Homerton Health Visiting

Who we are:
Health visitors are nurses or midwives with specialist training in family and public health. We help parents and their families to improve health and wellbeing during pregnancy, after the birth and all the way through until your child is five.  The service is a universal service open to all parents from the antenatal stage until the child is five.

What we offer:
Health visitors act as a frontline defence against multiple child health problems – from providing advice to parents on breastfeeding and nutrition, safe sleeping and immunisations to supporting parents experiencing domestic abuse and mental ill health. They also play a crucial role in the community and are unique in providing a universal home visiting service to all families ensuring early identification of family needs and enabling access to support at the earliest opportunity. They work in close partnership with midwives and community services such as children’s centres, children’s social care and voluntary agencies.

The teams are aligned to eight neighbourhoods, to support localised delivery of care to specific populations including the Children and Family Hub.

When will we see you?
This is the universal offer for all parents, carers and residents in City and Hackney 
•    During your pregnancy after 28 weeks you will be contacted by our team
•    10 to 14 days after the birth of your baby
•    6 to 8 weeks
•    8 to 12 months
•    18 month desktop review
•    27 months/Integrated Health and Development Review 
•    Additional contacts may be offered at 1 month, 3 to 4 months and 3 to 3.5 years, if required, this is based on target, specialist, Intensive (Personalised) level of care.

Universal 
•    Antenatal contact from 28 weeks. 
•    New birth contacts 10-14 days. 
•    6–8-week post-natal contact for child/mother
•    8–12-month health and development review. 
•    18 months desktop review 
•    27 month/Integrated health and development review. 
 

Targeted
•    Additional support for an identified need or may be receiving further support from one other service/agency.
•    1 month 
•    3-4 months 
•    3-3.5 years review 
 

Specialist 
•    Families and children that require coordinated support from several different organisations such as SEND and includes those children under Early Help Support, LAC, CIN and CP Plans with the Local Authority 
•    1 month 
•    3-4 months 
•    3-3.5 years review 

New - Intensive Service (Personalised Service) 
•    The Intensive Service is a targeted support service for pregnant people 
•    (28 weeks +) and infants from 0 to 2 years with additional risk factors and health needs. (Level 5)

What does the Personalised Service do?
Health visitors can provide additional one to one support. Aimed at pregnant people (28 weeks +) and infants from 0 to 2 years with additional risk factors and health needs. This enables families to receive the right help, at the right time, for the right reasons; supporting and improving chances for parents to keep their children safe from harm, achieving good health outcomes and enabling them to thrive as they transition to school with the best chances of learning and achieving.

Intensive service referral form 

Infant Feeding Support 
The Enhanced Health Visiting Infant Feeding Team is on hand to offer help and support to all families and their babies from day 10 onwards in City & Hackney. This provides the opportunity for parents and babies to receive support with infant feeding. We are on hand to provide guidance and support families to achieve their feeding goals. We hold up to 10 clinics each week throughout the area. There will be an Infant Feeding Specialist at each session offering tailored help and support. Families may wish to attend for reassurance or for more specific concerns and queries. 

Homerton Infant Feeding Service
Feeding Your Baby and Child 
Hackney Infant Feeding

Antenatal Contact 
Health visitors provide an antenatal contact to all families in City and Hackney, either in person or virtually. However, midwives in City and Hackney remain the lead professionals responsible for the antenatal care of expectant mothers.  The service offers a monthly antenatal workshop, Beyond Birth, available both online and in person. Families on the intensive pathway receive additional visits for further support.

Safeguarding, vulnerable infants, children & families & infants and children with current clinical concerns
These families are a priority for a home visit to carry out health needs assessment as required. The service will continue to participate in Child Protection Conference , Core groups, Early Help Meetings, GP link meetings and MDT meetings.

The website continues to be updated weekly to let families and partner organisations know what the current status is for the Healthy Child Programme offer.

Please see below:
Hackney and City Health Visiting

Early Help and Statutory Support  
We work together with local services and parents to provide support, including safeguarding our local families and children.

All members of the Health Visiting team use the Children’s Social Care needs thresholds and referral pathways.

Staff who identify a child or family in need of additional support use a child-centred Early Help Form to make a referral to the Multi-Agency Team (MAT) at the Children and Family Hubs.

The Health Visiting service will ensure that:
•    Early and timely referrals take place
•    The Early Help Form is used to assess children’s needs and to decide how these could best be met
•    This form will be completed with parental agreement and discussion
•    Early Help referrals to the Children's Centre or Family Hubs team will identify supportive interventions for families.
•    The Early Help Form will support joint working with other local services such as Early Years

GP Link Meetings – Health Visitors attend the monthly GP link meetings which offers an opportunity for professional discussion and identification of early support for families registered with a practice. 

LBH – Local Offer for Enhanced Health Visiting Service 
Service Feedback – (FFT) Friends and Family Test
 
Phone Number 0207 683 415, Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm (closed on public holidays) 
Instagram: @Homerton_Health_Visiting
Website  Homerton Health Visiting – Information for parent and carers living in Hackney and The City of London for health visiting services including; feeding your baby and toddler, becoming a parent, growth and development of your child.

Intensive Service  
The Personalised Health Visiting service supports families and enables them to have improved chances of keeping children healthy and safe to give them the best start in life. The service is led by the high impact health visitors and the specialist community nursery nurses.

Eligibility criteria

Inclusions

Expectant parents and those who have children between 0-5 years.

How to refer

The following clinicians can refer to this service: GPs