Organising Health Visiting – UK Frontline Perspectives

Abstract

The organisation of health visitor work is an important part of service design that can impact on when and where services are provided and who gains access. The paper reports a 2018 survey of UK health visitors conducted to provide an overview of the range of ways that health visitor cases and workloads are organised. The 584 respondents confirm the operation of three broad types of health visitor service delivery models. Namely the: individual case, corporate case or combination model. Themes that emerge from practitioner experiences of working with different models reflect concerns about: continuity and staffing; accommodating different needs; different services in different places. Overall these data indicate a lack of consistency in health visitor service across the UK. The advantages and disadvantages of each workload model is also detailed and are considered with respect to markers of a quality service, including achieving relationships with clients and sufficient communication within and
across teams.