PDA

View Full Version : 2 year check - grrrrr



hectors house
11-11-2013, 02:10 PM
I finished a 2 year check last week and parent took it home to read Tuesday and brought back Wednesday - I arranged a meeting with her this Tuesday afternoon to discuss it together. She just text to say had in post today appointment for 2 year check with HV for Wednesday lunch time - have now had to reschedule the meeting for tonight as we were told we had to post the 2 year check to HV before the appointment so they have time to read it.

Mum just text me to say she has confirmed the appointment and says "when I mentioned the information you have done she didn't really understand and just said to bring it to the meeting"

I have rung the HV team and they have changed what I was told several months ago and don't need to see it in advance - my report is 3 pages long and took about 15 hours - I asked if I should do a copy for the HV to keep and read after, was told not really unless I have concerns about this child, I said well actually yes I do - that is why I have spend so long doing it - so please respect my opinion as a professional as the appointment time is really not going to suit the child, he will fall asleep in the car, wake up in a strope and not co-operate at all. I did suggest to the mum that she changed the time and day but she had already confirmed it. Who on earth would expect a 2 year old to perform well at 1.00 pm without having had a proper afternoon sleep? Grrrrrrrrr

cathtee
11-11-2013, 02:26 PM
That doesn't sound too helpful, I'm just about to do my first one, asked mom this morning if she had heard anything about hers and she said
this friday or next, didn' think to mention it.

Hope yours goes well :thumbsup:

Koala
11-11-2013, 02:27 PM
:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: you seem to be under the impression that they should be doing what is best for the child :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:


Don't you know? - box's need ticking, schedules need following and they only want to follow what is written down in their book!

Seriously - Why do we bother? :angry:

Well done for following up though but it must feel like your banging your head against a brick wall. :D

AgentTink
11-11-2013, 02:43 PM
Hector i wouldn't worry about what they see the child do because when my daughter had hers a year ago, she didnt speak a single word and just sat on my knee refusing to look at HV. The HV didn't do anything with my daughter and just asked me questions such as can x say 20 words etc. As a parent i could have just lied through the whole thing as they dont actually check anything, so in some ways it was a useless paper exercise. Hence when i do my 2 year old checks for my mindees they are just 1 page and cover the basics as I know nothing is done with it.

sarah707
11-11-2013, 05:42 PM
Apparently by 2015 it will all magically fall into place and every HV will be clamouring to read our progress checks - or that's what we were told on training recently...

Until then you can only do your best. Hugs xx

hectors house
11-11-2013, 07:06 PM
Apparently by 2015 it will all magically fall into place and every HV will be clamouring to read our progress checks - or that's what we were told on training recently...

Until then you can only do your best. Hugs xx

Drove across town to visit the mum to go through the report with her, she is delighted with it and said she will insist the Health Visitor reads it after all the time I have spent doing it. There is so much info in about what the child can and can't do that it doesn't really matter if he sleeps through the whole thing!

benandjerrys
11-11-2013, 07:10 PM
15 hours? Omg!

hectors house
11-11-2013, 07:17 PM
15 hours? Omg!

I'm getting quicker - the first 2 took 20+ hours :laughing: - this one is 3 pages long in about size 8 font. The examples we were given at training are quite shocking - just one or two short sentences for each prime area - I doubt if even the parent could recognise their own child! What I find hard is to say what I want to say but without upsetting the parent, this is what I find takes the time. It would be far easier to have the health visitors give us a tick box sheet eg: X can count to 5, pedal a trike, climb slide steps, wash hands independently, take shoes and coat off etc

TooEarlyForGin?
11-11-2013, 07:39 PM
I did one today took me about 30 minutes in total 1 sheet, just compared where the child was with the areas of development in her age range. Some are better than others but she is perfectly normal. Then I will have a meeting with the parent to ensure we agree on the outcome. 15 hours is a lot of time.

In Suffolk HV's have stopped doing the 2 year checks altogether. They have sent a letter, and a DIY "kit", one of my mums admits, although she is a degree educated professional, she doesn't feel comfortable doing it as feels that she is biased, she admits that all parents think their children are perfect little geniuses, and might miss something, thinking that a strange thing that a child does could be passed off as an "odd little quirk", missing something important, apart from the fact many parents won't bother to do it at all. So they won't even look at my reports. She is quite cross for me as I have done a lot for the family as a whole and she has had no support from the HV at all, I get the feeling that is why the government have pushed this on to us as they are getting a service done for free. They will soon be asking us to go into hospitals to help mums give birth.

