Health visitor trainees face drastic cuts

Amicus/Community Practitioners' and Health Visitors' Association (CPHVA) surveyed 43 higher education institutions and over three quarters responded after they invoked the Freedom of Information Act. The union found that the number of health visitors trained in 2006-07 was 329, dropping from 554 in 2005-06, despite about 800 applications for places. There was also a 10 per cent fall in school nurses training and a 51 per cent drop in training places for district nurses.

The union is blaming the drop on strategic health authorities commissioning fewer courses and deficits in local primary care trusts. Cheryll Adams, professional officer at Amicus/ CPHVA, said, 'Part of the current trend is that health visitors have been put into team working where they are expected to manage with less senior staff and therefore save money. One real concern is that there has been a lot of skill-mixing with nursery nurses, where nursery nurses are being asked to do inappropriate work, such as assessing the mental health needs of mothers.'

She said an initial survey of institutions last summer received a poor response. 'There was an element of fear, with the thinking, if we go public with the cuts then maybe we won't get any funds at all. What came out of the survey was that the actual number of applicants was good, the problem was funding.'

Amicus/CPHVA director Karen Reay said, 'These dramatic cuts in health visitor training are seriously sabotaging the Government's public health programme. Ministers need to ensure that funds for health visitor and school nurse training are ring-fenced - it is that simple.'