This project has been running since 2016 with initial funding from the Burdett Trust for Nursing, and until 2026 we have received funding year on year from The AIM Foundation, now the Nutritional Wellbeing Foundation. As part of this project, we work closely with a number of experts in this field including First Steps Nutrition Trust, British Society Paediatric Dentistry, Dr Katherin Heskieth (Physical Activity expert at University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine) and local health visitors and their teams.
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 aim at the skill mix members of the health visiting team, increasing their understating 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.
- Toolkit of resources on iHV LEARN which includes, e-learning, webinars, factsheets, animations, factographics, and A-Zs of useful organisations.
The project has supported us to bring the voice of the important role of health visiting in this space to a number of national forums including the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA), and Infant Feeding Law Group and comment on documents and policies such as the NICE Guidance.
Find out more about the training programmes here.