Health visitors play a crucial role in supporting children and families with autism by offering universal health and development reviews, early personalised guidance, and practical strategies that promote healthy development. Health visitors and their teams use their universal reach to recognise early signs of autism, support speech, language and communication development, and help parents understand their child’s sensory and behavioural needs. Through trusted relationships, home visits, and tailored advice, they connect families to wider services and ensure that support is timely, compassionate and responsive to each child’s needs. Please see the resources below to help support your practice.
iHV Resources
📃 Good Practice Points and Parent Tips
Developed in collaboration with topic experts, health visitors, and other professionals, our resources draw on the latest available evidence at the time of publication. Each resource is produced through a robust quality assurance process and peer reviewed to ensure accuracy, relevance, and strong alignment with health visiting practice.
🔎 Factographics
Autism in the Early Years
This factographic, funded by NHS England and co-designed with professionals and families, shares useful information and resources to support parents and carers who have children in the early years, who they think may have autism. It also supports professional learning and understanding of autism in the early years, including the important period pre-diagnosis.
19 June 2025 - Improving the lives of babies and children with SEND
Webinar recording including ‘Toilet Training in 4 Steps – A Toilet Skill Development Programme’
Changing Conversations: Autism & Supporting Behaviour Ambassador
🏷️ Cost: From £265
🕒 Duration: 1 Day
👥 Suitable for: Health Visitors (inc. Specialist Health Visitors) and Skill Mix
