Health visitors budgets ‘should be ring-fenced’, as recruitment
drive stalls, says Unite
4 October 2011
Ministers were urged ‘to get a grip’ on health visitor
recruitment, as one of the government’s key pledges – to recruit an
extra 4,200 health visitors – falters.
Unite, which embraces the Community Practitioners’ and Health
Visitors’ Association (CPHVA), called for health visiting budgets
to be ring-fenced, as seven out of the ten strategic health
authorities (SHA) in England reported a decline in the number of
health visitors in the last 12 months.
Unite’s lead professional officer Obi Amadi said: ”In the morass
of the government’s so-called NHS reforms, the pledge to recruit
4,200 extra health visitors by 2015 stood out.
”But now official figures from the NHS Information Centre have
shown that the recruitment drive is faltering and the number of
health visitors is actually falling in many parts of England, with
London and the East of England being particularly hard hit.
”The government needs to consider ring-fencing health visitor
budgets to meets its pledge. The government gave the SHAs an extra
three per cent on top of baseline funding for health visitors, but
it appears it hasn’t been used.
”The government needs to take a good look at ring-fencing
budgets, otherwise the money is not going to be spent on what it
should be.”
This latest blow to the profession comes a fortnight before
public health minister Anne Milton is due to address the annual
Unite/CPHVA professional conference in Brighton.
The Health Visitor Implementation Plan, published in February,
promised to recruit an extra 4,200 health visitors to add to the
8,092 full time equivalents that were practicing in England as of
May 2010.
But more than eight months since the government revealed its
plan, the overall number of health visitors in the country had
dropped by 213 to 7,879.
The implementation plan set out a provisional target to have
trained an extra 1,135 health visitors by the end of March 2012.
This was broken down into regional targets for each strategic
health authority (SHA) to achieve.
ENDS
Notes to news editors:
For further information please contact Unite communications
officer Shaun Noble on 07768 693940
