Integrated Care Organisation
Incorporating the Community Services of
Brent, Ealing, and Harrow
EALING HOSPITAL TRUST
HEALTH VISITING EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
1. Background
In 2013 a health visiting strategy ‘Embracing the Best’ was developed following
consultation and engagement with a range of internal and external stakeholders at both
regional and national level. This strategy was a local response to the national ‘Health
Visitor Implementation Plan - a Call to Action’ (DH, 2011), which aims to establish a
resilient Health Visiting workforce in Ealing Hospital Trust, that is well placed to deliver
against the outcomes of the Healthy Child Programme.
Embracing the Best strategy identified an urgent need for strengthening and building
health visiting capacity, as well as transformational change in the area of education and
development of health visiting staff in order to ensure on-going assurance around the
competencies of the health visiting workforce.
In a recent on-line survey conducted as part of the Health Visitor Retention Project by
NHS employers, 75% of health visitors expressed that there was no clear career pathway
within Ealing Hospital Trust. Having no professional educational programme in place for
health visiting was reported to be a key factor for health visitors when they considered
their future in Ealing Hospital Trust.
This paper therefore outlines the strategy to develop coherent training, education and
professional development programmes for health visiting staff at every level, while
creating a health visiting clinical academic hub, strengthening leadership and embedding
a culture of innovation and best practice.
2. Health Visiting Clinical Academic Hub
The Health Visitor Implementation Plan (DH, 2011) called for an increase in the health
visiting workforce, which meant there was a need for a greater number of health visiting
students to be trained. As a result, three ‘super training hubs’ were established in London
to take on more students in the health visiting programme, and Ealing Hospital Trust was
one of them. This new commitment was seen as an opportunity to establish a Health
Visiting Clinical Academic Hub which would benefit not only students, but all health
visiting staff.
Sharin Baldwin (HV Clinical Academic & Innovations Lead) Jul y 2014
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Integrated Care Organisation
Incorporating the Community Services of
Brent, Ealing, and Harrow
The Health Visiting Clinical Academic Hub will be created to develop the health visiting
workforce, be a beacon of excellence and the employer of choice where health visitors
want to work. It is envisaged that this hub will develop training packages and master
classes for health visiting staff at every level, ensuring a clear career pathway. This will be
achieved through effective and collaborative links with Universities and the trust’s
Learning and Development department. The hub will also be research active, be a pilot
site for larger scale research projects and be involved in testing innovative practice, and
lead the profession through contributing to local and national policy agendas. A variety of
methods will be used to promote and communicate the activities taking place within the
hub, which will include a regular newsletter for the staff, setting up a web page and the
use of social media.
Two new roles have been developed to provide support to health visiting staff and aid the
transformational change in the area of education and development – Health Visiting
Clinical Academic and Innovations Lead, and Health Visiting Associate Practi ce Teacher.
Both these members will be involved in setting up the Clinical Academic Hub with support
from the Assistant Director of Professional Standards, and will act as a resource for the
health visiting workforce.
3. Training & Development Programmes
To ensure on-going assurance around the competencies of the health visiting workforce,
core training packages will be identified and developed for staff at every level within
health visiting teams. A training needs analysis will be carried out to identify the gaps in
the level of training across the three boroughs which will inform the development of an
effective training programme. Where possible national training programmes provided by
organisations such as the Institute of Health Visiting and Department of Health will be
accessed to prevent ‘reinventing the wheel’.
Training packages will also take into consideration the strategic direction of travel for
health visiting services and include relevant partner agencies as appropriate, e.g. Early
years and Children’s Centre teams.
Training and development will include the following:
Health Visitors:
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Master Classes for various aspects of the Healthy Child Programme and Public
Health
Leadership Development
Sharin Baldwin (HV Clinical Academic & Innovations Lead) Jul y 2014
2
Integrated Care Organisation
Incorporating the Community Services of
Brent, Ealing, and Harrow
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Supervision
Mentorship
Research awareness/ development
In addition to the above:
Health Visiting Managers & Team Leads:
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Management Training
HR issues – performance, sickness, conflict etc.
Recruitment training
Budget management
Writing business cases/ proposals
Specialist Health Visitors:
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Programme of development
Involvement in local/ national working groups
Share expertise and contribute to local/ national policy
Provide opportunities to act as a specialist resource for the hub
Involvement in clinical audit and research
Specialist Community Practice Teachers (SCPT)/ Mentors
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Development of regular forums for support and development (6-8 weekly)
Training based on identified needs
Standardised Mentorship training
Learning sets for students, facilitated and delivered by SCPTs
Peer Reviews
Health Visiting Students:
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Standardised induction process
Standardised processes Mentor/ SCPT support
Regular learning sets, practical training sessions and time for reflection
Involvement in the activities of the hub, development of services, policies etc.
