parents to navigate the health system. Health visitors can provide signposting, advice, digital support, and are accessible to all.”

Watch the full iHV Insights recording:

Watch short iHV Film, “Can you see my baby? Health visitors prevent emergencies ”

Join the conversation and share your thoughts on how we can work together to support babies, young children, their families and communities more effectively #HealthVisiting #ReduceA&EAttendances #Prevention.

This webinar is part of a series of iHV Insights events produced for iHV members to support their continuous professional development and help them keep abreast of the latest issues in child and family public health. Not a member? Consider joining us. Our corporate membership provides exclusive access to expert-led events, resources, and networking opportunities designed to support health visitors’ professional development and practice. Individual UK membership is also available in four different categories: Associate, Student, Friend, and Retired

Practice-based resources to support babies, children and families this winter

Babies under one year of age have the highest Emergency Department (ED) attendance rate, as highlighted in our recent report ‘Understanding the rise in 0-4-year-old Emergency Department (ED) attendances and changing health visiting practice‘. Respiratory illnesses represent 3 of the top 5 reasons for ED attendance and include: upper respiratory tract infections, tonsilitis and bronchiolitis. The report also highlighted that 59% of A&E attendees did not need investigations, treatment, or hospital admission, and were sent home after reassurance.

With this in mind, it is important for health visitors and other healthcare professionals to have knowledge and understanding of current respiratory illnesses, the signs and symptoms, and advice to be able to offer parents to help enable them to look after their children at home and know when to seek further help and support.

Over the last 3 years the iHV has been working closely with NHSE, Barnardo’s, Bliss, Contact and Healthier Together to create resources for parents and healthcare professionals about a variety of winter illnesses, which include:

Bronchiolitis and RSV
Croup
Difficulty breathing and wheeze
Fever, and fever under 3-months
Breathing difficulties in babies under 3-months
Strep A and Scarlet Fever
Flu

The related resources come in a range of formats – from e-learning and webinars for healthcare professionals/practitioners, to resources for parents including “When to worry” written resources, plus filmed and animated resources in the following languages: Bengali, Gujarati, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian, Spanish and Urdu, as well as English.

Webinar

On Tuesday 16 January 2024, 15:00-16:30, we are delivering a webinar which aims to refresh practitioners’ knowledge and to share the wide range of resources that we have available in more detail. Updates will be provided from each of the partner organisations:

Healthier Together will provide an update from a Lead Paediatrician on the current winter illness context
Bliss Charity will share resources on recognition of illness in babies with Black and Brown skin
Barnardo’s will be discussing damp and mould and the impact this has on respiratory health

Please join us for this important learning event and refresh your knowledge.

Webinar: Practice-based resources to support babies, children & families this winter
Date: Tuesday 16 January 2024
Time: 15:00-16:30
Online

Book your place here - places are limited, book early to avoid disappointment

Preview some of the available resources for practitioners here

New opportunity: Events Manager

Exciting and unique local opportunity with the Institute of Health Visiting

Events Manager
Based: Home-based and the Emsworth Office, Hampshire
Permanent
Full-time

Do you have events management experience? Are you hardworking, flexible, highly organised and efficient? Are you an excellent communicator, reliable and focused on promoting high quality in all you do, with good attention to detail?

Do you want to take the next step in your career at the Institute of Health Visiting, a highly successful and growing UK-wide charity with a clear vision and positive values that make it a great place to work?

If yes, then come and join us. The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) is seeking to appoint a full-time Events Manager with a proven track record of the planning, management and delivery of face-to-face and online events across a broad range of activities from workshops and network meetings to conferences.

The iHV is a fast-paced organisation that operates with a blended working model with team members distributed throughout the UK. The post holder will work predominantly from home, with an expectation to come into our Emsworth office at least 1-2 days per week, with occasional UK travel for meeting and conferences that may require overnight stays.

The post holder will require a high level of both efficiency and initiative, excellent communication skills, and a willingness to plan and manage a number of events at any one time. The successful candidate will have strong project planning, organisational, administrative and IT skills, with a keen eye for detail and a positive attitude to teamwork, learning and development.

The iHV’s portfolio of events and conferences is growing. This is an exciting opportunity for someone to really make their mark in supporting innovation and growth by planning events to meet the needs of the people we serve and improve their experience. You will be rewarded by the opportunity to join a unique and vibrant national charity, with a welcoming and supportive team, where two days are never the same. We know that the people who work at the iHV are its greatest asset and have made it the successful organisation that it is today. We believe that when everyone who works at the iHV is happy and feels supported to do a great job, then they care about the work that they do, which in turn is good for the iHV. You will also be rewarded knowing your work is making a real difference to babies, young children, families and communities, and the health visiting teams that support them.

You will work closely with our Head of Operations, Executive Director and Administrative Team.

