Starting Well Health Visiting Practice Guides: An Independent Audit

Abstract

This report presents findings from a small study of the use of the health visiting practice guides developed as part of the Staring Well National Demonstration project. The views of twenty-one health visitors, based in two teams located within the Greater Glasgow Health Board area, were elicited via in-depth semi-structured interviews. The fieldwork was undertaken in November 2003, three years after the establishment of the Project. The aim of the study was to investigate what the health visitors thought about the process involved in drawing up the guides, the purpose behind their development, and the extent to which the health visitors were using the guides in their current practice. The intention was to interview all the health visitors currently working in the two Starting Well teams, based in South and East respectively, together with a small number of health visitors working generically, i.e. those not attached to Starting Well and managing a ‘traditional’-style case load.