8,000 more health visitors needed 'to avoid more Baby Ps’
12 October 2009
National health visiting
crisis comes centre stage
A total of 8,000 more health visitors need to be employed in the
next five years ‘to avoid more Baby Ps’, two senior Cabinet
ministers will be told by Unite, the largest union in the country,
this week.
The country’s health visiting crisis – one full-time health
visitor job is lost every 30 hours – will come centre stage when
Health Secretary, Andy Burnham and Children, Schools and Families
Secretary, Ed Balls address the Unite/Community Practitioners’ and
Health Visitors’ Association (CPHVA) annual conference at Southport
(14-16 October).
Unite National Officer for Health, Karen Reay said: ‘Based on
the increasing birth rate, the recent fall in health visitor
numbers, the age profile of the profession, and the need for health
visitors to have responsibility for on average no more than 250
children, there is now a need for an increase of 8,000 more health
visitors over the next five years.’
‘Each primary care trust and strategic health authority must be
held to account in producing plans for how they will deliver this
total. This will require many of them doubling or even tripling
their existing health visitor work force, such has been the scale
of the cuts over the last five years.’
‘We know from our conversations with government ministers that
they are very sympathetic of the need for a dramatic increase in
the number of health visitors. I think the whole country was rocked
with horror by the ‘Baby P’ case – more health visitors would help
reduce considerably the possibility of more ‘Baby P’ tragedies and
provide support to all parents.’
‘What we are seeking this week is flesh on the bones, as to how
the government plans to ensure health visitor numbers are
increased.
In 2008, 57% of a survey of 1,000 Unite/CPHVA health visitors
said that they were responsible for 400 children or more; with 20%
responsible for 1,000. Inevitably many vulnerable children
are going undetected.’
Unite/CPHVA members said that the pressure of work was such that
they could no longer meet the needs of the most vulnerable children
on their caseloads.
The government’s recently promised to ‘substantially increase’
health visitor numbers when the Lord Laming review into child
protection polices – in the wake of the Baby P case - was unveiled
earlier this year.
-ends-
NOTES TO NEWS EDITORS:
Andy Burnham is due to address delegates at the Southport
Theatre and Convention Centre 2.00pm on Wednesday, 14 October and
Ed Balls on 1.50pm on Thursday, 15 October.
The latest NHS workforce statistics, based on September 2008
figures, revealed that a full-time health visitor job was being
lost every 30 hours.
The NHS workforce statistics showed the loss of 292 full-time
jobs and that 20% of the headcount is aged over 55 and 40% is
50-plus.
There were 8,764 full-time health visitor posts, compared to
9,056 in September 2007. Headcount figures are 11,190 (2008),
compared with 11,569 in 2007. That is a loss of a further 292
full-time posts, or 379 health visitors. (Many health visitors work
part-time.)
292 full-time jobs lost gives a loss of 5.62 a week based on 52
weeks a year and one lost every 30 hours.
For further information, please ring: Karen Reay, National Officer,
Health 07798 531 004, Cheryll Adams, Lead Professional Officer,
Strategy & Practice Development 07712 678 281; Obi Amadi,
Lead Professional Officer, Policy & External Affairs 07780 955
936; Shaun Noble, Communications Officer (Health Sector) 020 7420
8951 or 07768 693 940
Unite Health Sector web page: www.unitetheunion.org/health
Unite/CPHVA press releases can be seen on the CPHVA website:
www.unitetheunion.org/cphva
Unite is the largest union in the UK. It has seven
professional sections: the Community Practitioners’ and
Health Visitors’ Association, the Mental Health Nurses Association,
the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists, the Society of Sexual Health
Advisers, the Medical Practitioners’ Union, College of Healthcare
Chaplains, and the Hospital Physicists
Association.