If you have the skills and experience required and would relish the opportunity of working within a growing organisation, we would like to hear from you.

Applications close: 12 noon, Monday 12 December 2022

Interviews: Week Commencing 19 December 2022 via Zoom

For Job Description and how to apply

FREE Tax-Free Childcare webinar

A FREE Tax-Free Childcare webinar for local authority/council officers, partners, and family-facing professionals

15 March 2022 – 10:00-11:30

HMRC has asked Hempsall’s to deliver this 90-minute Zoom webinar. It will be useful for local authorities/councils and family-facing professionals across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

You are invited if you are a health visitor, social worker, housing officer, or work in children’s centres, early help, job centres, schools, or if you are someone else who works with families across the public, private and voluntary sectors.

The webinar is designed to share up-to-date information and to raise awareness of Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) and increase understanding of it.

Hempsall’s will be providing a useful overview of TFC and how it could better benefit children and families. They also want to help and equip attendees with ideas and tools that can motivate parents to sign up and use TFC to pay for childcare, out of school and holiday activities. Helping families and children and the provider in turn.

The webinar will consider:

Information, myth busting and growing awareness/understanding of TFC to support clear information sharing.
How we all can motivate interest and engagement in TFC.
Actions that can support parent and provider sign-up.

Agenda

10:00 Welcome and introduction
Aim and purpose
10:10 TFC: the story so far, evaluation and learning
10:20 Re-imagining TFC
Opportunities to take for families and providers
10:35 The importance of good information
10:45 Extending information through effective reach and engagement
11:00 Motivating behaviours – taking actions
Examples of impact
11:15 What can we all do?
Useful tools and information
11:25 Summary points and evaluation
11:30 Close

The webinar will be recorded, and slides and resources will be shared afterwards.

Find out more about the project here

Book your FREE place here

Bookings open for third Genomics webinar

iHV has teamed up with Genomics Education Programme (GEP) to run three free webinars on genomics – open to all health visitors. We ran the first webinar in December 2021 and the second one in January 2022.

If you would like to watch/hear the first two webinars, please click here.

Our third and final webinar is titled “How can we develop our knowledge of Genomics?”. This will be held on Thursday 24 February 14:00-15:30.

In this webinar, we will be considering how we can adapt our current practice to embed genomics in our work with families. Join Sally Shillaker from iHV, and hear from Dr Ed Miller of Genomics Education Programme, about how we can develop our personal knowledge of genomics.

You don’t need to have attended webinar one or two to book on to this third webinar.

Book your place today

Bookings open for February iHV Insights

Our highly popular iHV Insights webinar programme continues with our next event taking place on Thursday 17 February 2022 from 15:30 to 16:30.

This iHV Insights will cover the topic of Parental awareness of respiratory illness in babies & children – Session 4.

Thanks to specific project funding to support sharing of new resources for this important topic, this iHV Insights event is open to all health visitors to book.

The VSCE-funded iHV Respiratory Project has now successfully delivered 3 webinars, which are available to watch again on the iHV website on our new iHV Respiratory Illness page. This iHV Insights event is the fourth session in the series.

This project aims to share key information and resources on respiratory illnesses in under 3s – with a focus on Fever, Breathing difficulties and Wheeze, Croup, and Bronchiolitis/RSV, and supporting HVs in their role working with families. This includes ensuring the promotion of and access to resources already in use, including the Healthier Together website and iHV Parent Tips on fever and breathing difficulties and wheeze.

This Insights webinar will bring together the project, showcasing our new parent resources which come in a variety of languages and are accessible to those with learning difficulties/disabilities.

We are pleased to announce that our expert panel of speakers includes:

Dr Ben Hughes on the EPNS4 Surge e-learning course which focuses on care and support at home
Eluned Hughes and Erika Radford, The British Lung Foundation and Asthma UK on their helplines

How to book

Thanks to specific project funding to support sharing of new resources for this important topic, this iHV Insights event is open and free to all health visitors to book.

Go to Eventbrite booking page to book your place

New Webinar: Delivering different news to families by healthcare professionals

The iHV is delighted to announce that bookings are open for the ‘Delivering different news to families by healthcare professionals’ webinar.

This ‘must see’ event is scheduled for Friday 4 March 2022 between 13:30–14:30.

The webinar will share research findings on different approaches to delivering different news which will equip healthcare professionals with the skills and knowledge to ensure that parents are supported with care, compassion and sensitivity when they need it the most.

The first 1001 days, from conception to the time a child reaches two years of age, are critical for their physical, emotional and cognitive development. When it is identified that a baby has a disability or illness during this period, it can present as a different parenting journey from the usual expectations. Delivering this type of different news to parents must be done sensitively and compassionately by professionals.

