Figures show drop in health visitors in Yorkshire and more appointments done virtually

There's been a big drop in the number of health visitors across parts of Yorkshire, and more appointments are being done virtually instead of in person.

Health visitors are trained nurses or midwives who work with families from pregnancy through to age five, and are there to give support and information during the early stages of parenthood.

The mandated contacts by health visitors are an antenatal visit before the baby is born, a new birth visit at 10-14 days, and reviews at 6-8 weeks, 9-12 months and 2-2 ½ years.

Figures we obtained from the Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust show there were 70.28 full time health visiting staff in 2021, down to 55.85 this year. During the same time the number of open referrals on the system rose by a quarter. The Trust does say the figures don’t reflect additional specialist roles who work alongside health visitors though.

In Doncaster the number of health visiting staff remained the same while in Barnsley the number has increased slightly.

Whilst appointments across South Yorkshire are still routinely being offered face to face, other areas are now doing some of the checks virtually instead. In Kirklees the 6-8 week checks are offered by phone, while in part of Leeds, video calls are being piloted for the antenatal check. In North Yorkshire, the 6-8 week and 9-12 month checks are done virtually. In all of these cases, appointments are only done virtually if there is no specific or targeted need identified, and if one is picked up during the call a face to face appointment can then be scheduled.

There were also similar drops in health visitor numbers in Leeds, Bradford, Kirklees and North Yorkshire.

Yorkshire mum Victoria needed mental health support after the birth of her baby but was only picked up because a GP decided to follow up and ask if she needed help after seeing her for the initial post-birth 6-week check. She reckons it's becoming easier for problems to slip through the net:

“It’s luck unfortunately with a lot of these services. It was just because I saw one GP more than once. And I feel like if somebody knows you, even a little bit, even if they’ve only seen you once, they can pick up when something’s not right. It’s that continuity of care that unfortunately, both in health visiting services and the NHS, we don’t really have any more.

“I know that because I’m confident and don’t take no for an answer I got the help I needed, but a lot of people possibly wouldn’t. So I think unless you know something is out there or know to push for it, it’s really hard.”

We spoke to Victoria at a breastfeeding group where some of the mums gave us their thoughts on the idea of some health visiting appointments being offered virtually rather than in person:

“You could tell that they’re checking out the surroundings while they’re there as well,” said Tracey.

“Like my health visitor asked where my daughter was sleeping and things like that. They need to see the baby definitely, I work in social care and you just need eyes on people sometimes. Also just to put a face to the name, I wouldn’t have felt as comfortable asking questions if it had been over the phone. Particularly around breastfeeding, that is quite a physical thing in terms of to show and check it was right.”

Evangeline said: “It might be your only contact with humans that you’ve had in a while. Some mums don’t get out much straight away, I know I didn’t with my first.”

Rebecca runs the group and told us they’re picking up lots of mums who didn’t find much support elsewhere: “For so many people when it’s your first baby, you have no idea what you’re doing. You don’t know if your baby’s getting enough or if they’re happy. And there’s not that many spaces where parents can go just to check in and get that reassurance that they’re doing okay.

“I think if parents have real clear and urgent mental health needs, the perinatal health team tends to be good. But there’s a huge amount of parents who have some mental health difficulties that might not seem to be urgent and pressing, but actually for themselves and their babies and their families they are. They might not quite meet what’s expected to fit in the perinatal mental health team but they are struggling and we pick up a lot of those people here.”

Pauline Williams, Head of 0-19 Community Service at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Sheffield Children’s provides community services for children and families through a multi-disciplinary and multi-skilled approach. This means families are able to access support and advice from health visitors, specialist nurses, school nurses and nursery nurses closer to home by attending settings such as schools, family hubs and other locations in the community.

“The care we provide in the community to children and their families ranges from birth right the way through to age 19. We work hard to make sure each family’s care is personalised, providing care at the right time in the right place.”