Sharin Baldwin (HV Clinical Academic & Innovations Lead) Jul y 2014
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Integrated Care Organisation
Incorporating the Community Services of
Brent, Ealing, and Harrow
Community Staff Nurses, Nursery Nurses & Health Visitor Assistants:
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Core (role appropriate) training necessary to deliver the Health Child
Programme
A clear development programme with identified competencies
Allocated mentor
Opportunity for Community staff nurses to apply for health visiting training on
successful completion of the development programme
Career/ role development opportunities
4. Leadership Development
As well as leadership training, a whole range of activities will be promoted to support
health visitors in taking on the role of effective leaders as ascribed to them. This will
involve supporting staff with submitting abstracts to professional conferences, writing
for publications, acting as peer reviewers for academic/ professional journals and
raising the profile of the profession as well as the organisation. Corporate membership
with the Institute of Health Visiting will also enable health visitors to keep up to date
with national developments and opportunities.
Through ICO-wide working groups, health visiting staff will be able to share and
promote good practice and be involved in shaping the future of the new service model
in Ealing Hospital Trust. Links with national organisations such as Health Education
England, NHS England, Institute of Health Visiting and Queens Nursing Institute will
enable health visiting staff to contribute to the development of national policies and
standards.
5. Support Mechanisms
Restorative Supervision training has been commissioned to train 40 health visitors to
become supervisors. A system will be set up across the ICO for all health visitors to
receive restorative supervision from these trained supervisors on a regular basis.
Standardised Induction and Preceptorship programmes for health visiting will be
created to ensure a consistent level of support offered to all health visiting staff
across the ICO. There are currently national working groups being set up by the
Institute of Health Visiting to develop standardised Induction and Preceptorship
programmes. The health visiting Associate Practice Teacher will be part of this
Sharin Baldwin (HV Clinical Academic & Innovations Lead) Jul y 2014
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Integrated Care Organisation
Incorporating the Community Services of
Brent, Ealing, and Harrow
working group and the Clinical Academic Lead will be on the Expert Advisory Board,
which will enable contribution to national standards.
The Clinical Academic Hub will produce a bi-monthly newsletter to keep health visiting
staff up-to-date with latest research and developments, training opportunities and the
work taking place within the hub. Corporate membership with the Institute of Health
Visiting will also enable health visitors to keep up to date with national developments
and opportunities.
6. Succession Planning & Career Progression
There is a need to re-launch the introduction to Health Visiting scheme where band 5
Community Staff Nurses are recruited and mentored to be successful in applying for
the band 6 Health Visiting Student programme. This will enable the trust to ‘Grow your
Own’ health visitors and plan for the future.
A clear and consistent system will be developed to ensure all health visiting students
within the organisation are interviewed and given job offers in a timely manner to
ensure retention. Any existing work undertaken in this area will be taken into account
and built on.
Robust appraisal and personal development programmes need to be in place to
ensure staff are supported in further development of their role. Health visitors will have
a clear career progression pathway which will enable them to develop further in
management, education or clinical specialism, which will be linked to the appraisal
process.
By embedding a culture of ‘talent spotting’, staff who show further potential to develop
can be encouraged and appropriately supported to reach their full potential. A register
will be maintained of new and emerging leaders, this will link into ensuring succession
planning is assured in all teams.
7. Quality Improvement & Governance
Clinical excellence will be developed and maintained through evidence based practice
and exploring new ways of working to improve services. Regular research and audits
will result in further learning and quality improvements. Progress against the strategy
and quality standards will be monitored by the Health Visiting Programme Board
(HVPB).
Sharin Baldwin (HV Clinical Academic & Innovations Lead) Jul y 2014
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Integrated Care Organisation
Incorporating the Community Services of
Brent, Ealing, and Harrow
8. Outcomes
Implementation of this Health Visiting Education and Development strategy will
contribute to meeting our commissioning outcome measures and all six objectives of
Embracing the Best Health Visiting Strategy:
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Listen to Families and Children to improve the Care we give
Deliver High Quality Health Visiting Services
Value and Develop our Health Visiting Workforce
Embed a Culture of Innovation and Best Practice
Strengthen Leadership
Strengthen Education and Development
It will also help make the health visiting vision a reality, while helping us achieve the
best outcomes for children and families served by the health visiting service in Ealing
Hospital Trust.
Our Vision:
“The Health Visiting Services of Ealing, Brent and Harrow will ensure the delivery of
high quality, primary and early intervention Health Visiting Services. In doing so every
child and family will be supported to be happy, healthy and well. The Health Visiting
service will be delivered by a team who embrace the best of practice and achieve the
best of outcomes for children and families.”
9. Reference:
Department of Health (2011) Health Visitor Implementation Plan 2011–15: A Call to
Action. London: DH.
Sharin Baldwin (HV Clinical Academic & Innovations Lead) Jul y 2014
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