The Health Visiting Service is part of the Children’s Integrated Community Health Service and works with all families with children aged 0-5 years in Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale. We work within a skill mix team and are based in a variety of community settings. Health Visitors work closely with the wider multi professional team across the Borough of Rochdale.
We offer support and encouragement to you and your family from pregnancy and birth, through the early years, to primary school. We can give advice on lots of things including infant feeding, healthy weight and nutrition, child development, accident prevention, oral health and emotional health and wellbeing to support your child to be school ready.
We offer a core set of visits as below, but we may see you at other times depending on your child’s and family’s needs.
The Health Visiting teams run appointment only child health clinics, based on clinical need, where you can bring your baby or child to be weighed, discuss feeding and introducing solids, talk about development or any other health issues you would like to discuss. Please contact your local Health Visiting Team if you feel you need an appointment at one of these clinics.
The 5 core contacts are:
Your Health Visitor may contact you before your baby is born after 28 weeks of pregnancy or sooner if required
Your Health Visitor may see you before your baby is born between 28-36 weeks of pregnancy.
New Birth Visit (when your baby is 10 – 14 days old)
Postnatal Contact (when your baby is 6 - 8 weeks old)
Developmental Review (when your baby is 9 - 12 months)
Developmental Review (when your child is 2 – 2 ½ years old)
We use the Early years App when completing the Development Assessments see below for more details.
We work closely with children’s centres to support families and deliver public health messages such as safe sleep, healthy eating. We work with partner agencies to ensure a think family approach when supporting our most vulnerable families.
Early Years App
A new online app is being used to help to support the developmental assessments that Health Visitors undertake with parents and carers of children aged 0 - 2.5 years old. You will receive information about how to set this up from your health visitor team find out more at: http://earlyyearshelp.greatermanchester.org.uk/
Parentline Text based Messaging Service
Parentline is a text messaging service for parents/carers of children 0-19 years to get in touch about any parenting questions or concerns. They may need advice about their child and can simply send a text to 07507333482 and one of the team will text back. The service is offered Monday to Friday 9am to 4.30pm, all year round excluding bank holidays.
Parentline is a confidential and secure service; the queries are responded to by a health visitor or school nurse depending on the child’s age.
Parents/ Carers might wish to ask questions and chat by text with a health professional for the whole conversation or the practitioner may call them back, arrange an appointment or signpost them to the most appropriate service to help them.
We may see you in your home, health centres, children’s centres and other community-based locations.
Please bring your red book with you to all your appointments.
Please contact the teams directly or via the referral portal https://hmrchildrenshealthportal.northerncarealliance.nhs.uk/
Health Visitor Feeding Clinic – if you require extra support with your babies feeding contact your HV team and they will refer you to the feeding clinic or other appropriate services as required.
Breastfeeding Support
Specialist Health Visitor - Amanda Hadlow, Middleton HV Team 0161 206 7729.
What we do
As part of the infant feeding specialist team we are committed to helping mothers breastfeed but we also support women, their partners and babies regardless of feeding choice.
We offer either telephone or face to face support and aim to provide an accessible service to those living in HMR who require our support.
How to refer
- Self-referral on 0161 206 7729.
- Health Visiting teams.
- Children's centre's.
- Other health professionals.
CONI (Care of the Next Infant) service
Specialist Health Visitor - Louise Wileman, Heywood HV Team 0161 206 7489
Families who have experienced the sudden and unexpected death of a baby or very young child are often very anxious when they have another baby. The aim of the Care Of the Next Infant (CONI) support service is to provide emotional and practical support to bereaved families during the last few months of pregnancy and through the early months of their new baby’s life, enabling them to enjoy this special time.
CONI is offered to parents expecting a new baby where either parent has previously experienced the sudden unexpected death of a child under 2 years of age. The programme may also be offered to support close relatives where there is a family history of Sudden Infant Death (SIDS) or other baby deaths.
CONI can also be offered if a baby has an Apparent Life-Threatening Event (ALTE)/ Brief Resolved Unexplained Event (BRUE)
Parents and carers can have fears about the survival of their baby that persist for many weeks/months following the event.
Every Health Visitor locality in Rochdale has a CONI champion, who will offer the CONI support service to an identified family requiring this support, and will work alongside the named Health Visitor to offer this enhanced service.
For more information, please visit The Lullaby Trust - Safer sleep for babies, Support for families