Childcare

Health visitor

Health visitors work with families in their own homes to promote healthy lifestyles and prevent illness.

Annual Salary

£32,305 to £45,838

Working hours

38 to 40 a week

You could work: evenings; on a rota

3.8%
Future employment

There will be 3.8% more Health visitor jobs in 2027.
In your local area

What's it all about?

Day-to-day tasks

As part of your day-to-day duties, you could:

  • give advice to new parents on baby feeding, hygiene, safety and sleep
  • support parents with their children’s development needs
  • coordinate child immunisation programmes
  • organise special clinics or drop-in centres
  • support children with special needs
  • advise on how to reduce the risk of accident and injury
  • work closely with social services and other organisations to safeguard and protect children

Working environment

You could work at a client's home, at a health centre or at a GP practice.

Your working environment may be physically and emotionally demanding and you'll travel often.

You can get into this job through:

  • an apprenticeship
  • working towards this role
Apprenticeship

If you are a qualified registered nurse or midwife you may be able to do a specialist community public health nurse (Master's) degree apprenticeship.

This typically takes 18 months to complete as a mix of 50 percent workplace learning and 50 percent academic study at an accredited university.

Entry requirements

To do this apprenticeship, you'll need:

  • to be a registered nurse
For more information
Work

You need to be a registered midwife, adult, child, mental health or learning disability nurse to apply for health visitor training.

You then complete a course in Specialist Community Public Health Nursing - Health Visiting, approved by the Nursing & Midwifery Council.

Courses are at degree level, can be full-time or part-time and last between 1 and 2 years.

Requirements and restrictions

You'll need to:

More information

Career tips

When applying for jobs you'll be expected to have an understanding of how NHS values apply in your work.

Further information

You'll find more details about how to become a health visitor from Health Careers.

You could specialise in a area like working with teenage parents or people in need of mental health support.

With experience, you could progress to team manager, community matron or a healthcare management role.

You could also go into nurse education, training or academic research.

You'll find more details about how to become a health visitor from Health Careers.

Skills required and how your skills match up

What skills are required?

  • sensitivity and understanding
  • active listening skills
  • the ability to work well with others
  • the ability to understand people’s reactions
  • knowledge of psychology
  • the ability to use your initiative
  • to be flexible and open to change
  • administration skills
  • the ability to come up with new ways of doing things
  • to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device
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