Health Visiting Service Catch-Up Programme
The Health Visiting Service in Orkney has suffered significant setbacks in the past couple of years due to Covid, staffing and recruitment challenges, which has meant that families have not always had a consistent health visitor and some children may have missed reviews.
Recognising this, the Health Visiting Team recently undertook a family feedback survey and are in the process of addressing concerns raised by parents and carers, to improve the services available to all families in Orkney. The team will shortly be writing to all families, explaining who their health visitor is, what the service can offer and how to get in touch. Additionally, a Catch-Up Programme has been established. This programme is for any children who have missed out on important developmental reviews and the work is well underway.
The Health Visiting Team is keen to ensure that every pre-school child is allocated a health visitor and that they are offered the minimum of all 11 visits (including 3 developmental reviews) as laid down in the national Universal Health Visiting Pathway. The pathway begins before birth, with pregnant women being offered an antenatal home visit from 32 weeks. Further visits then commence when families are handed over from maternity care (i.e., when their baby is around 10-14 days old).
The Health Visitors are keen to ensure their service fits the families they visit and can offer additional visits to suit individual needs. Health Visitors are registered Nurses and/or Midwives who have done additional training in Public Health to support families throughout infancy and early childhood.
Lou Brewer, Health Visitor and Infant Feeding Improvement Specialist, said: “As a team we are totally committed to connecting with families and ensuring that everyone has access to a consistent, reliable service. We would encourage anyone to get in touch via the details below if they have any questions or concerns.”
People can get in touch with the Health Visiting Team at any time, through emailing ork.namedpersonservice@nhs.scot or calling 01856 888115 and leaving a voice message.