yummyripples
11-11-2013, 11:16 PM
I have done 3 of the 2yr checks now. Didn't take long at all
I think if you know the child well it's pretty easy.
I gave them to mum but she didn't pass on to hv.
Paperwork only seems to get looked at if there is a problem. Even the transition documents don't get looked at so I am told

hectors house
12-11-2013, 07:38 AM
I have done 3 of the 2yr checks now. Didn't take long at all
I think if you know the child well it's pretty easy.
I gave them to mum but she didn't pass on to hv.
Paperwork only seems to get looked at if there is a problem. Even the transition documents don't get looked at so I am told

I DO think there is a problem, my difficulty was in wording the review so it did mention my concerns but without upsetting the mum, I do need her to show the HV as I would like this child to be assessed for speech therapy - he isn't going to co-operate at all at a 1pm appointment when he normally has a 2 hour afternoon nap.

If I had been the mum I would have thought about what the appointment is for (for health visitor to see where child is at with development) and phoned and rescheduled for a morning appointment. Also I would have complained to HV that they expect a working mum to be able to attend an appointment with only 2 days notice - she only works 3 days a week, I would have re-scheduled to a day off - child isn't going to know if he is coming or going, backwards and forwards to my house!

dawn100
12-11-2013, 11:09 AM
In my area 2 year old checks are just a short questionnaire from the HV and they dont even follow it up if you don't do it. It's near on impossible for parents to get to see a HV in person due to a shortage of HV! So don't know how parents are meant to pass on the check we do!

rickysmiths
12-11-2013, 01:05 PM
I finished a 2 year check last week and parent took it home to read Tuesday and brought back Wednesday - I arranged a meeting with her this Tuesday afternoon to discuss it together. She just text to say had in post today appointment for 2 year check with HV for Wednesday lunch time - have now had to reschedule the meeting for tonight as we were told we had to post the 2 year check to HV before the appointment so they have time to read it.

Mum just text me to say she has confirmed the appointment and says "when I mentioned the information you have done she didn't really understand and just said to bring it to the meeting"

I have rung the HV team and they have changed what I was told several months ago and don't need to see it in advance - my report is 3 pages long and took about 15 hours - I asked if I should do a copy for the HV to keep and read after, was told not really unless I have concerns about this child, I said well actually yes I do - that is why I have spend so long doing it - so please respect my opinion as a professional as the appointment time is really not going to suit the child, he will fall asleep in the car, wake up in a strope and not co-operate at all. I did suggest to the mum that she changed the time and day but she had already confirmed it. Who on earth would expect a 2 year old to perform well at 1.00 pm without having had a proper afternoon sleep? Grrrrrrrrr



May I ask why you are spending so long on the 2 Year Check? Our County gave us standardised forms when we did our training they are 2 sides of A4 and it takes half an hour at most to fill in from the LJ and then a 15 to 20 min meeting with the parents depending on how much we chat!!

15 hours is far too long in my view to be spending on a 2 year check, I wouldn't spend that long even if I had concerns about the child. The HV here don't do anything with the child at the 2 year check, they send the parent a questionnaire before hand and then read that and comment on it. Its nothing like the checks they did in my children's day 20 years ago. But then how could the HV do such tests these days as they don't know the child anyway. My childrens HV knew them both well by the time she did any developmental tests on them, they were done at home, appart from the Hearing Test which was done at the Doctor's Surgery.

hectors house
12-11-2013, 01:13 PM
I spend so long writing up the 2 year check so that a "Stranger" ie: the Health Visitor can really get to know the child's likes, dislikes, abilities and things they struggle with - I don't spend that long on it for the parents as they know their child whereas I hope my report will be read by the HV and any issues I have taken on board eg: for this child speech and language is not on target for his age and also few issues with Physical Development. What I find hard (although I have an A level in English) is wording the report (especially where I feel child has issues) so parents aren't offended. Would far prefer an old fashioned Health visitors tick list.

yummyripples
12-11-2013, 10:57 PM
I spend so long writing up the 2 year check so that a "Stranger" ie: the Health Visitor can really get to know the child's likes, dislikes, abilities and things they struggle with - I don't spend that long on it for the parents as they know their child whereas I hope my report will be read by the HV and any issues I have taken on board eg: for this child speech and language is not on target for his age and also few issues with Physical Development. What I find hard (although I have an A level in English) is wording the report (especially where I feel child has issues) so parents aren't offended. Would far prefer an old fashioned Health visitors tick list.

Would you not be able to talk to the parents about your concerns? I think that would be my first port of call

hectors house
13-11-2013, 07:32 AM
Would you not be able to talk to the parents about your concerns? I think that would be my first port of call

I have been expressing my concerns regarding speech and language development for over 6 months - parents attitude is "he is a second child and a boy", so they aren't worried.