What do health visitors do?
Health visitors undertake a range of work:
Leading and delivering child and family health services (pregnancy through to 5 years)
From pregnancy through to a child's fifth birthday, health visitors are instrumental in supporting and educating families through an important time of their lives. Common tasks include:
- parenting support and advice on family health and minor illnesses
- new birth visits which include advice on feeding, weaning and dental health
- physical and developmental checks
- providing families with specific support on subjects such as post natal depression
- ongoing contact with families during the first year, between one to three years and three to five years.
For some parents, adaptation comes easily, while for others, difficult adjustments are needed to give their child the best possible start. Health visitors work with parents to assess the care they need and develop appropriate support programmes.
| Register your interest in the health visitor recruitment campaign to receive further information on health visiting careers. You can also find health visiting courses using our online course finder. |
You will also need to work closely with other professionals such as nursery nurses and Sure Start children's centre workers. As a qualified health visitor, you will retain the overview of the health and well-being of children and families in your area. You will also provide leadership to the child services team.
Providing ongoing additional services for vulnerable children and families
Health visitors are skilled at identifying families with high risk and low protective factors, enabling these families to express their needs and deciding how they might best be met. This may include:
- referring families to specialists, such as speech and language therapists
- arranging access to support groups, for example those provided in the local Sure Start children's centre
- organising practical support - for example working with a nursery nurse on the importance of play.
Contributing to multidisciplinary services in safeguarding and protecting children
Health visitors are trained to recognise the risk factors, triggers of concern, and signs of abuse and neglect in children, as well as what must be done to protect them. They are often the first to recognise that the risk of harm to a child has escalated to a point that procedures need to be implemented to protect them. They maintain contact with families while formal safeguarding arrangements are in place so families receive the best possible support during this time.
Health visitors are involved in every stage of the child protection process, including serious case reviews, and they are sometimes called upon to appear in court to explain the action taken.
Providing additional services through or in partnership with Sure Start children's centres
Health visitors are also involved in delivering a wide range of health services in the children's centre, including:
- establishing effective partnerships between the children's centre, local GPs, the primary healthcare team and maternity services
- coordinating health campaigns
- offering education and training for children's centre staff.
Where do health visitors work?
Health visitors see parents and families in a variety of settings, including:
- their homes
- clinics
- GP surgeries
- Sure Start children's centres.
They also spend a lot of time working with other agencies and healthcare professionals who share a common commitment to children's development. These include:
- GPs
- allied health professionals
- voluntary agencies.