Fewer health visitors, soaring caseloads and a postcode lottery of support

Long-awaited government data published today has provided the clearest picture yet of the health visiting workforce in England, confirming significant workforce losses, wide variation in provision, and growing pressures on services supporting babies, children and families.

Today, the Department of Health and Social Care published its Children’s public health nursing: workforce and activity report, 2025, providing a new national overview of the children’s public health nursing workforce and delivery of the Healthy Child Programme across England. The report estimates a national workforce of 6,909 whole-time equivalent (WTE) specialist community public health nurse (SCPHN) health visitors, within a wider health visiting workforce of 14,126 WTE staff.

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) welcomes the publication which represents an important step forward for transparency and accountability.

For many years, the absence of robust national workforce data has made it difficult to build a comprehensive picture of workforce capacity across health visiting services. The iHV has consistently called for better workforce intelligence, arguing that a lack of transparent national data risked obscuring the scale of the workforce challenges facing services and the consequences for babies, children and families – and delayed any action to addressing these issues.

Today’s publication provides an important benchmark from which progress can be measured and services rebuilt. Crucially, it also validates concerns that the iHV has been raising for many years about the sustained erosion of the health visiting workforce.

Published data confirm decade-long workforce decline

The newly published government data confirm a picture that the iHV has been warning about for years.

Drilling into the data, and comparing the latest uncorrected actual published workforce figures with the last comparable government data collection from 2015, shows that the number of health visitors in England has fallen from 11,192 in 2015 to 6,649 in 2025, representing a loss of 4,543 health visitors over the past decade.

While the new report estimates a national workforce of 6,909 WTE health visitors after adjusting for six local authorities that did not submit returns, the published workforce counts nevertheless demonstrate a dramatic 41% reduction in the number of qualified health visitors since 2015.

The findings closely align with the workforce trends previously highlighted by the iHV and reinforce longstanding concerns about the ability of services to meet increasing levels of need with a significantly smaller workforce.

A postcode lottery of support

The report also reveals substantial variation in health visitor provision across England.

Nationally, there are 2.2 WTE health visitors per 1,000 children aged 0 to 5 years, but local authority rates range from 0.9 to 4.9 health visitors per 1,000 children, more than a five-fold difference between the lowest and highest staffed areas.

For families, this means access to health visiting support can vary significantly depending on where they live.

The data also highlights the scale of variation in health visitor caseloads. Average caseloads stand at 454 children per health visitor, but average caseloads range from 204 to 1,111 children across different areas of England.

Such variation has a direct impact on the quality and consistency of support available to families. Health visitors carrying very large caseloads have less time to spend with each family, fewer opportunities to build trusted relationships, and reduced capacity to provide the preventative and early intervention support that is at the heart of the Healthy Child Programme.

The iHV is particularly concerned that, in some areas, service models and workforce shortages mean that families may never see a qualified health visitor. While wider skill mix teams make an important contribution, all families should be able to access the specialist expertise of a qualified health visitor when needed.

Demand remains high

Despite workforce reductions, demand for health visiting support remains substantial.

The report shows that more than 2 million statutory health and development reviews were delivered during 2025, including around 194,000 antenatal reviews, 473,000 new birth visits, 448,000 six-to-eight-week reviews, 474,000 one-year reviews, and 442,000 reviews at age two to two-and-a-half years. These figures also do not take account of the hundreds of thousands of other contacts that health visitors and their teams have with families, including targeted and specialist packages of support for a range of public health priorities.

These figures illustrate both the reach and importance of health visiting services and the challenge of maintaining high-quality support with a significantly reduced workforce.

Commenting on the data, Alison Morton OBE, iHV CEO, said:

“We warmly welcome the publication of this long-awaited workforce data. Greater transparency is essential and this report provides an important benchmark from which to rebuild the health visiting workforce.

“For too long, the absence of robust national workforce data has been a stumbling block to understanding the full scale of the challenge facing health visiting services. We have consistently called for better workforce intelligence because without transparency it is difficult to drive the action needed to address workforce shortages.

