Hello and welcome to the May blog and news update!

This month we’d like to reflect on impact of the decline in health visitor numbers in the last 12 months on women and families*.

Reduction in health visitor & school nurse numbers
The number of full-time equivalent health visitors and school nurses has been reduced, as reported in Children and Young People Now (full story here). This is concerning as this very shortly follows the health visitor implementation plan (a campaign to raise health visitor numbers by 50% or 2,400 health visitors) that was run between 2010-2015. Indeed, it has been reported that 70% of pregnant women do not receive the mandatory antenatal contacts from their health visitor. Following cuts to health visiting, there has been a reported rise in workload, which could put women, young people, and entire families at risk of losing out on invaluable support from their health visitor.

Health visitors’ response
Understandably, the threat of increasing cuts to the service has led to a response from health visitors, including the Institute of Health Visiting (Press release here), where the negative impact of cuts to services have been highlighted. This includes a reduction in health visitors’ ability to provide vital safeguarding support, as well as health visitors having to take on larger caseloads which can affect practitioner safety and performance. Other health visitors have taken to social media and news outlets to express their concerns regarding cuts to the service – we recommend reading the following articles:

• Health visitors aren’t valued but we do more than just weigh babies – The Guardian, 31st October 2016
• So… – Jen the HV, 22nd April 2017
• Health visitor cuts put kids at risk – I’m terrified there’ll be another Baby P: My Wigan Pier Story
  – Su Lowe, 20th March 2017

Our response
We echo issues raised in these reports and (social) media posts, and acknowledge the role that health visitors play in preventing illness and promoting health. For example, health visitors provide immunisation support, providing parents with evidence-based advice in a non-judgemental way. They also play a role in child protection and safeguarding, and help vulnerable families access support to social/community services. Our research shows that health visitors are professionals committed to delivering a high-quality service, and have a wide set of skills to offer to mothers and their families, including breastfeeding, and mental health support. As mentioned, cuts to the service pose a risk to families’ health, and in light of this, local authorities should reconsider their proposed cuts for 2017.

*Views expressed in this blog post are solely of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views, position, or policies of the University.

COPE News/Notices

We are thrilled to announce that our abstract has been accepted for an oral presentation at the British Psychological Society’s Division of Health Psychology Annual Conference. Ryc will be presenting the findings from the interview study with midwives and health visitors in September. Again we wish to express our thanks to all those who have participated in this study – we will of course update you in a future blog post on our findings.

In addition, we are busy writing journal papers and more conference abstracts, to start disseminating our study findings.  More information on all of this will follow in due course.

As ever, we would love to hear from you! Let us know what you think of our blog post, or ask us any questions regarding the COPE project via cope@city.ac.uk.

Until then,
– Team COPE

Photo by Khurt Williams

A very warm spring welcome to the COPE Project update!

As we turn to a new season, we thought we would do a little spring clean of our monthly updates. Apart from COPE Project news, we are also introducing within these updates blog posts, where members of Team COPE will share some new research, updates in practice and other news or reflections that are relevant to the project. This month we report on a Twitter chat focussing on experiences of care, as well as the notable reduction in health visiting and school nursing staff.

#ExpOfCare Twitter chat, hosted by @KathEvans2
Experience of Care week took place on 20th-24th March, and during this week many took to Twitter to discuss their experiences of care. Hosted by @KathEvans2, there was considerable talk across various parts of the health care sector, including midwifery and health visiting/maternal and child health. Some of the highlights of this chat included placing an emphasis on asking people ‘what matters to you’ and listening to service users, ensuring that staff are also looked after, and most importantly, acknowledging the value of good communication and applying this in day-to-day practice. The issues raised in this chat echo current research, for example, in our review we found that for midwives and health visitors, an enabler of collaborative work is good communication. Equally, poor communication is a challenge to working collaboratively. Contributors to the #ExpOfCare chat underlined the value of not just communication between professionals, but also with service users. Indeed, this is also something that we have gleaned from our conversations with mothers as well as health professionals.

Did any of you participate in #ExpOfCare? Let us know in the comments below.
You can read more about this event here.

COPE News/Notices

We have some exciting news regarding recent funding. We were recently successful in our application to our School of Health Sciences for funding to organise a half-day of showcasing our findings so far. We will also discuss our current projects and ask for feedback on how they can be tailored to the current practice environment. This day will be held in June. If you are interested in attending, please email cope@city.ac.uk

In addition, the University has awarded us money to develop and run training aimed at helping healthcare professionals work together to provide women continuity of care during and after pregnancy. This project will start in the next few months and will be open to London-based healthcare professionals. We will share more information on this as we develop the workshops.

As ever, we would love to hear from you! Let us know what you think of the changes we have made to our monthly updates, or ask us any questions regarding the COPE project via cope@city.ac.uk.

Until then,
– Team COPE

Hello and welcome to the March news update!

We are delighted to inform you that we are making great progress on data analysis for the midwife/health visitor interview study. Thank you once again to everyone who has participated, or shared information with others about this study! In total we have 32 interviews, amounting to over 28 hours, as part of our dataset.

As we mentioned in our previous updates, we have begun running workshops for midwives, health visitors and other healthcare professionals women may meet during and after pregnancy. A further two workshops were conducted this month. We are of course evaluating these workshops and more information on this will be available in future updates. This project is funded by the Community Education Providers Network (Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest).

Finally, we are also busy with analysing the data from the women’s interview study. Again, thank you all for your support on this work! More information will be available in the near future.

If you would like more information or have any questions about any of these studies please email cope@city.ac.uk.

-Team COPE

Hello and welcome to the February news update!

First, a notice for those who are following our midwife/health visitor interview study. The recruitment and data collection for this study is now closed. Thank you to everyone who has participated, or shared information with others about this study.

Second, some news! In mid-January we started running workshops for midwives, health visitors and other healthcare professionals women may meet during and after pregnancy. So far, we have held two workshops, with two more in February. We are of course evaluating these workshops and more information on this will be available in future updates. This project is funded by the Community Education Providers Network (Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest).

Data analysis is well underway for the midwife/interview study. We are also busy with analysing the data from the women’s interview study. Again, thank you all for your support on this work! , More information will be available in the near future.

If you would like more information or have any questions about any of these studies please email cope@city.ac.uk.

-Team COPE