Published: 20 March 2008
Government to Abolish Trained Health Visitors?
Unite is calling on Health Secretary to halt legal changes to the Nursing and Midwifery Act.
Health Secretary, Alan Johnson has been urged to intervene to halt plans that could lead to the legal abolition of the 146-year old health visiting profession.
Such a move will hit families and communities, as in future healthcare professionals carrying out ‘health visiting’ duties, may not be qualified up to that standard.
Now Unite/Community Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association is asking for a urgent meeting with Mr Johnson to strengthen the legal status of ‘health visiting’ which was first in force at the beginning of the last century.
Unite/CPHVA Acting Lead Professional Officer, Cheryll Adams said:
“Without the legal status of health visiting being protected, the door will be opened further for other less-qualified staff to take on these responsibilities. Since it was taken out of statute we have already seen a dramatic fall in health visitor numbers.
This could mean that even more mothers with postnatal depression won’t receive the support they deserve, families won’t be helped through periods of crises and more children could become victims of family dysfunction”.
Unite/CPHVA predict that the complex regulatory changes proposed by government regulatory advisors will lead to the third part of the Nursing and Midwifery register – the part for specialist community public health nursing (SCPHN) – closing and with it a loss of recognition of the unique characteristics of public health practice. (The other two parts cover nurses and midwives).
Cheryll Adams said:
“This is not an arcane and ‘dry’ legal dispute, but one that will have a real impact on the public health of the UK population.’
According to the NHS’s own workforce statistics, a ‘health visitor job-a-day’ is being lost, but at the same time ministers have re-energised their ‘family-friendly’ policies which need a full complement of health visitors for them to be implemented in homes, surgeries and clinics across the land.
The result of this contradictory equation is that health visiting is at a critical crossroads in its history”.
It’s ironic that only last October, a government Minister was saying just how valuable & necessary health visitors were in delivery of the government’s health policies. Yet another case of ‘Put not your trust in politicians’!
Ann Keen – Parliamentary Under Secretary for Health Services, Department of Health:
As a former community and district nurse I have always held health visitors in high regard and recognise their contribution to the health team.
I admire their understanding of the wider causes of ill health and their commitment to prevention and reducing inequalities. Now I am a minister my view has not changed.
I believe, more than ever, that we need health visitors to lead and deliver better and fairer health outcomes for children and families.
As the Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson, said recently “ ….we will need more specialist nurses and health visitors to tackle public health issues in deprived communities”.
(From government response to Facing the Future document)
Further information
CPHVA website
Facing the Future: A review of the role of health visitors
The government response to Facing the Future: a review of the role of health visitors
Related article: The Family Nurse Partnership Programme
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