“These findings confirm the picture that the Institute of Health Visiting has been highlighting for many years – put simply, there are not enough health visitors to meet the scale of need and deliver the Healthy Child Programme as intended.”

Alison continued:

“Particularly concerning is the huge variation in workforce capacity across England. While the average caseload is 454 children, some health visitors are responsible for more than 1,100 children (and as this is aggregate data, we know that for individual health visitors this is even higher in some localities). That inevitably affects the amount of time they can spend with families and the support they can provide.

“A child’s access to support should not depend on their postcode, yet today’s figures reveal major differences between local areas. In some places, families may never see a qualified health visitor despite the recognised value of their specialist expertise.

“This matters because health visiting is a vital safety-net and one of our most important preventative services – the only service that proactively and systematically reaches babies, young children and their families during the crucial earliest years of life. Health visitors build trusted relationships with families, identify concerns early, support infant development, strengthen parent-child relationships, safeguard children, and help reduce health inequalities.”

Alison concluded:

“Today’s publication provides welcome transparency and confirms concerns that we have raised for many years about the impact of workforce shortages on babies, children and families.

“The evidence is now clear. The question now is: where is the plan to fix it?

“We need a clear, fully funded national workforce strategy, with ring-fenced funding, to rebuild health visiting services, tackle unwarranted variation, and ensure that every baby, child and family can access the support they need, regardless of where they live.”

Go to DHSC Children's public health nursing: workforce and activity report, 2025

UCL study: number of health visitors in England falls by a fifth over five years

iHV welcomes a new University College London (UCL) led study which highlights the substantial drop in the number of health visitors across England who are available to support new parents. This independent study reinforces our State of Health Visiting survey findings over the last few years and shares our concerns about the fall in health visitor numbers and its impact on babies, children, families and communities.

The study used Freedom of Information (FOI) requests covering 147 English local authorities, with up to 109 authorities providing workforce data by 2021 – with the researchers analysing health visiting workforce trends between 2016–2021.

Over this period, the number of health visitors (majority NHS Band 6) dropped by 21%. Although the number of Clinical Skill Mix Staff (primarily Band 4) rose by one third, this increase only partially compensated for the loss of qualified staff, resulting in an overall contraction of the workforce. The data showed, nearly eight in ten English local authorities saw a decline in the proportion of qualified health visitors within their teams during this period.

The FOI responses also revealed that caseloads have surpassed safe levels in 74% of local authorities. It is recommended that caseloads should not exceed 250 children per health visitor, but the study identifies some caseloads of over 1,000 children per caseload-holding staff member. Caseload pressures have been particularly pronounced in the most deprived local authorities.

The study’s authors estimate that meeting recommended caseloads would require a major expansion of the health visiting workforce, with around 3,100 additional staff needed across all English Local Authorities under a 50:50 mix of Health Visitors and Clinical Skill Mix Staff (based on the mid-2024 under-5 population). They further estimate that restoring caseloads to recommended levels would cost approximately £120 million per year in additional wages (using NHS 2024/25 Agenda for Change pay scales), plus around £80 million in one-off training costs. The authors note that these sums are feasible within the scale of recent early years funding commitments – for example, the Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme (around £330.45 million across 2022–25, plus £126 million in 2025–26) and the Best Start Family Hubs expansion (over £500 million between 2026 and 2029).

The government cite ‘giving children the best start in life’ as one of their key missions, but this study shows that health visiting teams have experienced sustained funding cuts in recent years, with local authority spending on universal health visiting falling by almost 20% in real terms between 2016-17 and 2023-24.

This UCL-led analysis comes as the Department of Health and Social Care published updated Healthy Child Programme commissioning and delivery guidance on 6 February 2026, setting out a national framework for child and family health.

Lead author Professor Gabriella Conti (UCL Economics, UCL Social Research Institute and Institute for Fiscal Studies) said:

“What happens in the first five years of life shapes health and opportunity for decades. Health visiting teams are on the front line of that work – they support new parents, spot problems early and help prevent health inequalities from becoming entrenched.”

