Health visiting
About the work
The health visiting group consists of senior representatives from each Health Board and Trust across Wales. The work stream meets at regular intervals and are working towards developing and testing an evidence-based workforce planning tool for use within health visiting teams across Wales.
Aim
Follow an evidence-based approach to create robust methods, tools and techniques to determine appropriate nurse staffing levels within health visiting services across Wales, using a common model of triangulation.
The tools devised by the group will enable health visiting teams to calculate the right number and skill mix of nurses required to provide effective care to meet the individual needs of families.
Remit
On behalf of NHS Wales the purpose of the group is to:
- devise evidence based workforce planning tools for use within the Welsh context
- support the use of a triangulated method to calculate nurse staffing levels, which consists of developing a national tool to measure acuity and dependency, identify quality indicators and determine how professional judgement can be used to calculate nurse staffing levels within health visiting services
- support Health boards and Trusts across Wales to follow a Once for Wales approach to meet the requirements of the Nurse Staffing Levels (Wales) Act 2016 when the second duty of the Act is eventually extended to health visiting services
- devise and facilitate the implementation of the All Wales Health Visiting interim nurse staffing principles
- facilitate and oversee the implementation of the workforce planning tool within Health Boards and Trusts in Wales
- support the All Wales Nurse Staffing programmes publication and communication strategy to ensure stakeholders are informed and engaged
- provide regular reports and position papers on the progress of the work stream against the work stream plan to the All Wales Nurse Staffing Group and the Nurse Directors/Chief Nursing Officer
- make recommendations based on a review of existing evidence and ensure alignment with national and international standards and other programmes
- deliver the actions set out in the working groups plan to the timescales, highlighting risks and challenges to the work.
Highlights of progress to date
- publication of bi-annual newsletter
- the work stream have identified quality indicators relevant to health visiting
- devising draft interim nurse staffing principles to inform and guide workforce plans as an interim measure until the act is extended to health visiting
- frontline staff from across Wales have been active in the development of the first draft of the Welsh Levels of Care for health visiting.