GET-A-HEAD campaign urges Government to recruit more baby health visitors in England

The government's coming under pressure to recruit thousands more health visitors to improve baby health care in England.

It comes as we continue pushing the GET-A-HEAD campaign alongside Harry's Hydrocephalus Awareness Trust. The campaign is asking for an improved set of national guidelines to standardise the care that is being delivered to babies across England. It's hoped more contact with health professionals, better communication with parents and clearer pathways for escalating concerns could help to prevent children with life threatening conditions like hydrocephalus from slipping through the net.

Analysis by the Institute of Health Visiting suggests England may have a shortage of at least 5,000 health visitors, which last year contributed to tens of thousands of children missing out their initial health check within the first 14 days of their life.

There's also concern that the health visiting model in England is falling behind the rest of the UK. In Scotland, the Universal Health Visiting Pathway has been adopted which means families are now guaranteed 8 visits in the first year of their baby's life, and in most cases will see the same allocated health visitor throughout their child's journey.

Joan Rutherford is the community clinical nurse manager for health visiting in NHS Borders and says continuity of care is incredibly important: "We have to think about what families want - do they want to see a different person coming through the door all the time and having to tell their story over and over again? Or do they want somebody that knows the story and can pick a health condition up because of that comprehensive understanding and awareness of the situation?

"The value of that relationship that you build with a family as a health visitor is irreplaceable. Having an increased focus on the first year in a child's life would hopefully help to identify children with hydrocephalus and other serious conditions at an early stage, so that they could get the appropriate intervention quickly.

"I think there's also work to be done in England considering caseload sizes. Some health visitors have upwards of 750 children on their caseloads, and to deliver a pathway of any sort, you have to match the caseload size to the core work that needs to be delivered.

"There needs to be commitment and investment in the training of health visitors because that hasn't had priority given to it. The alternative is a very diluted service."

The GET-A-HEAD campaign was originally launched by Harry's HAT to raise awareness of the importance of head circumference measurements and to educate parents about why they should be taken at routine health checks in a baby's first year. A rapidly growing head is one of the key indicators of hydrocephalus, which is also known as water on the brain. It's a life long condition which can be life-threatening if left untreated.

This new arm of the GET-A-HEAD campaign furthers the charity's ambition to revolutionise baby health care so that no child suffering the symptoms of hydrocephalus, or any other serious medical condition, goes under the radar of health professionals.

Roisin McNicholas is the charity's Research Consultant: "We want proactive, early intervention for these children. We want to see children being referred at the right time, to the right professional, and then the outcomes are usually fantastic. But we definitely need these early checks to identify these children in the community."

Our reporter and campaigning journalist Victoria Glover became involved with Harry's HAT following her own experience with hydrocephalus. Her son was diagnosed with the condition at 10 months old. She said: "I'm sad to say that my experience with health visiting services wasn't great. My allocated health visitor was shielding following the COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore she never saw my child in person. It was only when my son was around 16 months old that this was identified as an inappropriate allocation, based on his complex medical history.

"I know there are so many positive stories around the country about health visiting, but it's certainly not a standard picture across England and services vary greatly.

"I think it's long overdue some much needed investment so that health visitors have the resources they need to fulfil their roles effectively. The government has to see the value in the service. It's imperative that a trained health professional can cast an eye over your child at set intervals through those early months to see how things are going."

• health visitors
• hydrocephalus