The researchers undertook this study on the state of the health visiting workforce after identifying a gap in workforce data since public health services for children aged 0-5 were devolved to local authorities in 2015, which hindered a robust evaluation of the effectiveness of the health visiting workforce.

Professor Conti said:

“Without robust data on the health visiting workforce, policymakers and researchers cannot properly understand workforce pressures, service gaps or where investment is most needed. The updated Healthy Child Programme is a welcome move towards more consistent provision across England. But unless it is matched by a national workforce restoration plan, families will go on experiencing big differences in the support available where they live.”

Read the full study paper here

The King’s Fund calls for more health visitors

iHV welcomes today’s briefing from The King’s Fund which considers current state of health and care services for children and lists 10 actions that the government can take to improve children’s health.

The briefing was produced in response to growing concerns for children’s health and wellbeing which has declined in recent years, with children in the UK experiencing some of the worst health outcomes in Europe. Many lifelong health issues are established in childhood and, unless strong and meaningful action is taken to change course, the current generation of children is set to become an unhealthy generation of adults.

The King’s Fund makes it clear that improving children’s health will take comprehensive effort across all of society. The government has committed to raising ‘the healthiest generation of children in our history’, and this King’s Fund briefing focuses on a list of actions that the government should prioritise.

One of the actions for the Department of Health and Social Care is focused on addressing shortages in the child health workforce. Demand on the child health workforce has continued to increase at an unprecedented rate. Combined with shortages across the children’s workforce, ranging from midwifery and health visiting to consultant paediatricians, school nurses and allied health professionals, this means a record number of children are waiting to access health services. Children’s health services have witnessed underinvestment and reprioritisation at system and local levels, with a gap between research and innovation for adult health services and children’s health care. Children’s health services are also frequently out of the scope of government investment.

The King’s Fund is calling for a whole-government approach across all departments to support national prioritisation of children and young people’s health, including greater focus on prevention.

Today’s briefing outlines 10 actions that the government must take to turn the decline in children’s health around and help to create a healthier generation of children – including a recommendation supporting health visiting, urging the government to:

“Place a stronger focus on addressing the shortages in the child health workforce (including in school nurses, health visitors, midwives and consultant paediatricians), and improve staff retention across the medical, nursing and allied health professional specialist children’s workforce when reviewing the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan”.

The King’s Fund said:

“Children’s health has been heading in the wrong direction for too long; the need for change is urgent and requires a multifaceted, multi-system approach. The government has a pivotal role to play in ensuring that every child has a healthier childhood. Adopting the recommendations outlined in this briefing would go a long way to turning the tide and creating a healthier generation of children that is able to reach its full potential.”

Alison Morton, CEO at iHV, commented:

“Today, the highly respected King’s Fund has added their weight of support, calling for more health visitors in their briefing – and we are indebted to them for their advocacy and support for our profession. This comes hot on the heels of a call earlier in the week from the Centre for Mental Health calling for the government to train and employ more health visitors! And a long list of other high-profile organisations and think-tanks with the same message – we need more health visitors to improve child health!

“We hope that the government will heed the collective wisdom and advice of so many, and honour its manifesto commitment to strengthen health visiting and turn this into reality.”

Read the briefing and its 10 recommendations

Latest NMC registration data is a wakeup call to rebuild health visiting

Today, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) published the latest data on the number of registered nurses and midwives, alongside intelligence on the reasons why registrants are leaving the profession. Whilst the headline message is that there are more nurses, midwives and nursing associates in the UK than ever before, the aggregate data mask a significant problem for Specialist Community Public Health Nurses, with numbers in decline.

Headline messages:

Annual NMC data show that the number of registered nurses, midwives and nursing associates has grown by 37,723 (4.8%) to a record 826,418.
Nearly 60,000 new nursing and midwifery professionals joined the NMC register this year alone. This was split almost equally between UK and internationally educated joiners.
There are more nurses, midwives and nursing associates on the NMC register than ever: 826,418. That’s an increase of 37,723 (4.8 %) compared to the same period last year, and 128,184 (18.4 %) over the last five years.
The number of leavers as a proportion of the register has fallen, but data show that one fifth of people leaving did so within ten years of joining the profession.
After retirement, poor mental and physical health, and burnout are frequently cited reasons for leaving the professions.

