Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of changes in the availability of health visiting services on patients receiving those services; and if he will make a statement.

The Government is committed to achieving good health outcomes for children and young people. Local authorities are responsible for commissioning appropriate services for 0-5 year olds in their areas, including health visiting. Public Health England monitors a range of outcomes for child health. This includes information provided by local authorities for health visiting services high impact actions such as reducing smoking in pregnancy and managing a healthy weight in 4-5 year olds. The majority of these show steady state of improvement[1].

The Health Visitor Programme, which concluded in 2015, introduced a new service model for the profession to help develop improved access, user experience and outcomes, as well as reducing health inequalities. The Health Visitor programme also saw the workforce increase considerably enabling more families to be reached. Professional groups indicate the service model has provided increased awareness of the service by users and a better structured delivery.

[1] Chimat Early Years Profiles

http://atlas.chimat.org.uk/IAS/dataviews/report/fullpage?viewId=433&reportId=482&geoId=17&geoReportId=4494&select=EN