Trust HQ
Edward Jenner Court
1010 Pioneer Avenue
Brockworth
Gloucester
GL3 4AW
E-mail: freedomofinformation@ghc.nhs.uk Website: www.ghc.nhs.uk
DATE: 24/11/2021
Freedom of Information Request – Ref: FOI 262-2122
Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information request. Please find our response below.
Regarding your health visiting teams for Gloucestershire County Council on the 1st of February 2016, 2017, 2018 AND 2019:
1. How many FTE health visitors were employed in your health visiting teams? Both with and without caseload.. Please provide this information broken down by NHS pay band. 2. How many FTE clinical staff who are NOT coded as health visitors. were employed in your health visiting teams? Both with and without caseload.. Please provide this information broken down by NHS pay band.
Should you have any queries in relation to our response in this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. If you are unhappy with the response you have received in relation to your request and wish to ask us to review our response, you should write to:-
– Head of Legal Services / Associate Director of Corporate Governance Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
Edward Jenner Court
1010 Pioneer Avenue
Gloucester Business Park
Brockworth
GLOUCESTER GL3 4AW
——-
E-mail: —
If you are not content with the outcome of any review, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office ICO. for further advice/guidance. Generally, the ICO will not consider your case unless you have exhausted your enquiries with the Trust which should include considering the use of the Trust’s formal complaints procedure. The ICO can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely,
Freedom of Information Officer
On behalf of Gloucestershire Health & Care NHS Foundation Trust
FOI Request
Sent: 07 November 2021 15:24
To: Freedom of Information
Subject: FOI Request
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We are contacting you to ask for further information concerning your provision of health visiting services. Please ignore any previous request sent from info@risingstarsmentoring.org. This was sent accidentally.
As you may recall, Dr. Gabriella Conti, professor at the Department of Economics, University College London, and our team are working to evaluate the impact of health visiting on health outcomes in England. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic we have been concerned about the families and children that rely on health visitors for vital care and safeguarding. Our research on health visiting during the pandemic has already reached policy makers and chief nurses, was cited in the recent Westminster Hall Debate on maternal mental health led by Sarah Olney MP and was featured on a BBC radio programme and in news outlets such as the Guardian. You have already provided us with highly valuable information on your health visiting services during the first wave of COVID-19. We released our findings in a briefing note – do let us know if you would like us to share this with you. This has been shared widely and was well received by Andrea Leadsom’s Early years healthy development review team. Thank you for your helpful responses. We hope to continue improving awareness of the challenges faced by health visiting teams and raising health visiting up the policy agenda.
Our previous FOI requests asked about staff redeployment up to September, but the pandemic continued, with further waves of COVID-19. We are however further interested in studying the periods preceding the pandemic to properly compare outcomes and hence are seeking information on your health visiting teams for the preceding period. We are writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information, for Gloucestershire County Council
Regarding your health visiting teams for Gloucestershire County Council on the 1st of February 2016, 2017, 2018 AND 2019:
1. How many FTE health visitors were employed in your health visiting teams? Both with and without caseload.. Please provide this information broken down by NHS pay band. 2. How many FTE clinical staff who are NOT coded as health visitors. were employed in your health visiting teams? Both with and without caseload.. Please provide this information broken down by NHS pay band.
We hope that the attached excel table makes clear exactly what we are requesting - please use this as a template. Regarding the questions above: - For your answers, please either use the NHS Digital definition of health visitor below or alternatively provide the definition that you are using in your answer.
Definitions: Definition used by NHS Digital re. Health visitors notes 28 and 29 from the nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff matrix of Occupation Code Manual.: 28. Please ensure to code the following as Health Visitors: * qualified nurses/midwives who also hold a qualification as a Registered Health Visitor under the Specialist Community Public Health Nursing part of the NMC Register working directly with children and families; * qualified and registered Health Visitors who perform specific activities such as providing breastfeeding advice to parents; * family nurses working within the Family Nurse Partnership Programme who are qualified and registered as Health Visitors; * Sure Start Children’s Centre qualified and registered named Health Visitors; * managers within a Health visiting team who hold a health visiting qualification and registration and are involved in clinical work or safeguarding.
29. Please ensure that the following employees are not coded as Health Visitors:
* any person working in a health visiting team who does not hold a qualification and registration as a Health Visitor;
* any person who holds a qualification and registration as a Health Visitor but is not employed in a role where this is a requirement;
* managers within a health visiting team who hold health visiting qualification and registration but are not involved in clinical work or safeguarding.
Please see below the general definition for ‘health visitor’ from the Occupation Code Manual:
Health Visitor: an employee who holds a qualification as a Registered Health Visitor under the Specialist Community Public Health Nursing part of the NMC Register and who occupies a post where such a qualification is a requirement. Not below Agenda for Change Band 6. Thank you again for your time and cooperation and we look forward to hearing from you in due course.