Growing Healthy: Hearing people’s experiences of health visiting services

Healthwatch Northumberland undertook research to understand people's experience of health visitor services after hearing an increase in concerns. To get a better understanding of people’s experiences they asked people in Northumberland who were pregnant or had pre-school aged children for anonymous feedback about their experiences of the health visiting service, delivered by Harrogate and District Foundation Trust (HDFT), including what is working well and what could be better. They also wanted to understand people’s awareness of the health visiting service and any barriers to using it, including those who were not routinely taking advantage of the services on offer.  They spoke to 192 people.

Whilst most people Healthwatch heard from were aware of how to contact the health visiting service there were many others who were not very clear on how or who to contact. Around half of people responding were also unsure or did not know who their child’s named health visitor was, either due to staff changes or not having had recent contact with the service. Those who did have a named health visitor and who saw them at each appointment were generally happier with the support received from the health visiting service than those who did not, with many mentioning continuity of care or having a good relationship with their health visitor. 

Many people had a good awareness of the universal offer in terms of key developmental reviews or if not, how they could find out about it, but there were still some who had limited awareness of when they would next expect a review or whether they may have missed a key review. Similarly, some people had a limited understanding of other possible targeted support and advice on offer outside of the key developmental reviews, for example, around parenting and other topics. These people said they would not think to contact health visitors outside of reviews, or more generally were unaware that the health visiting service could provide this. 

Positively, many parents had used the health visiting service for targeted advice and support, particularly around feeding, nutrition, growth and development. Most people Healthwatch heard from had either not heard about the new Growing Healthy app, or had heard about but had not used the app. Many of those who had heard of but hadn’t used the app seemed unaware of its functionality. Those who had used it gave mixed feedback but were generally positive about the health chat feature and self-help articles and information available. 

In terms of how happy people were with the support from the health visiting service most selected the ‘partly’ response. Those who were completely happy praised the support given by the health visiting service or their named health visitor using words like ‘supportive’ and ‘helpful’. Many who did not necessarily have routine or regular contact were still completely happy as they felt confident in being able to make contact and get support should it be needed. Those who were less happy with the service generally had concerns around staffing, having limited support, being unaware of how to access support and being unhappy with a particular health visitor or specific advice given. Healthwatch also received multiple comments around accessibility and availability of clinics and concerns these were no longer a ‘drop-in’ facility.