The iHV is a charity, run by health visitors for health visitors (and all members of the health visiting team) – established to be a centre of excellence for health visiting.
Our members consistently tell us that the most valuable benefit of joining the iHV is being part of an organisation that serves as the collective voice for health visiting - championing the profession and influencing policy at the highest level. We take this role very seriously and it remains at the heart of our work.
Our members consistently tell us that the most valuable benefit of joining the iHV is being part of an organisation that serves as the collective voice for health visiting - championing the profession and influencing policy at the highest level. We take this role very seriously and it remains at the heart of our work.
However, this vital work receives no government funding. We can only continue to advocate for health visitors, and for the babies, children, and families they support, thanks to the generosity and commitment of our members. Your support truly makes a difference.
Our work spans the breadth of health visiting - giving us a unique understanding of the strategic context of health visiting now and in the future. Your support makes it possible for us to concentrate on what matters most. Here’s how we focus our work:
- Understanding: Listening to, collating and sharing practitioner intelligence and evidence on the current state of health visiting and child/ family health - we shine a light on the problems, as well as excellence in practice and speak ‘truth to power’.
- Collaborating: Forming strong alliances with partners and key stakeholders to build support for health visiting and raise awareness of the importance of investing in the health and wellbeing of babies, children, families and communities.
- Providing solutions: Increasing decision makers’ understanding of the value of a well-resourced health visiting service, as a vital infrastructure of support for babies, children, families and communities.
- Energising: Bringing energy, ideas, leadership and ‘hope’ to our profession. As the greatest threats to global health are due to conditions that are largely preventable, health visitors, as Specialist Community Public Health Nurses, are needed more than ever to lead our profession into the future, with the right conditions to flourish.
Here are some examples of how our members’ generous support has enabled us to provide advocacy and leadership for health visiting (also see our annual reports for more details):
These have included the Maternity Disparities Taskforce; Healthy Child Programme, Health Visiting ‘Conditions for Success’ and CNO Professional Strategy/ Nursing and Midwifery Excellence (England); Healthy Child Healthy Future (Northern Ireland) - and many more.
Including the Darzi Review, NHS 10-Year Plan and 10-Year Workforce Plan, Spending Reviews and topic-specific consultations (including the SEND Inquiry, Men’s Health Strategy, Health and Social Care Select Committees - and many more...). Watch the oral evidence session for the Health and Social Care Select Committee on the First 1000 Days here. Read our published written submissions to public consultations, here.
Just days into the pandemic, the iHV became a constant and influential voice for babies, children, families and health visiting - groups largely overlooked in the national response. We produced vital resources, lobbied to halt health visitor redeployment, ensured vulnerable babies were recognised in policy, and helped change virtual-contact guidance to protect them.
Alison Morton, iHV CEO, was called to provide key written witness evidence for both Module 3 (on the impact of the pandemic on healthcare systems) and Module 8 (on children and young people). Alison also provided powerful oral evidence for Module 8 – an important opportunity to advocate for our profession and our nation’s babies and children who were largely overlooked in the pandemic response (read more here – and watch the oral evidence session).
Raising the profile of health visiting in the media (including television, radio and print media) and through support from high-profile partners, including HRH The Princess of Wales.
Creation of short films, infographics and other accessible resources to promote the work of health visiting across all UK nations.
Our input has helped shape NMC Standards and continues to inform ongoing work on Advanced Practice, safeguarding the distinct contribution of health visitors within the wider nursing and midwifery family.
Alongside Team CNO and government departments, we’re helping shape national workforce plans and supporting devolved nations as our membership expands.
We developed the iHV Career Pathway and iHV UK Preceptorship Framework: to strengthen health visitor education, recruitment, retention and career progression – which in turn support practitioner wellbeing and the delivery of safe and effective care.
Working with others on contentious issues to find solutions that support our overarching ambition of excellence in health visiting. For example, the joint policy position ‘The Safeguarding Role of Public Health 0-19 Services’.
Ensuring that we stay firmly connected with practice through our co-production work, to authentically represent the views of our profession and the babies, children and families it supports.
Behind the scenes, we’ve helped local authorities avert severe service cuts and improve the quality of their health visiting services - while continuing to challenge underfunding and call for investment to rebuild the workforce, where this is needed.