SCPHN data:

In contrast to growth in other parts of nursing and midwifery, in England the number of Specialist Community Public Health Nurses (SCPHN) has fallen by 1.5%.
In the devolved UK nations, there has been an increase in the number of SCPHN on the register, with a 2.8% increase in Northern Ireland, a 2.1% increase in Scotland and a 2.4% increase in Wales.
NOTE: the number of SCPHN (health visitors) on the NMC register does not correlate with the number of health visitors working in practice. Many practitioners with a SCPHN qualification in England are now working outside the profession.
Published workforce data on the number of SCPHN health visitors employed in England (NHS workforce data and Independent workforce data) highlight an ongoing and worrying trend, with 40% fewer health visitors employed in England since 2015 – and numbers continue to fall every year.

Commenting on the report, Alison Morton, iHV CEO says:

“The latest NMC data present a worrying picture of the ongoing depletion of the health visitor (SCPHN) workforce in England – this is easily missed in the NMC’s headline message of aggregate data showing workforce growth across nursing and midwifery as a whole.

If we are serious about prevention, early intervention and improving the health of babies, children and families – this cannot be ignored or masked any longer! England is an outlier compared to the other UK nations, with health visitor data moving in the wrong direction year-on-year. Despite health visitors’ best efforts, families with babies and young children face the brunt of these cuts, with too few health visitors to meet their needs at a time when child health is deteriorating, and health inequalities are increasing.

Today’s NMC evidence must be used by those with the power to drive change for the better. Action is urgently needed to increase the number of health visitors joining the profession and reduce the number leaving. In particular, action is needed to address the worrying trend of high workforce losses within the first few years after qualification, with better support for newly qualified health visitors to improve retention. Most importantly, we need to value these highly skilled professionals and support their wellbeing, to reduce work-related stress and poor health that is driving too many people out of the profession.”

Read the NMC annual data report in full here

Health visitors raise the alarm as more families struggle with poverty and poor health

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) publishes its findings from the largest UK survey of frontline health visitors working with families with babies and young children across the UK – “State of Health Visiting, UK Survey Report: Millions supported as others miss out”.

It’s deeply shocking that 93% of health visitors reported an increase in the number of families affected by poverty in the last 12 months. Poverty was the cause of greatest concern to health visitors. They visit the homes that families are struggling to heat and witness the impossible choices that parents are forced to make about feeding their children or paying the bus fare to attend vital health appointments. These struggles are often hidden behind front doors and invisible to other services until the situation reaches crisis point. Alongside an increase in poverty affecting families over the last 12 months:

89% of health visitors reported an increase in the use of food banks
78% an increase in perinatal mental illness
69% an increase in domestic abuse
63% an increase in homelessness and asylum seekers
50% an increase in families skipping meals as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.

Only 3% of health visitors surveyed reported that families had not been impacted by the cost-of-living crisis. Some reported that poverty was so widespread that it had become the norm.

In our survey, health visitors also raised concerns about the wider impacts of poverty and increased parental struggle on children’s health, development and safety. The Government’s own data show that more children in England are falling behind with their development and health inequalities are widening. Worryingly, the situation is getting worse and showing no signs of recovery.

The good news is that health visitors saw millions of families last year, reaching significantly more babies and young children than any other health service or early years agency. However, despite health visitors’ best efforts, they are not able to meet the scale of rising need. Too many babies and young children are not receiving packages of support to improve their health and development when they need it, due to ongoing cuts to the health visitor workforce:

There is a national shortage of around 5,000 health visitors in England and families face a postcode lottery of support.
79% of health visitors said that the health visiting service lacked capacity to offer a package of support to all children with identified needs.
Only 45% of health visitors were “confident” or “very confident” that their service was able to meet the needs of vulnerable babies and children when a need is identified.
80% of health visitors said that other services were also stretched and lacked capacity to pick up onward referrals for children with additional needs. Thresholds for children’s social care support had increased and other services had long waiting lists.

