Empowering health visitors: a multi-faceted approach

Health visitors working in Tower Hamlets, a deprived inner London borough, face a large and growing under-5 population, and caseloads with disproportionate numbers of vulnerable families and child protection concerns. This paper reports and evaluation of a project to empower health visitors. Baseline data about their activity (primarily derived from observation and interviews) showed that health visitors would benefit from improved resources (e.g. leaflets, books, training packs); enhanced knowledge of local borough and third sector services; and support for their own wellbeing and morale. After the programme that was implemented to provide these, seven health visitors were interviewed for evaluation purposes. They reported feeling empowered by the project: the training had been invaluable in providing affirmation, reassurance, and the opportunity to reflect; the new sleep information packs were very helpful for families, as was the new leaflet explaining their role; and restorative supervision had been useful in helping individuals think through how to deal with particular challenges in life or work. The project was thus successful in helping the health visitors interviewed to feel more supported and thus empowered in their work with families.