Controversial questions (part two): should there be a direct-entry route to health visitor education?

This is the second paper in a series of three, drawing on the experience of providing evidence to the Health Select Committee's 2008 inquiry into health inequalities. Material submitted has been adapted and expanded according to three common and often controversial questions. One member of the committee enquired about the relevance of education and training to recruitment issues in health visiting, asking why it is necessary to be a nurse and what would be the barriers to changing this arrangement, which has been in force since the 1960s.

Controversial questions (part one): what is the right size for a health visiting caseload?

Questions asked by managers, commissioners and policy makers to find out what is, or should be, happening within health visiting services can seem immensely helpful in focusing the mind or clarifying key points. Alternatively, they may feel hostile and accusative, if their starting assumptions are alien to the everyday experience of health visitors. This paper is the first in a short series of three that draw on the experience of providing evidence to the Health Select Committee's 2008 inquiry into health inequalities.

Evaluating family partnership training in health visitor practice.

The second paper in this series of two on partnership examines the effects of family partnership (parent adviser) training which builds on health visitors' skills to facilitate partnership working with parents. This study was utilised as a pilot to identify a suitable method, to explore the interaction processes of health visitors who had undergone the training. The study draws together both quantitative and qualitative methods to seek to understand processes in depth.

A concept analysis of partnership with clients.

The aim of this first paper of two about partnership working with clients is to define and clarify partnership as it is practised within health visiting, by identifying the central notions of partnership working in practice. The aim of the second paper will be to describe an evaluation of a training course in partnership working for health visitors. Partnership is a word in common usage within the health professions but its meaning is ill-defined.