Alison Morton, CEO at the Institute of Health Visiting, says,

“Consistently, health visitors have told us that parenting has become much harder for many families over the last 12 months. Health visitors are in a privileged position, they see firsthand the struggles that families with babies and young children are facing, often hidden behind front doors and invisible to other services. Sadly, despite policy promises, more and more children are not getting the “best start in life”. And the situation is getting worse with more children falling behind with their development and widening health inequalities. As babies can’t speak for themselves, health visitors provide a vital “voice” for our youngest citizens and an important warning signal for policymakers who are prepared to listen. It doesn’t have to be this way, change is possible.”

We publish at the start of a new year, with political and economic uncertainty, but also with hope as all political parties consider their plans to improve the health of our nation ahead of a general election expected this year. Our survey findings highlight the incredible potential and desire within the health visiting profession to support a brighter future for our nation’s children. But we cannot ignore the fact that the health visiting workforce is under significant pressure with unacceptable levels of work-related stress, as health visitors manage enormous caseloads, and escalating levels of need and vulnerability. We urgently need more health visitors.

Alison concludes:

“Our survey findings present a clear imperative to act. If we get the early years right, we can avoid so much harm later in life. The cuts to health visiting in England over the last 8 years have been a false economy. When sufficiently resourced, health visitors can take pressure off busy A&E departments and GPs, providing support for families in the heart of the community. The costs to rebuild the health visiting service in England are small compared to the spiralling costs of NHS treatment, child maltreatment and cumulative costs across the life course. Investing in our children’s health is not only the right thing to do, it also makes sound economic sense.”

Read the full report “State of Health Visiting, UK Survey Report: Millions supported as others miss out”

To cite this report, please use the link to the pdf here: https://bit.ly/48W6TcE

NSPCC calls on Government to implement updated and improved Healthy Child Programme

The NSPCC is calling on the Government to implement an updated and improved Healthy Child Programme alongside a robust NHS workforce plan.

Today, the NSPCC gained widespread print coverage on their health visiting story which highlighted that more than 84,000 babies have missed out on their new birth visit, in their first two weeks of life, last year.

Their story lays bare the figures from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) which showed a steep decline in the proportion of babies receiving a new birth visit by 14 days in England, from 88% in 2020/21 to 83% in 2021/22. The NSPCC also highlighted the wide variation of delivery between local authorities and the national workforce shortage of 5,000 health visitors in England.

The NSPCC is calling on the Government to implement an updated and improved Healthy Child Programme alongside a robust NHS workforce plan which will help give health visitors the resources and tools they need to adequately support families right from the start of a child’s life.

The story was covered in print in The Independent, Express, Daily Star, The i, Daily Telegraph, The Sun, Metro and Mirror and online in the Daily Mail as well as regional and online outlets.

There was also broadcast coverage on Sky News as well as Good Morning Britain and across commercial radio stations.

Jack O’Neill, NSPCC senior policy and public affairs officer, said:

“It is vital that families receive that crucial first health visit as soon as possible after a child is born to ensure parents and the new baby are living in a safe and healthy environment”, and “called on Government to improve the Healthy Child Programme and boost health visitor numbers”.

Georgina Mayes iHV Policy and Quality Lead said:

“We welcome the support and ongoing pressure from NSPCC to ensure that every baby gets the best start in life. Too many babies and children are currently missing out on vital health visitor mandated contacts. This matters as we now have unequivocal evidence on the importance of the earliest years of life – but we also know that becoming a parent can be a particularly challenging time for many families. Having access to the right support can make a big difference and can prevent small problems reaching crisis point. Sadly, too many families are missing out on the support that they need due to an almost 40% reduction in the number of health visitors, alongside rising levels of need.”

