What does a Health Visitor do?
Health Visiting is a free service which is available to every family. They work with pregnant women through to a child’s fifth birthday. Their role is to help families adjust to being new parents and provide information and reassurance to support a baby’s health, wellbeing and development.
During Covid-19 Health Visiting Services will continue to support new parents and families.
Here are some details to help support you and keep you safe during your visit. If you have any concerns, contact your local team. See local team contacts below.
Health visitors are based locally and visit families at home or through a clinic or children’s centre. Each family will have a named health visitor but might sometimes be seen by someone else in the team. Health visitors are responsible for delivering the Healthy Child Programme 0-5 Years. They do this by offering all families 5 visits at key stages of a child’s early life:
Antenatal (pre-birth)
New baby review
6-8 week assessment
1 year assessment
Integrated review at 2-2 ½ years
Health Visiting Service is preventative but may link with other professionals and provide additional support where families need greater help.
The Health Visitor will use something called the Personal Child Health Record or Red Book. The Red Book is given to parents at birth by a midwife and offers a wealth of information about immunisation, developmental assessments and lots of general information about children’s health. Any health professional that comes into contact with a child can record in the Red Book.
ChatHealth is a new mobile messaging service for parents and young people in Somerset making it easier to get health and wellbeing advice. Available Monday-Friday 9am - 5pm.
- Parents of children 0-4 years can get confidential help from the Health Visiting Team. Just send a text 07480 635514
Other things that Health Visitors support families with:
Infant feeding and breastfeeding advice
Immunisation
Parenting and local support groups
Behaviour
Sleep
To contact the Health Visiting Team in your area:
Contact the team
West Somerset and Taunton
Taunton 0300 323 0115
Minehead and Williton 0300 790 6837
Wellington 01823 660667
Sedgemoor
Bridgwater 0300 323 0116
Highbridge 0300 790 6836
Axbridge 0300 790 6836
Mendip
Glastonbury and Street 0300 323 0118
Shepton Mallet 0300 323 0118
Frome 0300 323 0118
Wells 0300 323 0118
Coleford 01373 814882
South Somerset
Yeovil 0300 323 0119
Crewkerne 01460 77600
Chard 0300 790 6839
Ilminster 01460 57319
South Petherton 0300 790 6838
Wincanton 01963 32498
Langport 0300 790 6838
