An NHS trust is joining in the celebrations of Health Visitor’s Week to mark the importance of the role health visitors play in ensuring children get off to a healthy start in life.

Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’s (CWP) Health Visiting Service is available to children and families resident in West Cheshire. The service offers a range of support and advice in relation to children up to the age of five.

Health visitors deliver different levels of service dependant on a family’s need, with families receiving five key contacts: antenatal contact, birth contact, a visit when the baby is 6-8 weeks old, and a further contact to assess a child’s development at 1 and 2 years of age.

During Health Visiting Week (September 26-30), members of CWP’s health visiting team will be tweeing daily about why the five contacts are important and inviting parents and carers to share their experience of their Health Visitor.

Val Sturgess, clinical services manager for the Starting Well Service, said: “Health visitors have a unique role to play in the early years of a child’s life – particularly in the first ‘1001 critical days’ when early intervention and support is so crucial”

Annie Fletcher, a health visitor based at Great Sutton Clinic, said: “I love my job as a health visitor. I feel that I am very privileged to be involved in the care of the families I work with. The role is varied and each day is different as we acknowledge the uniqueness of each family.”

For more information on the health visiting service, visit http://www.cwp.nhs.uk/services-and-locations/services/health-visiting-service/