Health Visiting
Health visitors are registered nurses and midwives with an additional community public health qualification. We offer support and practical advice on many aspects of child development as well as family health.
You can also find lots of information and advice on your baby or young child on our Health and Development pages.
If you have a child aged 0-5 and you live in Bracknell, Wokingham, Reading or West Berkshire, it's really easy to get in touch with the Health Visiting team using the ChatHealth service.You don’t need to give your name and you will be able to get confidential advice and information from us direct to your phone, about any concerns you may have about the health of your baby or child.
Just send a text message to 07312 263283.
If you need to make or change an appointment, please contact your local health visiting team (please see Contact us section below).
ChatHealth is for parents and carers of babies and children 0-5 and is not used for professionals who need to speak to the Health Visiting Service. Please see the Contact us section below.
ChatHealth doesn’t receive images or pictures. Please be aware that it is not a live chat session and we will aim to respond to all messages within 24 hours.
The Health Visiting Team works in partnership with children and families, as well as other professionals such as health, education, social care and voluntary organisations to provide health support which is tailored to individual needs. Our skill mix team comprises of staff nurses, registered nurses with training in maternal and child health, and nursery nurses who are qualified in child development and have relevant training in child-related issues such as sleep, behaviour issues and healthy eating.
Read more about caring for your baby.
Visit the image below to open as a PDF:
We can provide locally designed health visiting services for all families with children under five in Bracknell, Wokingham, Reading and West Berkshire. We aim to help children get the best possible start in life.
As part of your local Universal Healthy Child Programme, we provide appointments to review your child’s health and development, and advice and support on subjects such as staying healthy, healthy eating and weaning, stopping smoking, feeding your baby, teething, immunisations, mental well-being and postnatal depression, your child’s growth and development, sleep, behaviour, fussy eating, potty training and common childhood illnesses.
We offer help for families and children who require additional support, for example with parenting skills, breastfeeding and childhood nutrition. We can also arrange support from other professionals.
Breastfeeding support
Berkshire Healthcare Health Visiting Service is proud to be accredited by UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative.
You can speak with any member of our health visiting service if you need any support or help with breastfeeding. Our experienced staff will be able to listen to your concerns and work out a plan of care for you. This may be a home visit, an appointment in our breastfeeding clinics or some top tips to try at home. Visit our infant feeding pages for more information.
Giving us your feedback
If you have used our health visiting service, your feedback would be appreciated as it will help us to develop and improve our services.
Our health visiting teams continue to offer the Healthy Child Programme through virtual or face to face contacts or at appointment only clinics.
When you move into a new area, this contact will be offered to families meeting our specific criteria.
We offer the following contact:
Antenatal contact
This first contact will either be a face-to-face group session, or access to our online presentation, depending on the locality you live in. You may need to meet your health visitor at home before your baby arrives; this will be arranged by consultation with your midwife and your health visitor. We will contact you in plenty of time to offer either an appointment, bookable group session or access to our presentation. We will discuss topics such as parental health and wellbeing, infant feeding choices, transition to parenthood, safety and safe sleeping and how parents can help baby's early development.
You can also find information on our antenatal page along with lots of information and advice helping you to prepare for your baby's arrival.
New birth contact (Day 10-14 after your baby is born)
This first contact to home, lasting around 1-1½ hours, is made by your health visitor after your baby is born. The health visitor will provide advice and support in the early days, checking on the health and wellbeing of both the parents and the baby, providing support with feeding, making sure your baby is gaining weight appropriately, and discussing safe sleeping and safety in and outside the home. We will also talk with you about early bonding with your baby, encouraging responsive parenting and discuss the childhood immunisation schedule so that you have all the information you need. At this point you may have lots of questions and that is absolutely fine - our visit will be tailored to your needs so that you feel reassured. It may help to write any questions down ahead of time!
6-8-week postnatal contact
Our contact between 6-8 weeks is normally conducted in clinic settings, although on some occasions it may be a home contact. Our practitioners will look at your baby's health and development, making sure your baby is gaining weight appropriately, feeding well and supporting you if there are any issues. We also discuss parental mental health, specifically thinking about postnatal depression. We will be able to signpost you to support and activities within your local area, so you are able to get out and about in your community with your baby.
