Health visitors are dealing with ‘unmanageable and unsafe’ workloads, warns iHV chief

Health visitors are dealing with ‘unmanageable and unsafe’ workloads due to a decline in the workforce, the chief executive of the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) has said.

Alison Morton said that health visitors are having to prioritise their patients and that ‘prioritisation has a human cost’, as she stressed that the workforce will continue to decline if the government does not address the consequential increased workloads.

The government were warned in January by a Health and Social Care Committee cross-party report that the number of health visitors has fallen by 43% since 2015, leaving a shortfall of 5,000 posts.

The committee also warned that those remaining in post were managing ‘dangerously high’ caseloads, including of up to 1,000 in some areas of England.

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‘We need to set a benchmark, otherwise we’re just going to continue to see this decline with hugely unmanageable, unsafe caseloads which are impossible for health visitors to work within,’ Ms Morton told the BBC.

‘Health visitors are having to prioritise, and actually prioritisation has a human cost.

‘They’re having to tell families: ‘I’m sorry, I can’t do that extra follow-up visit’, when you know it would have made a massive difference to that family.’

‘We need more health visitors so that we can have manageable caseloads.’

The government was advised in January that at least 1,000 more health visitors must be recruited.

Welcoming the committee’s recommendations earlier this year, Ms Morton said: ‘This is something that the iHV has called for over many years as health visitors see the human face of years of cuts which have left too many families without the support they need.

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‘We look forward to the government’s response and offer our ongoing support to turn its ambition to “give every child the best start in life” into reality.’

Last month, health visitors in Wales celebrated the role during Health Visiting Week which is aimed at raising awareness of the role and the highlight its importance across Wales.

Registered nurse Dr Michelle Moseley, the iHV’s director of programmes (learning and development), told Nursing in Practice: ‘The role has been in place for over 100 years.

‘It’s really important that the role is recognised and not diminished at all.

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Health visitors are a very small part of the wider nursing agenda. We’re nurses and midwives. Sometimes we get a little bit lost in that bigger nursing agenda.’

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) told the BBC that they would be setting out plans for health visitors later this year.