The situation is serious but it’s not too late to change direction and for the Government to ensure there is sufficient funding to deliver the Healthy Child Programme in full, including a national workforce strategy to address the shortfall of 5,000 health visitors in England. Whilst we welcome the Government’s workforce pilots announced in the autumn budget, and restatement that health visitors are one of six essential services, action to address the health visitor workforce shortages cannot wait another 2 years. Urgent action is needed now to put the brakes on and prevent further losses. The longer that this is left unaddressed, the harder it will be to deliver the Start for Life vision and rebuild the health visiting service in England.

The iHV would like to say a huge heartfelt thank you to the NSPCC for their unwavering support of health visiting and for championing babies, children and families. We would also like to say a special thank you to Jack O’Neill (NSPCC Senior Policy and Public Affairs Officer) and Pierre Hyman (NSPCC Policy & Public Affairs Manager) for leading this media story which has received excellent coverage.

Health visitor workforce numbers in England reach an all-time low

New data on the health visiting workforce figures published yesterday show that health visiting (HV) numbers in England have reached an all-time low.

Raising concerns about the falling number of health visitors (HVs) in England has been challenging, as workforce data are not published in a single dataset. Since 2015, our members have been reporting a significant and ongoing reduction in HV workforce numbers and we have been calling for a workforce plan to address this – so far, this has fallen on deaf ears. Some policymakers have provided repeated reassurance that the situation is not as bad as the iHV has stated, as the NHS workforce data does not capture all the health visitors who work outside the NHS.

Yesterday’s publication of the most recent workforce numbers lays this bare. Health visitor numbers are falling in both NHS and non-NHS providers. There is now no doubt, if we want to retain an effective health visiting service in England, that we urgently need a HV workforce plan, and this cannot wait any longer. Despite health visitors’ best efforts, families are being left without the support that they need, and the consequences have been catastrophic for some families.

Georgina Mayes, iHV Policy and Quality Lead, says:

“Despite health visitors working tirelessly, supporting hundreds of thousands of babies, children, and families during the pandemic, we do not have enough health visitors to meet rising levels of need. As a result, too many families are missing out on essential health visitor reviews and the vital help that they need. Consequently, families are feeling alone and let down; health visitors are reporting work-related stress and burnout, all of which risks further HVs leaving the profession. Urgent action is required by national Government now to address the health visiting workforce shortages.”

How are health visiting workforce data reported?

Health visiting workforce numbers are published in two national datasets, one captures the number of practitioners working for NHS organisations and a separate dataset presents a smaller number of health visitors who work in non-NHS organisations. Whilst we have watched a month-on-month decline in the numbers of health visitors working in the NHS, the last Independent Healthcare workforce data was last published in February 2021 which has made it impossible to get a clear picture of current overall workforce numbers.

The newly published data now fully exposes a crisis in the HV workforce.

HV workforce numbers are currently published via two datasets:

The NHS workforce data (using data from May 2022) = 5979 FTE HVs employed by NHS organisations.
The Independent healthcare workforce statistics (using data from March 2022) = 1051 FTE HVs employed by non-NHS organisations.

The current total combined published HV workforce data (August 2022) = 7030 FTE.

The graph below visually shows the rapid decline in HV numbers. The HV workforce has decreased by over a third (37%) since 2015.

Contributing factors of the health visiting decline include:

The Public Health Grant falling from £4.2 bn in 2015–16 to £3.3 bn in 2021–22.^[1]
A reduction in HV training places since 2015, which has coincided with budget cuts.

HV numbers are now well below the figures which triggered the Government’s Call to Action and investment in 4,200 more HVs in 2011 (7849FTE).

When adequately resourced, health visitors provide a vital infrastructure of support to all families – preventing problems and identifying needs early to reduce the burden of costly late intervention. Health visitors lie at the heart of the Government’s ‘Start for Life Vision’, as one of six essential services – we are therefore calling on the new administration to take the health visiting workforce situation seriously and provide the much-needed investment and the workforce plan that will be required to deliver this vision.

