Published: 27 February 2009
Good Neighbours are No Substitute
Good neighbours are no substitute for trained & experienced health visitors when it comes to child neglect cases, Unite, the largest union in the country, has said.
Unite, which embraces the Community and Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association, was commenting on a new Action for Children survey which said that 25% of adults admit to having worried about a child they feared could be the victim of neglect.
But many of those adults failed to report their suspicions for a number of reasons, including a fear of repercussions; believing it was none of their business; and not having enough proof.
Dr Cheryll Adams, Unite Lead Professional Officer, Strategy & Practice Development said:
“We fully support the importance of strong communities and good neighbours, but as this report demonstrates so clearly they are no substitute for a strong universal health visiting service which regularly visits families”.
Dr Adams’ remarks come against a backdrop of a full-time health visitor job being lost every 27 hours, according to the NHS’s own statistics, and Unite questioning the vagueness of the number of more health visitors promised earlier this month by the government’s Healthy lives, better futures.
Dr Adams continued:
“Working with children suffering from neglect is very sensitive and difficult work, especially when it is emotional neglect.
This is why having a well resourced universal health visiting service is so important, allowing the health visitor enough time to establish a relationship with the family, so that any deviation from the norm is picked up early.
We need to be very careful that a raft of new, but less qualified, health and childcare staff are not created to do a job which health visitors have the education and the experience to do properly, if only their service was adequately invested in.
‘Health visitin’g is a trusted and very long standing brand with parents”.
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