This project has been running since 2016, thanks to initial funding from The Burdett Trust for Nursing, and until 2026 through annual funding from The AIM Foundation (now the Nutritional Wellbeing Foundation). The success of this project is built on strong partnerships and shared expertise. We would like to acknowledge and thank First Steps Nutrition Trust, British Society Paediatric Dentistry, Dr Kathryn Hesketh (Physical Activity expert at University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine) and local health visitors and their teams for their collaboration, guidance and commitment throughout the project.
Over the years we have developed and expanded our HWHN offer which now includes:
- 1-day HWHN Champion Training: this is a train-the-trainer model and enables health visitors to cascade the training programme to their colleagues. This can either be delivered as a 1-day session or as four individual 2-hour sessions, depending on the need of the service - with four modules:
- Communication and why HWHN is important
- Infant feeding and introducing solid foods
- Family eating and toddler diets
- Oral health and physical activity
- 1-day HWHN Ambassador Training: this is an awareness-raising programme aimed at members of the skill mix health visiting team, increasing their understanding of HWHN from the preconception period, throughout pregnancy and the first five years of a child’s life. Participants receive a 1-hour awareness training cascade to share with colleagues.
- Access to our HWHN Toolkit of resources on iHV LEARN: content includes, evidence-based resources, e-learning, webinars, factsheets, animations, factographics, and A-Zs of useful organisations.
The project has enabled us to champion the vital role of health visiting in supporting infant, child and family health across the breadth of HWHN topics (including nutrition, oral health and physical activity) - ensuring that health visitors' expertise and perspectives are represented at national forums including the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA), and Infant Feeding Law Group. iHV has also contributed to the development and review of key documents and policies for HWHN, including NICE Guidance.
Find out more about the training programmes here.