Susie Jackson – Events Manager
Responsible for:
- Planning and delivery of iHV’s Conferences
- Planning and delivery of regular Member Benefit events
Contact Susie: [email protected]
Archives: People
Louisa Clifford-Taylor – Research Associate
Contact Louisa: [email protected]
Every year, the iHV Board of Trustees bestows an Honorary Fellowship award at its annual event. These awards are only made to individuals who have made an exceptional contribution to not only the iHV, but also the profession of health visiting and the families we serve. We were delighted to award this year’s Honorary Fellowship to Sally Hogg. Sally is well-known in the sector as a champion for babies and was described as ‘a galvanising force for good who has worked tirelessly to address the baby blind spot in national policy’.
Sally Hogg is Senior Policy Fellow at the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge. Previously, Sally was Head of Policy and Campaigning at the Parent-Infant Foundation, where she lead work to raise awareness of the importance of early relationships and to drive change at a local and national level. This included coordinating the 1001 Days Movement and All-Party Parliamentary Group. Prior to this, Sally’s roles included Strategic Lead at the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, Senior Commissioner in a Local Authority, and Development Manager for Children Under One at the NSPCC, where she developed and implemented research-led interventions. Sally started her career as a Civil Servant working on Children’s Policy in the UK and Australia.
Nikki Freeman is a Health Visitor Clinical Lead for SEND working for Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, covering the East and North location. Nikki is the iHV Expert Adviser for SEND.
When Nikki was seven, her older brother developed epilepsy and it was this early introduction, as a young carer and seeing the struggles her parents had accessing support and care, that led to Nikki’s first job working with children with SEND in the community. Her interest and passion for improving care for children with SEND continued throughout her working life, supporting babies and children of all ages in community settings, including special needs schools, children’s homes, and day centres.
Nikki began her nursing career in 2013 when she trained as a children’s nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Working as a children’s nurse gave Nikki further experience and greater knowledge of children with SEND. In 2016, Nikki trained as a health visitor, and her passion for supporting children with SEND and their families continued.
In 2021, Nikki was successfully appointed as ‘Health Visitor, Clinical Lead for SEND’ at Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust alongside her colleague, Kirsty Jacques (also iHV Expert Adviser for SEND). Nikki and Kirsty collaborated with partners and parents on a strategy for improving the equity of how children with SEND and their families were supported by the Public Health Nursing Team (0-5) across Hertfordshire.
Nikki and Kirsty provide clinical leadership for SEND for the 0-5 years Public Health Nurse service across Hertfordshire. Since coming into post, Nikki and Kirsty have been instrumental in leading on the following workstreams for the 0-5 Public Nurse Service:
- Creating a SEND Directory of resources
- Further developing the 0-5 SEND pathway
- Developing SEND competencies for practitioners
- Developing standard operating procedures
- Improving communication across care pathways
- Developing and delivering training so practitioners are equipped with the knowledge and skills to effectively support children with SEND and their families
As a Health Visitor Clinical Lead for SEND in Hertfordshire, Nikki continues to work as a frontline health visitor and holds a caseload of children with complex needs and disabilities. Nikki provides expert clinical advice and consultation with health visitors and public health nurses.
Nikki attends SEND working groups across Hertfordshire County providing valuable and expert advice for the development of new policies and pathways. Nikki works collaboratively with the education sector to improve outcomes for children in the early years. Nikki leads and facilitates early years support sessions for children with emerging health and education needs to ensure families can receive integrated care and support.
A particular highlight of Nikki’s career was jointly leading, planning and delivering an integrated, early years SEND health conference: ‘Early Intervention to reduce health inequalities’. Nikki first thought of the idea of hosting a 0-5 SEND conference when she realised there was a gap in this practice area. She then translated her vision into reality. Nikki is incredibly proud of the success of the conference and how well it was received by the 150 delegates who attended from across the whole of the country.
Kirsty Jacques is a specialist community public health nurse who holds the role of Health Visitor Clinical Lead for SEND in West and South Hertfordshire and iHV Expert Adviser for SEND.
Kirsty became interested in supporting babies and children with SEND through her own experience of having a daughter with ASD and ADHD. Kirsty’s experiences as a parent of a child with additional needs, and of accessing services, has given her great insight. Kirsty’s passion is to improve the experience of babies and children with SEND and their families, to ensure equity of care is offered to all children with additional needs. Kirsty strives to ensure all babies and children with SEND are diagnosed early and are supported with early, evidence-based interventions, to improve outcomes and reduce the incidences of unmet health needs in adulthood.
