Health visiting services in Northumberland
Growing Healthy: Hearing people’s experiences of health visiting services
Last year we started to hear a small increase in concerns from local families and those supporting them about health visiting services. To get a better understanding of people’s experiences we asked people in Northumberland who were pregnant or had pre-school aged children for anonymous feedback about their experiences of the health visiting service, delivered by Harrogate and District Foundation Trust (HDFT), including what is working well and what could be better. We also wanted to understand people’s awareness of the health visiting service and any barriers to using it, including those who were not routinely taking advantage of the services on offer.
Summary
During this piece of work we looked at people’s awareness of how to access the health visiting service and what it offers, whether they were routinely accessing the service, as well as how happy they were with the support provided.
Whilst most people we heard from were aware of how to contact the health visiting service there were many others who were not very clear on how or who to contact. Around half of people responding were also unsure or did not know who their child’s named health visitor was, either due to staff changes or not having had recent contact with the service. Those who did have a named health visitor and who saw them at each appointment were generally happier with the support received from the health visiting service than those who did not, with many mentioning continuity of care or having a good relationship with their health visitor.
Many people had a good awareness of the universal offer in terms of key developmental reviews or if not, how they could find out about it, but there were still some who had limited awareness of when they would next expect a review or whether they may have missed a key review. Similarly, some people had a limited understanding of other possible targeted support and advice on offer outside of the key developmental reviews, for example, around parenting and other topics. These people told us they would not think to contact health visitors outside of reviews, or more generally were unaware that the health visiting service could provide this. Positively, many parents had used the health visiting service for targeted advice and support, particularly around feeding, nutrition, growth and development.
Most people we heard from had either not heard about the new Growing Healthy app, or had heard about but had not used the app. Many of those who had heard of but hadn’t used the app seemed unaware of its functionality. Those who had used it gave mixed feedback but were generally positive about the health chat feature and
self-help articles and information available.
In terms of how happy people were with the support from the health visiting service most selected the ‘partly’ response. Those who were completely happy praised the support given by the health visiting service or their named health visitor using words like ‘supportive’ and ‘helpful’. Many who did not necessarily have routine or regular contact were still completely happy as they felt confident in being able to make contact and get support should it be needed. Those who were less happy with the service generally had concerns around staffing, having limited support, being unaware of how to access support and being unhappy with a particular health visitor or specific advice given. We also received multiple comments around accessibility and availability of clinics and concerns these were no longer a ‘drop-in’ facility.
Read all of our findings and recommendations in Growing Healthy: Hearing people’s experiences of health visiting servicesordownload a pdf version.
Share your own recent experiences of health visiting services in Northumberland.