9-12-month developmental review
This contact will look at development, growth and immunisation status. We will send you an appointment date , along with a development questionnaire for you to complete. Please keep this safe and spend time looking through. Answer the questions just before your appointment date as little ones develop so quickly! We will talk with you about safety in and outside of the home, now your baby is on the move as well as nutrition and dental health. You may have questions around routines, sleep, returning to work and solid foods. This developmental review appointment is a great time to cover all of these questions.
2-2½ year developmental review
This age and stage of your child's life is a key time to think about onward developmental and readiness for early years settings or even school. It's a time where specific behaviour, or speech and language issues may be more evident in children. Our developmental review will give you the opportunity to discuss how your child is progressing in meeting the milestones. Again, we will send you an appointment date to attend one of our clinic sessions alongside the questionnaire. Please keep this safe and spend time looking through, answering the questions just before your appointment date. If there are any developmental issues identified, we can support with early planning, referral or signposting in good time to support the transition into education.
Well Baby clinics
Our Well Baby clinics are an opportunity for you to have your baby weighed, and get support and advice from our team of excellent health visitors. We run clinics in Wokingham, Reading, West Berkshire and Bracknell.
We also run drop in breastfeeding support and antenatal sessions.
Please visit our clinics page for more information and to find details of your local clinic.
Text us
If you have a child aged 0-5 and could do with some advice, you can text a member of the health visiting team in confidence using our ChatHealth service.
Perhaps you have some worries about breastfeeding or bottle feeding, child development, toileting, sleep, behaviour, parenting, food and nutrition, or their health.
Send a text to 07312 263283 and we’ll text you back to chat.
ChatHealth is available if you live in Bracknell, Wokingham, Reading and West Berkshire.
ChatHealth doesn’t receive images or pictures. Please be aware that it is not a live chat session and we will aim to respond to all messages within 24 hours.
ChatHealth is a text service only and has successfully supported to date over 2,500 families. We appreciate it is a new and different way of contacting our Health Visiting team and ask that you bear with us while we adapt to using this service. Texting can be an easier way for us to be able to provide you with links and websites that will further support and reassure you with whatever your concerns are.
We might inform someone if we were concerned about your safety but we would usually speak to you first. Your messages are stored and can be seen by other health care staff who follow the same confidentiality rules. We aim to reply to you within one working day and you should get an immediate message back to confirm we have received your text. Texts will only be seen between Mon-Fri 9am-4.30pm. If you need help before you hear back from us contact your GP, nearest walk in centre or dial 111. Our text number does not receive voice calls or MMS picture messages. We support messaging from UK mobile numbers only (which does not include messages sent from landlines, international mobile numbers and some 'number masking' mobile apps). To prevent the health professional from sending messages to you, text STOP to our number. Messages are charged at your usual rates.
To speak about your appointment
Please call the relevant number below.
Bracknell: 0300 365 6000 (Mon-Fri 9am-4.30pm)
Wokingham: 0300 365 7000 (Mon-Fri 9am-2pm)
Reading: 0118 904 7100 (Mon-Fri 9am-4.30pm)
West Berkshire: 0300 303 3944 (Mon-Fri 9am-4.30pm)
Our teams continue to visit families in the home and may be wearing appropriate personal protective equipment for the duration of the contact. If you have a scheduled appointment with our teams and either you or a member of your family have symptoms of COVID-19, please call your locality health visiting service on the number above to reschedule your appointment.
For Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead
Berkshire Healthcare do not provide Health Visiting services in Slough or Windsor and Maidenhead. Local contact details for services provided in these areas are below.
Slough:
Slough Child and Family Wellbeing
Windsor and Maidenhead:
Email: health.visiting@achievingforchildren.org.uk
Health visitor 0300 365 6523
School nurses 01628 682979
MASH 01628 683150
If you work with children and families
If you work with children and families and need to speak to our Health Visiting services, please get in touch via email. The email addresses you need are:
Bracknell Forest: DutyHVBracknell@berkshire.nhs.uk
Wokingham: wokinghamsafeguardinghv@berkshire.nhs.uk
Reading: readingsafeguardinghv@berkshire.nhs.uk
West Berkshire: WestBerksSafeguardingHV@berkshire.nhs.uk or for non safeguarding issues: hvwestberks@berkshire.nhs.uk
Helpful resources
Building a Happy Baby
Start 4 Life feeding information
Lullaby Trust
Handle your baby with care
Lift the Baby campaign
