Who are health, visitors?

In line with their Named Person role, which came into practice in 2014 with the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act, health visitors must also use the Additional Support for Learning (Scotland) Act 2004 to support their professional practice. As the Government promotes early intervention to ensure the best outcomes for children, the health visitor is one of the earliest professionals who get to know families and establish trusting relationships with them, promoting health and wellbeing. The health visitor is skilled with child development knowledge and can help to identify when milestones are not being met and the potential need for additional support, they can recognize when families are faced with bereavement or drug/alcohol abuse, mental health issues and may need some short-term additional support.  The introduction of this Act means that health visitors have clear guidelines on the wide scope of additional support needs and can integrate with other services to ensure the best outcome for the child. It is a very important piece of legislation which influences their professional practice of the named person role. In line with the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 and the Additional Support for Learning (Scotland) Act Scotland 2004, and the GIRFEC national approach, to make the best outcomes for Scotland’s children, services, parents and children work together sharing information. This is called partnership working. The services involved could be from statutory organizations, e.g. social work services, health services, education services, the private sector, or third sector charity organizations.