HEALTH VISITORS AND THE 2 YR CHECK

[silvermist]

Hi I thought you might like to know that when I was on a training course for the two year check on saturday, I asked why Health Visitors arent bothering with looking at our 2 yr check paperwork.

Apparently Norfolk is one of the guinea pig areas and it has already been noted as a risk.

I explained that I knew alot of childminders who spend their time writing the assessment only for it to be disregarded!

I explained that we are also professionals and our input should be treated with respect and treated seriously.

I mentioned that we actually probably know the children better than the health visitor anyway and that it is very disheartening to know our professional opinions are being tossed to the side.

The lady doing our training said she would be bringing this up at the meeting they are having in London. She added that Health Visitors will be informed that they must take notice of what childminders have to say.

We are also going to be assigned our own health visitor which I didnt realise.

[vals]

I'm glad to hear they are looking at this. I have just done a difficult two year check and would love the health visitor to read it as it will give her clues as to what needs doing - I have a set of parents who don't want to 'hear' that their child may have difficulties, and I am relying on the health visitor to make them see sense as I am failing to do so.

[Rick]

Hi I thought you might like to know that when I was on a training course for the two year check on saturday, I asked why Health Visitors arent bothering with looking at our 2 yr check paperwork.

Apparently Norfolk is one of the guinea pig areas and it has already been noted as a risk.

I explained that I knew alot of childminders who spend their time writing the assessment only for it to be disregarded!

I explained that we are also professionals and our input should be treated with respect and treated seriously.

I mentioned that we actually probably know the children better than the health visitor anyway and that it is very disheartening to know our professional opinions are being tossed to the side.

The lady doing our training said she would be bringing this up at the meeting they are having in London. She added that Health Visitors will be informed that they must take notice of what childminders have to say.

We are also going to be assigned our own health visitor which I didnt realise.

That is very good to know. As you say we are likely to know more about the children than the health visitor so our assessment should be treated with more respect :thumbsup:

[hectors house]

One of my mindees had 2 year check up last week - Health visitor said she would have liked to have seen report before check up to read properly and that it was one of the best ones she has seen so far. Pity not all HV think the same and value our input.

[sarah707]

Round here the children don't seem to be getting 2 year checks - never mind us contributing information...

Well done you for speaking up! :clapping:

[AgentTink]

Funny you should start this thread as just today I received a email from my local authority advising us to give to parents the below letter, which almost reads like our check is not important to the health visitors.....

Dear Parent/Carer

Assessing your child’s progress at age 2 – 21/2

When your child becomes two, he/she is entitled to checks on his/her progress. The one completed by the Health Visiting Team covers all aspects of your child’s health, development, eating, sleeping and behaviour. Your health visitor/team will contact you about this and arrange a date with you to complete it.

If your child is attending a nursery he/she also receives a progress check on his/her development and learning by the nursery staff. This takes place between the ages of 24 and 36 months. The nursery staff will contact you to arrange this.

These 2 year review/checks are different and both need to be completed. You will be given feedback/reports from both checks and is there is anything that needs following up this will be arranged with you

You can speak to your health visitor or nursery staff for more information. You should have your health visitor contact details in your child’s red book (parent held child health record).

Regards

And then we were given a leaflet for professionals which said the following

INFORMATION FOR PROFESSIONALS IN EARLY YEARS AND HEALTH VISITING

Assessing Children at Age Two Years

The Healthy Child Programme and the 2 -2.5 year
Health & Development Review

From age two, all children will be offered a 2-2½ year comprehensive health and development review by the Health Visiting Team. This is part of the Healthy Child Programme.

As the core health visiting service is universal, all 2-2½ year olds will be offered a health and development review which covers
• Social and Emotional Development
• Communication
• Gross Motor
• Fine Motor
• Personal & Social
• Health
• Immunisations


The Health Visiting Teams work closely with health colleagues in other specialities such as Speech & Language Therapy, Vision, Hearing and Community Paediatrics.

Red Book (Parent Child Health Record – PCHR)
All parents are issued with a Red book at the birth of their child which contains health information which parents may choose to share with other professionals in Early Years settings. The health visiting service enters health information into this book.

Any information on a child’s health and development can only be shared with other professionals in health or other agencies with parents/carers consent.

Development and Learning Check at Age Two

All parents/carers of a child attending a nursery at age 2 must be supplied with a short written summary of their child's development. This covers three prime learning and development areas:
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Physical Development
• Communication and Language.
The progress check will be completed by the child’s key worker at nursery. The aim is to ensure that parents have a clear picture of their child’s development. It will also help staff at the nursery to understand the child’s needs and plan for next steps in learning, alongside offering ideas for support at home.


I felt it was a real shame that there was no really talking about how important our role could be with sharing information with health visitors since we spend a longer time with the children than the health visitors do. Once again a system has been put in place that is not fully being utilised for the best interests of the child.

[silvermist]

She did say its all abit hit and miss at the moment which to be honest isnt really good enough.

I did say that seeing as we are required to do the checks, Health Visitors should be required to at least acknowledge it.