More Health Visitors are key to help prevent more tragedies like Declan Hainey

The tragic case of toddler Declan Hainey, who was left to die in his cot by his drug addict mother, was raised at First Minister's Questions today.

The importance of early intervention in determining future health, social well-being and educational achievement is widely recognised.

The role of a health visitor involves visiting new parents and children under five and is key to preventing youngsters from abuse.

That is why the Scottish Conservatives want more health visitors to be one of the first points of contact for young families.

Scottish Conservative Health Spokesman, Jackson Carlaw MSP said:

"Health visitors are the vital point of contact with parents in the community and in their homes, speaking to mum and dad, giving reassurance, help and advice, and often spotting problems before they develop.

"Scottish Conservatives are clear in our commitment to develop a universal national health visiting service in order to tackle the current post-code lottery that faces Scottish families and ensure an equivalency of service across the country.

"We believe that health visitors should be attached to a GP, a view shared by GPs in Scotland, allowing for greater communication between the health visitor and the family doctor and ensuring more of the child and families' needs are picked up on.

"We want to ensure that all families, regardless of income, area, or need have access to the health visitor service.

"Preventative care saves far more in the long run and it is common sense to provide better support for new parents through a massive increase in home health visiting services."

The problem in Scotland

In summary the main problems with health visiting in Scotland include:

14 Health Boards progressing separate, if sometimes similar, approaches leading to a post code lottery of service provision across Scotland.

An end to the universality of the service with the service being unfairly tailored specifically for the poorest with little recognition that all families, regardless of income, require support during these very important years.

In some areas of Scotland, there has been a crisis in numbers driven - in part – to the ongoing reforms of the service which have resulted in low morale and precipitated lower levels of retention and lower levels of individuals choosing to join the profession.

Scottish Conservatives have consistently argued that instead of providing free prescriptions to those who can afford to pay, £20 million of the money saved could be used to fund an enhanced health visitor service

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