Kirsty began her nursing career working as a Midwife in Hertfordshire. She then trained as a Health Visitor and qualified in 2015. Kirsty has worked in different areas of Hertfordshire since qualifying, which has broadened her field of practice. During Kirsty’s early career as a Health Visitor, she championed children with SEND and supported her colleagues with evidence-based and needs-led support across Hertfordshire.
Kirsty successfully completed her MSc in her SCPHN programme in 2019, through writing a dissertation on “Non-Medical Prescribing Policy”. Kirsty’s dissertation focused on whether non–medical prescribing policy supported Health Visitors to prescribe in practice. Following completion of her dissertation, Kirsty has developed an interest in the analysis and development of policies.
In 2021 Kirsty was successfully appointed as ‘Health Visitor, Clinical Lead for SEND’ at Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust alongside her colleague, Nikki Freeman (also iHV Expert Advise for SEND). Kirsty and Nikki provide clinical leadership for SEND for the 0–5 years Public Health Nurse service across Hertfordshire.
Since coming into post, Kirsty and Nikki have been instrumental in leading on the following workstreams for the 0-5 Public Nurse Service across Hertfordshire:
- Creating a SEND resource directory
- Further developing the 0-5 SEND pathway
- Developing SEND competencies for practitioners
- Developing standard operating procedures
- Developing and delivering training so practitioners are equipped with the knowledge and skills to effectively support children with SEND and their families
- Improving communication across care pathways
As a Health Visitor Clinical Lead for SEND in Hertfordshire, Kirsty continues to work as a frontline health visitor and holds a caseload of children with complex needs and disabilities.
Kirsty highlights a very proud moment as Health Visitor Clinical Lead for SEND, whereby she jointly planned, led and delivered an integrated, early years SEND health conference: ‘Early intervention to reduce health inequalities’. The event was a huge success, with over 150 delegates attending from across the country and Kirsty highlights this as ‘one of our greatest achievements so far’.
Professor Sarah Redsell is Professor of Children’s Community and Public Health, Director of Research and co-lead for the Centre for Children and Young People’s Health Research in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham.
Sarah has a clinical background in health visiting, together with research skills in applied health psychology. She has an international reputation for research, exploring overweight prevention during infancy, in particular, developing and implementing tools and training into healthcare professional practice.
Sarah co-developed Babies at Greater Risk of Overweight (BABYGRO), a Reusable Learning Object (RLO) for health visitors, to improve identification and management of childhood overweight risk. Sarah has recently received funding from the National Institute of Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) for the Caregivers Responsive Infant Feeding Behaviours (CRIB) project. This project will co-produce digital information resources about responsive infant feeding with caregivers and health professionals.
Sarah has been a member of the Expert Advisory Group for Healthy Weight, Healthy Nutrition since 2021.
Dr Michael Fanner is Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford. Michael’s area of research is in the early years / parenting, closely working with Professor Jane Barlow. Michael is also an Honorary Assistant Professor in Community Child Health in the School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham.
Michael qualified as a health visitor at King’s College London in 2013 and has since held a number of clinical, academic and voluntary sector roles within the public health arena. Michael worked across a number of different health visiting and sexual health services in London, between 2013 and 2018, whilst obtaining his PhD from the University of Greenwich in 2020 (PhD Title: Professionals’ Perceptions of Young Males with Child Sexual Exploitation Policy: A Critical Policy Genealogical Analysis).
Since 2018, Michael has worked in universities in London and Hertfordshire, lecturing in nursing, paramedic science, specialist community public health nursing, and specialist community nursing. Since moving to Oxford, he now exclusively works in research. Michael was awarded the title of Queen’s Nurse with the Queen’s Nursing Institute in 2022, demonstrating significant and continuing commitment to primary, community and public health nursing.
Michael is currently developing a post-doctoral research portfolio in 0-19 public health and collaborates with Experts by Experience, other academics, and clinicians in achieving tomorrow’s evidence-based practice. Michael’s research and clinical interests include how ethically complex social issues are ‘dealt with’ in practice, especially during evidence translation and advanced child and family health practice.
Taffie Tamba, Virtual Tech Host/Training Administrator
After a career as an assistant manager in audit, and obtaining her Chartered Accountancy qualification (ACA) and self-studied Charted Financial Analyst qualification (CFA) in 2009, Christina moved to the banking industry and was the Assistant VP of commodities, finance control function, and VP of business change and transformation at Barclays. Christina currently works as a financial controller in a commodity trading firm. As a mother who has always been working in fast moving, demanding job environments, she fully appreciates the importance of health visiting and the support to new parents and children. She is keen to make a positive impact on society with her accounting knowledge.
