HEREFORDSHIRE’S health visitors – often the first point of frontline contact between families and Wye Valley NHS Trust – are an example to colleagues across the UK, according to Whitehall.

The trust has been selected as one of six new “early implementer“ sites showing the way a new kind of health visiting service can be delivered as part of the government’s five-year plan to recruit an extra 4,200 health visitors.

The way health visitors work in the county will be outlined at the UK’s biggest annual health visiting conference next week.

Jane Terry, the trust’s professional lead for health visiting and school nursing, will be in Brighton to present her research paper on the future for health visiting.

Where some 25 per cent of the UK’s population seek advice from accident and emergency departments and GPs for minor illnesses, Jane’s paper examines the role health visitors could play in helping families they are in contact with manage childhood illnesses at home, reducing the pressure placed on NHS services across the country.

Jane says she’s “extremely proud” at being chosen to speak at the event about the kind of work the new health visiting service.

This includes working to ensure parents know which community services, including Children’s Centres, are available and providing a rapid response from health visiting teams on specific advice such as help with a sleepless baby and weaning.