A new pathway for a career in health visiting has been published in a bid to help ‘strengthen opportunities’ for beginning, developing and leading a career in the profession.
The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) said its new career pathway document had been designed as a resource for workforce planning amid ongoing shortages.
Published today, it includes the different job roles contributing to the health visiting provision and maps these against levels of practice that reflect registration status, educational development, expertise and responsibility.
According to iHV, the pathway was created by drawing upon the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan’s priorities to ‘train, retain and reform’ in order to build workforce capacity and support practitioners to have worthwhile careers in health visiting.
The workforce plan, published by NHS England earlier this year, committed to increasing health visiting training places by more than 70% by April 2032.
An iHV spokesperson said: ‘The downward trend in total health visitor workforce numbers in England needs urgently addressing.
‘The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan published in June 2023 signals a commitment to address the shortfall, which needs action not only on recruitment but also retention.’
They added: ‘The iHV recognises the use of skill mix roles and has developed the career pathway with entry and progression in mind.
‘It sets out possibilities for movement towards a health visitor qualification and beyond, through advanced practice.’
