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North Yorkshire 0-6 Children’s Service (Health Visiting)

The role of the Growing Healthy North Yorkshire Health Visiting service is to provide high quality, evidence-based information that promotes a health start in life for children under six and their families.

On this page

The Service will ensure that every parent/carer, and child under six have access to a Health Visiting Team. The team are responsible for delivering mandated health reviews from the antenatal period until children reach primary school age through a risk assessed and blended approach of face-to-face and virtual visits. The new birth visits and the two ½-year development check are face to face with a targeted approach to the other reviews. A qualified Health Visitor will deliver all under 1-year contacts, with over 1 year old contacts delivered by a skill mixed team.  These will form a core part of the activity of the Service and enable it to focus on best start in life in particular on infant feeding and family nutrition and diet.

Health Visitors

Health Visitors are registered nurses or midwives who have additional registered specialist training to become specialist community public health nurses (SCPHN). Health Visitors work with and support families with young children aged 0 to 5 to give every child the best start in life by promoting health and wellbeing.

Five points of contact

Health visitors lead the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme, which provides five points of contact for all families:

  1. Antenatal visit

From 28 weeks in pregnancy, this visit provides an opportunity for building a relationship with you and your family before the baby arrives.

  1. New birth visit

This visit usually takes place when the baby is between 10 and 14 days old. The aim is to support and develop skills and confidence in new parents by sharing information on family and child health issues.

We will continue to work with you to build a trusting relationship and continue the assessment of your family’s health and wellbeing. We will share relevant information and assess your baby’s progress, responding to any concerns you may have.

  1. Six to eight week health visitor appointment

This appointment continues to develop the parent/health visitor relationship, allowing for an open and honest exchange of information. A good relationship enables parents’ new skills and confidence to be acknowledged and appreciated by the health visitor. We will ask questions aimed at developing parental awareness of postnatal depression and anxiety.

  1. Eight to 12 months, physical and developmental review

This review assessment will be offered by the Health Visiting Team and is often undertaken by a community nursery nurse. The review may be held at home or in a clinic.

  1. Two to two and a half years, physical and developmental review

This review assessment is often undertaken by a community nursery nurse between the ages of two and two and a half. At this review, parents are invited to complete an assessment form with their child. This review may be held at home, in a clinic or in a nursery setting.

North Yorkshire 0-6 Children’s Service

The 0-6 Pillar of the Healthy Child Service is the early intervention and prevention public health programme that lies at the heart of universal services for children and families. At a crucial stage of life, the Healthy Child Service’s universal reach provides an invaluable opportunity to identify families that are in need of additional support and children who are at risk of poor outcomes.

The Healthy Child Service offers every family a programme of screening tests, immunisations, developmental reviews, and information and guidance to support parenting and healthy choices – all services that children and families need to receive if they are to achieve their optimum health and wellbeing.

Infant Feeding, Family Diet and Nutrition Pillar

The Infant Feeding, Family Diet and Nutrition Pillar consists of a skill mix team who have a wide range of skills and expertise, which support the service to achieve Baby Friendly Initiative accreditation.

The team offer proactive calls, breastfeeding, infant feeding and weaning support groups and if required, specialist support. In addition, the Infant Feeding, Family Diet and Nutrition team also deliver National Child Measurement Programme and the Poppy Programme, which aims to assist in reducing weight / BMI.

Working hours and contacts

The North Yorkshire 0-6 Children’s Service can be contacted Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm, excluding bank holidays.

Single Point of Contact telephone number for Growing Healthy North Yorkshire 

A Single Point of Contact telephone number is in place for the North Yorkshire 0-6 Children’s Service team.

This telephone number is: 0300 303 0916

This number is available between the hours of 8am-5.00pm, Monday-Friday. Outside of these hours it will be answered by the Duty Social Care Team.

Referral

If you are having a baby, your midwife will inform the Health Visiting Service that you are pregnant. A health visitor will then contact you to arrange an antenatal visit.

If you are new to the area, your GP will normally notify the Health Visiting Team. We will then get in touch to arrange a meeting.

If you have a child under five, please contact your Health Visiting Team directly. You can usually find the number in your child’s red book.

If you are over 34 weeks pregnant or have a child under five and you do not know how to contact your health visitor, please get in touch with one of the managers named on this page or ask at your local GP surgery or children’s centre for contact details.

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