CLDF has echoed the concerns of the Institute of Health Visiting (IHV) following a survey which revealed that babies and young children have been forgotten in the Government’s response to the pandemic. The poll of 862 health visitors revealed that four out of five health visitors reported soaring increases in domestic violence and abuse, perinatal mental illness, and the negative impact of poverty on families.
Alison Morton, deputy executive director at the Institute of Health Visiting, said: ‘Babies and young children were largely invisible in the first wave of the Government’s emergency plans.
‘With a growing body of evidence, we now know that many children are being harmed by the secondary impact of the pandemic and we cannot knowingly overlook their needs again, as we live with the virus for the foreseeable future.’
CLDF Chief Executive, Alison Taylor, commented: ‘We know that the pandemic has had a real impact on babies, as during the first lockdown we saw a significant drop in referrals to investigate signs of liver disease in newborns. Health visitors play a crucial role in referring babies for investigation and we would strongly echo IHV’s calls for a long term plan to be put in place to protect the health visiting workforce.’
Read more on the IHV survey here.