This is needed now more than ever to address the health visiting workforce crisis and reverse the national decline in the profession.

[1] The Health Foundation 2021 ‘Public health grant allocations represent 24% (£1bn) real terms cut compared to 2015/16’ (16 March)
https://www.health.org.uk/news-and-comment/news/public-health-grant-allocations-represent-a-24-percent-1bn-cut

#QuestionJavid on Twitter

MPs to question Health and Social Care Secretary, Sajid Javid, on plans to rebuild the workforce

The Health and Social Care Committee has announced that, on Tuesday 25 January at 4pm, MPs will scrutinise Sajid Javid on his plans to deal with the multiple crises facing the sector in a one-off session. The session is expected to cover the Government’s workforce strategy, including provisions set out in the Health and Care Bill. Staff pay, employee burnout and integrating social care and NHS workforce planning are on the agenda.

Do you have a question you would like to ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid?

If so, you can ask you question on Twitter using the hashtag #QuestionJavid

Please submit via Twitter (with the hashtag) by 5pm today (Friday 21 January)

Our State of Health Visiting in England Report showed that Health visitors in England are reporting soaring rates of domestic abuse, mental health problems and child safeguarding, with evidence of significant reduced workforce capacity to meet these demands.

Do our survey findings reflect your own experiences?

A recent publication of health visiting workforce numbers employed by the NHS in England between September 2012 to September 2021 show that health visiting numbers in England are below the last workforce crisis in 2011 which led to a health visiting Call to Action!

This is an opportunity to have your voice heard.

Start typing your questions into Twitter now! And tag with #QuestionJavid.

You can watch the session live on parliamentlive.tv on Tuesday 25 January at 4pm.

Last chance to influence the future of the public health workforce!

This is your last chance to complete a short survey to influence the future of the public health workforce!

Survey closes midday tomorrow (12 Jan).

It is a crucial time for public health right now and the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) is calling for public health practitioners to take part in a very short survey to represent their views to help influence the future of the public health workforce.

The survey provides a fantastic opportunity for health visitors to highlight the challenges they are facing within their workforce and identify what solutions are needed. The survey focuses specifically on recruitment, retention and training.

Although the survey does not ask about individual public health professions and is quite broad in its approach, there is space to free text and expand on your thoughts so you can be specific about health visiting within these areas.

Your feedback will be used to help influence the RSPH’s submission to the Health and Care Committee’s inquiry into the future of the public health workforce.

It only takes about 10 minutes to complete the survey, so make yourself a cuppa and make sure your views are heard!

Complete the RSPH survey here

The survey closes at midday on Wednesday 12 January 2022.

iHV shares RCPCH’s concerns on workforce shortage

The iHV shares the concerns of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) that children’s health services are being put at risk by a serious shortage of paediatricians.

Gaps in paediatric rotas, uncertainty over the status of non-UK nationals working in the NHS, poorly co-ordinated planning, and a demoralised workforce, are putting increasing pressure on child health services and placing quality of care in jeopardy, according to a new report from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH).

It shows that demand for children’s healthcare is increasing, with the number of hospital admissions for children in England rising by 25% between 2013/14 and 2015/16, from 1.2million to 1.5million and attendances by children at Accident and Emergency Departments growing by 7%, from 4.5 million to 4.8 million over the same period.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, executive director, iHV, said:

“The iHV shares the concerns of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) that children’s health services are being put at risk by a serious shortage of paediatricians. This situation, coupled with the reducing numbers of health visitors, will have a drastic impact on the health and wellbeing of babies, children and families. A health visitor’s role is to help parents to manage minor illnesses and reduce accidents within the home and so reduce the numbers of babies and children needing to go to hospital. But the reducing health visitor numbers will put a greater demand on reducing paediatric services, which will have economic consequences for the future, particularly on the already cash-strapped NHS.”

The RCPCH Report “The State of Child Health: The Paediatric Workforce” is based on data from the RCPCH Workforce Census 2015, with additional data from the Office of National Statistics, and RCPCH trainee recruitment processes.

Read full RCPCH press release