We have some fantastic speakers lined up for this event including:

Angie Emrys-Jones – Parent with lived experience
Angie will talk about her middle child who is gifted with an extra chromosome. She will highlight what made her family extraordinary (yet fantastically ordinary at the same time) that awoke a passion to share the lived family perspective of having a child with a learning disability in today’s world.
Dr Esther Mugweni – Public Health Intelligence Manager
Esther was the chief investigator for the HEE-funded study to develop a training intervention to improve how healthcare professionals inform families about their child having a congenital anomaly in the first 1001 days of life. Esther is an experienced strategic leader in applied Public Health research and evaluation, impacting health, policy and practice.
Dr Judith Johnson – Clinical Psychologist
Judith is an expert in news delivery in obstetric ultrasound. Her INDIRA news delivery guidelines for delivering news in ultrasound have been incorporated into the Society and College of Radiographers and British Medical Ultrasound Society guidelines, and are now acting as the foundation for a Communication Coaching intervention which is being evaluated in sonographers.

Event details:

Title: Delivering different news to families by healthcare professionals webinar
Date: Friday 4 March 2022
Time: 13:30–14:30.
Location: Online virtual event

Thanks to specific project funding, this webinar is a free event to attendees.

The webinar is suitable for Health Visitors, Midwives, GPs, Obstetricians, Gynaecologists and Radiologists.

To reserve your place for this fantastic event - book here

Download webinar flyer

Webinar: Parental awareness of respiratory illness in babies & children

iHV is delivering the VSCE HW funded project aimed at sharing key information and resources on respiratory illnesses in under 3s; with a focus on Fever, Breathing difficulties and Wheeze, Croup, and Bronchiolitis/RSV and supporting HVs in their role working with families.

As part of this programme of work, we are delighted to offer a series of funded awareness sessions to support health visitors in their role working with families – open to all health visitors.

3rd Awareness Session now booking

Date: Tues 25 January 2022
Time: 15:30-16:30

This is the 3rd in the series of awareness sessions aiming to support health visitors in their role working with families, and builds on the two awareness sessions already held in November and December (recordings of these are available on our Respiratory Illness resources webpage).

Highlights for Awareness Session 3 include presentations from:

Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, DHSC – The importance of the role of health visitors in promoting parental awareness
Lead Paediatrician – A focus on croup
CONTACT – Supporting families of children with disabilities with respiratory illness.

Book your place today for the 3rd Awareness Session

New Respiratory Illness Resources

Access a range of resources through our new open-access webpage on the iHV website, including previous awareness webinars.

This contains all the collated resources from the VSCE-funded project partners to facilitate and streamline access to information, including:

HEE The Respiratory Surge e-learning
Bliss – excellent short animation on bronchiolitis and RSV in English with 5 subtitled versions available
Boloh Helpline provided by Barnado’s – new Bronchiolitis/RSV resources specifically aimed at ethnic minority groups and staff are available on the helpline

See iHV Respiratory Illness resources and previous awareness webinars (open access to all)

Future event – SAVE THE DATE!

17th February – iHV Insight and Awareness Session four: Please save the date. Further information and booking details will be released in due course.

Highlights for this final event include presentations from:

Dr Ben Hughes on EPNS4Surge course which focuses on care and support at home.
The British Lung Foundation and Asthma UK on their helplines.
Alongside introducing new resources from the iHV project team.

Bookings open for iHV Insights Jan 2022

Our highly popular iHV Insights webinar programme for iHV members continues with our next event taking place on Thursday 20 January 2022 from 3:30 to 4:30pm.

This iHV Insights will cover the topic of Supporting eating for children with additional needs.

We have received many requests from our members for information and advice to support families whose children have eating problems, especially those children who have additional needs. In response, we are delighted to offer an iHV Insights webinar for you on this topic.

The Newcastle University FEEDS research team will share their research about “Parent-delivered interventions used at home to improve eating, drinking and swallowing in children with neurodisability: the FEEDS mixed-methods study”, the team will also share practical insights on how, as health visitors, we support children and their families.

The Speakers include a consultant paediatrician, research experts, speech and language therapist and a health visitor.

The webinar will also be recorded and will be available to iHV members on our website after the event.

Please join us.

How to book for iHV members

Go to our Eventbrite booking page and please use your iHV membership number as your access code. If you have any problems or enquiries please email [email protected] and we will be happy to help.

Once you have submitted your details, you will be able to select your ticket and proceed to checkout – please note that this webinar is free to iHV members.

Go to Eventbrite booking page

Spaces are filling quickly so click the link to book your space now.

Not an iHV member?

If you are not an iHV member, join us today to book your place on iHV Insights to access these resources and many other member benefits.

Previous iHV Insights

The great news is that all iHV Insights webinars are available for iHV members to access as a free member benefit after the event, as well as joining the live session. As a member, you can access all of our previous iHV Insights webinar

Click here and log in to catch up on our previous iHV Insights.