New guidance for health visitors on improving vaccination uptake

Health visitors have been provided with a new resource to help improve vaccination uptake during pregnancy and early childhood.

The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) has published its updated Good Practice Points (GPP): Improving Vaccination Uptake During Pregnancy and Early Childhood resource.

It aims to support health visitors to strengthen their role in improving vaccination confidence and uptake during pregnancy and the early childhood years.

This follows recent national updates, including the UK’s loss of its measles elimination status in January this year.

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The World Health Organization’s (WHO) decision reflected the country’s reducing uptake of the MMR vaccination – which it linked to vaccine hesitancy and parents’ difficulty in accessing reliable information and getting appointments for their child to be immunised.

The iHV has updated its GPP to help health visitors engage early with parents, build trust, and help overcome both hesitancy and barriers to accessing information on vaccines.

The document outlines the known population groups with low vaccine uptake or who are at risk of low uptake when discussing vaccination inequalities. It names people who are not registered with a GP as an example, as well are children from large families.

Advice is provided on tackling these issues, such as community engagement and improving access.

In Northern Ireland, health visitors are quoted as a ‘strong example’ for ‘effectively supporting vaccination efforts’.The document states: ‘Most health visitors are linked with GP practices, which ensures they have an excellent understanding of the vaccination schedule.

‘This, combined with following the Healthy Child, Healthy Future framework where the majority of visits take place in the home, helps create an environment where parents feel comfortable raising any concerns or questions they may have about vaccinations.’

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Other key messages for health visitors include having open conversations with families, using accessible language such as ‘whooping cough’ alongside the medical term ‘pertussis’; addressing hesitancy; avoiding scare tactics and staying updated.

Alison Morton, chief executive of the iHV, said: ‘This new resource supports health visitors and the wider health visiting workforce to strengthen their role in improving vaccination confidence and uptake during pregnancy and the early years – a crucial public health priority.

‘Through their universal reach, health visitors can engage early with parents, build trust, and help overcome both hesitancy and barriers to accessing vaccination-based information.

‘Health visitors are ideally placed to discuss vaccination with their families, and to remind them when vaccines are overdue.

‘In the UK we are fortunate to have ready access to a safe and highly effective vaccine to provide our children with protection against these potentially devastating infections.’

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The updated GPP was created with the support of Dr Helen Bedford, Professor of children’s health, population, policy and practice programme at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, iHV trustee, and iHV expert adviser on immunisations.

Earlier this year, the government unveiled plans for health visitors in some areas to offer vaccinations to children who have ‘fallen through the cracks’ as part of a one-year pilot programme.