Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to make an assessment of the effect of the redeployment of health visitors on the wellbeing of babies and families during the covid-19 outbreak.

With the onset of COVID-19 some public health nurses were redeployed into hospitals where their expertise was most needed to care for acutely ill patients. It is important that these nurses return to help mitigate the negative impacts of the pandemic on families with young children.

The ‘Restoration of community health services for children and young people: second phase of NHS response’ is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/covid-19-prioritisation-within-community-health-services-with-annex_19-march-2020/

Public Health England will also work with local authority commissioners and service providers to support the return of health visiting teams.