Is a HV legally required?

[MollysDolly]

Just that really. Google seems to have conflicting info.

There appear to be 5 visits between birth and 2.5yrs. Do you have to have all of them by law?

If you 100% know if it's yes/no, could you let me know the source for your certainty please, as I've had three friends who are "I think you do....I think you don't" and that's bugger all help

I'm in England, South East.

@mayblossominapril

I always wary when people want to opt out If everything is fine you’ll barely see your hv. If you have a problem and need a salt referral or some other referral it’s significantly easier to get with your hv onside and pushing for it as well. Both mine lost considerable weight after birth so I saw a lot of my hv in the early days as she did the weighing checks. If I hadn’t had the hv I would have had to take the baby back to the children’s ward for weighing.

Not my experience at all with my DC2.

Ended up paying for a private SALT assessment, and then being referred to paediatrician by my GP surgery after my HV was not only completely unhelpful, but actually tried to block any help.

DC2 was diagnosed with autism just after his 3rd birthday.

When HV rang to see if she could come round for pre school visit I politely told her to sling her hook.

Socks 😐 I mean SS

I opted out for my DD post the first few weeks. I had been through the process for my DS and knew the milestones etc. I would have sort advice if I was worried on anything.

I doubt most HVs would even notice if you didn't engage. I was flagged by my midwife as high risk in pregnancy. HV popped in once to weigh the baby and I've nothing from them since - DS is now 2.5. I'm sure it's partly Covid related but he hasn't been offered a single developmental check at any point.

Not a legal requirement at all and I don’t really see a huge use for them, especially for a second (or later) child. The NHS website has such a huge amount of info and anything more serious you’d see a GP anyway, or a pharmacist for some things etc, I can’t think what I’d ever ask a HV.
The checklists they send are useful (one at a year and 2 years?), but I checked DD could do everything listed and then told them I didn’t need an appointment to go over it.

I don’t know where everyone else lives but hv are still very much a big thing in my area they even do prebirth visits now, so always makes me question when people say they are understaffed that they can now do pre birth visits, I had one booked for my 3rd child 🤦🏻

You don't have to engage with the health visitor services if you don't want to. I found them to be useful they was the ones who dealt with all of DS referrals for speech therapy etc when the GP would not do it.

It would be kinda ironic if they could just suspend all visits because of covid restrictions for it then to reflect badly on the parents if they decided they didn’t need them! Why is it ok for Gov to decide that services for mothers and babies are superfluous?

Nope.
MIL is one and lots of antivaxer and/or dodgey types decline the free service… nothing they can do

There was a box on the midwife booking in form that said 'I consent to health surveillance'. I asked what that meant before ticking it and was told it was consent to health visiting. So if I have remembered that correctly, it's opt in.

I would wonder why people would not want a health visitor visit especially with a first child too me that would raise a red flag like they have something to hide at the end of the day it's for the baby, I do think they should be compulsory especially with all the child murders that have been happening.

We opted out for lots of reasons. Our HV was absolutely awful. Haven't heard from them in years.

@RedCandyApple Pre-birth visits have been a thing for a long time but believe me, the service as a whole is seriously underfunded and has seen major cuts in the past few years, even without Covid affecting it. You're lucky if in the area you are in the service has continued as normal because I can tell you, that is not the case in many areas of the country.

My mother is one-not a legal requirement and in itself not a red flag but would be considered part of a pattern or as a pp put it ‘jigsaw’ if declined.

I’ve had good experiences with mine for DS1 and DS2, didn’t really feel I needed them for DS2 but hey ho.

[quote CornishGem1975]@RedCandyApple Pre-birth visits have been a thing for a long time but believe me, the service as a whole is seriously underfunded and has seen major cuts in the past few years, even without Covid affecting it. You're lucky if in the area you are in the service has continued as normal because I can tell you, that is not the case in many areas of the country. [/quote]
I’m not talking about Covid, my youngest is 4, I meant HV have always been actively a thing in my area, many people have mentioned the HVs not noticing if you don’t engage or being seriously unstaffed that’s not the case in my area, the fact that they how do pre birth visits suggests that they can’t be the understaffed

That*

My health visitior has been so good for my first and im looking fallword to support from them with my seccond (currently pregnant) they kept a close eye on my LO due to low birth weight visiting us every week during the pandemic, weighing him and supported with feeding (my little boy was not intrested in feeding which resulted in slow weight gain) then at the 9months-1 year check up they picked up on his hearing and refered him to get his hearing checked- turns out he has glue ear! They have also been great to be on hand with simple health queries/worries with LO, much faster responce than the doctors! Honestly praise my local health visiting team so much!

My midwife was absolutely useless and thought my health visitor would be the same. However, she was fantastic especially when it became apparent my DD had SEN. She was involved until DD was 5 and became the health visitor for my second child. We had a great relationship and she provided lots of useful advice and also referred me to SALT, portage and she also helped with more trivial things (letter to avoid queuing at Disneyland and a support letter for DLA). When I first had DD I had hardly any interaction until she was 2. Therefore, I would definitely engage as their involvement is very limited unless actually needed.

Fair enough. Although If I was a
HV be a bit suspicious if someone declined my service.
Maybe it shouldn't be an optional service in light of the baby p's, little Arthur ect.
Not saying that people who decline it are child abusers but maybe more would have been picked up??

Doubt it, those people were reported to ss multiple times who done nothing so why would the HV do anything? It’s literally ss job

I think it is better to just engage - if you are a first-time parent they are there to make sure you don't harm the baby in the first week (accidentally I mean) but I imagine that it is a red flag if you don't engage to be honest - law or no law. If you are on your third then that is a different story.

@MollysDolly

Just that really. Google seems to have conflicting info.

There appear to be 5 visits between birth and 2.5yrs. Do you have to have all of them by law?

If you 100% know if it's yes/no, could you let me know the source for your certainty please, as I've had three friends who are "I think you do....I think you don't" and that's bugger all help

I'm in England, South East.

Do you not want to engage with them? Why not? Unless you've had a bad experience with them before I can't see a reason not to give them a try. You can always opt out later on

HVs are about as popular as MILs on Mumsnet .

FYI HVs are registered nurses or midwives who have undertaken further training and a degree. They are generally responsible for supporting children from 0-5 years and their families, providing antenatal and postnatal support, assessing growth and development needs, teaching parents about the nutritional needs of infants and young children, encouraging the development of healthy lifestyles, reducing risks, and safeguarding and protecting children.

HVs do home visits but very often it's easier to see your HV at a child health clinic. Here you can get your child weighed and measured and access advice. Many HVs are also nurse prescribers and if you need a prescription for your child, you might find it easier to see your HV than your GP.

I declined further interactions beyond the newborn visit. The health visitor I saw when DC was born offered to visit a second time the day after DH went back to work, as I was a bit worried about coping. She didn't turn up and didn't ring until the next day, so that was a wasted day spent waiting in for her.

DH and I were both back at work full time before DC was a year old, and to be honest the checks on offer as DC got older didn't seem a strong enough value add to justify taking the time off work to attend the appointments, which were in a group situation anyway. MiL spent time with DC every week and had a lot of experience with child development from her work, so I was confident we'd identify any issues.

I totally get the point about jigsawing, but in our case DC was at nursery every week and also under a specialist for a health condition, as well as having all vaccinations. So we weren't serially disengaged, and there would have been many opportunities to identify any concerns about our parenting.

Definitely not a legal requirement. I opted out with both my LOs, I was briefly asked why and I said I didn't feel I needed their service and that was it. No pressure or threats at all.