An Exploration of the impact of Early Start Team integration on the role of the Health Visitor
Background
Health visiting teams have undergone significant changes throughout their 150 years of practice. Most recently local authorities have been commissioned to take over their services, creating opportunities for service transformation. There are increasing demands to redesign services around the service user by removing barriers between different professionals and services. Health visiting teams locally are striving to achieve this by becoming integrated Early Start Teams.
Aim
The aim of this research is to explore the impact of Early Start Teams upon the role of the health visitor. The study is motivated by these questions:
Will integration affect the Health Visitor role? If so how will it affect it?
What are Health Visitor’s experiences of integrated Early Start Teams?
Will Health Visitors feel integrated teams have improved the client’s journey?
What lessons could be learnt about Early Start Teams for future Health Visiting Teams?
Method
Using a mixed method approach a purposive sample of 14 health visitors were invited to take part in the study. Expectations of change were explored using an online survey tool to help plan for focus group interviews. Following analysis of the survey, participants were invited to partake in two focus groups to address the research questions.
Results
The focus groups predominantly revealed that health visitors felt integration had a positive impact on the team and clients in the community. Health visitors however, did experience difficulties during integration and suffered from lack of autonomy and capacity. Participants reported that they felt co-location, clear roles and referral pathways were needed to improve integration.
Conclusion
The study has found many health visitors experienced benefits from greater partnership working, particularly helping to address the increasing complexities of family need. The findings supported previous evidence that change management is challenging but lessons can be learnt from this integration. Health visitors need to feel shared goals, have autonomy to address their local community needs and feel empowered to create innovative solutions within their teams. There are many findings from this study which will be helpful for future health visiting teams who are undergoing service transformation.