How we work
The NHS “Healthy Child Programme”
Health visitors lead the 0-5 element of the Healthy Child Programme. Our teams include:
- Health visitors (team leads)
- Community staff nurses
- Nursery nurses
- Administrators
We provide universal support and work closely with:
- Families and carers
- Community groups and early years settings
- Education settings
- GPs and paediatricians
- Midwifery services
- Local authority teams
Because we know and work with many different agencies, we can quickly identify needs and guide families to the right support.
The Healthy Child Programme
This is a national programme for all families with children under five. It offers:
- Screening tests
- Immunisations
- Developmental reviews
- Information and guidance on parenting and healthy choices
The programme is:
- Universal: every family in Oxfordshire with a child under five is included
- Personalised: we work with parents and carers to support each child’s health and wellbeing
Core contacts
Families receive key contacts during the first five years:
- During pregnancy (antenatal)
- Just after birth
- At 6–8 weeks
- At 9–12 months
- At 24–30 months
- At 4 years
Health promotion groups
All families can join our group sessions run by Community Public Health Associates, including:
- Early Days: for parents of new babies
- Marvellous Me: when your child is around 6 months, nearly 2, and again at 3–4 years
These sessions provide practical advice and a chance to meet other families.
The different levels of service that we provide you
The level at which we provide our care (our service model) is based on 4 levels of service:
- Community – all the groups we run
- Universal – the minimum level of contacts we offer to assess health and development
- Targeted – when you need some extra support for a short period of time, for example with breastfeeding in the early weeks, managing challenging behaviour, sleep, or developing early language and communication
- Specialist – if your child has complex or chronic health conditions and you are being supported by other agencies, for example, community paediatricians, therapists, or social services.
Our focused areas of public health support “High Impact Areas”
We focus our work on “high impact areas”. These are areas of public health work that have been developed to improve outcomes for children, young people and families and where there is strong evidence that support in these areas can have significant positive impact for children and families.
The early years high impact areas are:
- Supporting transition to parenthood and the early weeks
- Supporting maternal and infant mental health
- Supporting breastfeeding (initiation and duration
- Supporting healthy weight and healthy nutrition
- Improving health literacy; reducing accidents and minor illnesses
- Supporting health, wellbeing and development. Ready to learn, narrowing the ‘word gap (school readiness)
The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) is a centre of excellence, supporting health visiting and health visitors nationwide. They have useful information for parents and carers about the important role of health visiting in supporting parents in the early years of their child’s life.
What is a Health Visitor ?
https://ihv.org.uk/for-health-visitors/what-is-a-health-visitor
Health visiting support: Institute of Health Visiting