Health visitors: finding their place in children's centres

Children's centres aim to improve outcomes for children through the development of integrated services. Health visitors are expected to lead the delivery of child health promotion programmes in geographical areas that include children's centres. During 2007, a group of eight health visitors linked to Phase 2 children's centres in Bristol formed a learning set facilitated by a public health specialist to explore how their role as both caseworkers and public health practitioners could become part of an integrated children's centre team. They developed two linked models intended to help health visitors develop both aspects of their role in practice. First, a proposed management structure for a children's centre which included health visitors at both the strategic and practice delivery levels of the organisation. Second, a conceptualisation of how the proposed management structure would support and develop an integrated team. The paper then discusses an early attempt by one children's centre in Bristol to implement the two models through the development of an integrated outreach team.