Update from Orkney Health Visiting Team - 21 January 2021

We are currently finding ourselves in unprecedented times and as such our service delivery has had to change and adapt frequently, each time guidance is issued to us from Scottish Government.

Unfortunately, these often last minute changes combined with staff shortages within the team, mean that our clients have not always been contacted and made aware of these changes in a timely manner. As a Service we apologise for this, as this is not what we as a Team want for the families of Orkney, who are also understandably having very different experiences as new parents.

We want to reassure you that you will receive a contact at all stages of the pathway following the birth of your child, but the mode of delivering this contact may vary depending upon the guidance issued to us by Scottish Government.

It may also be that some of these visits are being carried out later than indicated in the pathway, as at some points during the COVID pandemic, there have been some contacts that were completely ceased and we are now trying to catch up on these.

Currently the following visits will be completed face to face:

• New Birth Visit, 6-8 Week contact, 13-15 month review, 27-30 month review and 4-5 year review. 
• Contacts at 3-5 weeks, 3 months, 4 months, 6 months & 8 months will be offered to you in a remote form (videocall or telephone call). However, depending on clinical need, some of these contacts may be offered at home on an individually assessed basis.

We also want to make you aware that, as with many organisations, we are being encouraged to work from home as much as possible. As such, we have a rota for checking any voicemails that are left on the office number and are providing families with our work mobile numbers and email addresses to aid communication between parents and Health Visitors.

As a Team, we also would like to ask, that if you have any concerns or queries, or if you appear to have had a missed contact, that you as parents also make contact with us as you need to, so that we can give you any advice & support you may need.

We hope that we will be able to return to service as usual as soon as possible and will keep you updated of changes on this site.