Safeguarding is everyone’s business. Health visitors have a statutory duty to safeguard and protect the welfare of babies, children, young people and adults.
To support this vital role, the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) has collated a range of iHV and national resources that may be helpful in your practice. These should be used alongside your local area’s training, guidelines, and safeguarding policies to ensure comprehensive and effective care.
iHV Resources
📃 Publications
26 March 2026 - Strengthening Safeguarding Practice: Professional Curiosity and Confident Challenge
20 February 2025 - Safeguarding: Bruising in Non-Mobile Infants - Accidental, Medical or Non-Accidental
Safeguarding Supervision Champions Programme
🏷️ Cost: From £600
🕒 Duration: 2 Days
👥 Suitable for: Health Visitors (inc. Specialist Health Visitors) and Multi-agency
External Resources
Royal College of Nursing - Safeguarding | Subject Guide | Royal College of Nursing
Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
The RCPCH now hosts the intercollegiate safeguarding document which offers a framework for healthcare staff in identifying competencies associated with the safeguarding of children and young people. It is used across a variety of healthcare professions within their specific safeguarding roles.
NSPCC | The UK children's charity
Too little, too late: A multi-agency response to identifying and tackling neglect
Neglect is the form of abuse most often listed as the initial category of abuse on child protection plans in England. This NSPCC report explores the scale of the problem and examines the barriers and challenges that professionals face when identifying and tackling neglect. The report outlines the challenges facing the multi-agency workforce and highlights the need for an ambitious policy vision to tackle neglect. It provides the government with a series of recommendations on what this vision should include.
NICE guidance - Child maltreatment: when to suspect maltreatment in under 18s
This guideline covers the signs of possible child maltreatment in children and young people aged under 18 years. It aims to raise awareness and help health professionals who are not child protection specialists to identify the features of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, neglect, and fabricated or induced illness.
Overview | Child abuse and neglect | Guidance | NICE
This guideline covers recognising and responding to abuse and neglect in children and young people aged under 18. It covers physical, sexual and emotional abuse, and neglect. The guideline aims to help anyone whose work brings them into contact with children and young people to spot signs of abuse and neglect and to know how to respond. It also supports practitioners who carry out assessments and provide early help and interventions to children, young people, parents and carers.
