Careers in Health Visiting

• You can join us as a public health assistant or senior public health assistant with the possibility to do further training including your nurse qualification with our inhouse apprenticeship programme via the KCHFT Nursing Academy.
• You can join as a newly qualified nurse as a community public health nurse.
• Once you’ve got a year’s experience as a registered nurse or midwife, you can apply to enter the specialist community public health nurse (SCPHN) programme to train to become a health visitor.
• We also welcome applications from qualified health visitors and can offer attractive recruitment bonuses in areas of Kent.
• There are options to return to practice as a qualified health visitor.

When you work for Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust you get so much more than just a great career with fab people.

You'll be paid throughout your training and you also won’t have to pay any fees. You can find out more about the roles available and training routes below. We have a range of full and part-time opportunities ranging from a minimum of 22.5 hours to a maximum of 37.5 hours per week between 9am to 5pm.

Find out more about what we can offer you on our website.

Roles within our team

Public health assistant

You will need to be a confident and flexible practitioner, passionate about improving the health and well-being of children through delivery of the healthy child programme working as part of a team to keep children safe and well. You'll have a good understanding of child development and the importance of play in children's lives, learning and language development.

What does the role involve?

• Understanding and identifying healthy normal growth and development in children.
• Completing development reviews using the ages and stages questionnaire.
• Providing appropriate responses and advice to clients parent/carers and families.
• Escalating concerns when required.

Frankie Purchla shares her experience of becoming a Public Health Assistant

Mum-of-two Frankie Purchla, from Birchington, already had experience as a GP receptionist, a care assistant on a neonatal ward and a children’s therapy assistant but was ‘itching to do more,’ when she decided to try a nursing degree.

Frankie, 35, said: “The second year was tough and I started to struggle with the workload of studying and clinical placements, alongside caring for my family. It was hard financially too.”

One of Frankie's placements had been with a local health visiting team and she realised there were opportunities to work and study at a more manageable pace. She applied for one of the public health assistant roles and hasn’t looked back.

Frankie said: “I mainly do development reviews for babies and toddlers. I love it, every day is different, you never know who is going to walk through the door or what help that family might need. I can offer simple guidance and signpost to other members of the team if needed. I feel very well supported by my wider team alongside a great training programme. I love making a difference to families. I’ve faced some difficult times myself as a mum, I know how tough it can be.”

Frankie’s ambition to be a nurse is still very much on the cards and she’s now got the option to join the KCHFT Academy as an apprentice nurse. She said: “I want to spend some time now getting more experience. Once my kids get a little bit older and settled into secondary school, I’d love to complete my nursing training and then who knows, maybe specialist training to be a health visitor one day.  I’m still only in my mid-30s, there’s still so much of my working life ahead of me to progress and do something I love.”

Senior public health assistant

You will need to be a confident and flexible practitioner, passionate about improving the health and well-being of children through delivery of the healthy child programme. You'll have an understanding of child growth and development and the importance of play in children's lives.

What does the role involve?

• Working with clients in a variety of community settings.
• Completing health and wellbeing reviews and packages of care.
• Undertaking growth monitoring for children from birth to five.
• The delivery of health promotion activities.
• Leading and assisting with the delivery of a variety of health visiting clinics and group work, for example, parenting programmes, introducing solids and breastfeeding groups.

Stephanie  shares her experience of being a Senior Public Health Assistant

Mum-of-two Stephanie Osbourne, has been working as a senior public health assistant within the Thanet Health Visiting Team for seven years. She said: “I like being out in the community, talking to families. It’s great to see how my support makes a difference. I work as part of a truly amazing team, each of us brings unique skills and experience. As a SPHA, I’ve supported our public health assistants like Frankie, helping her acquire the skills and confidence to do her role. We’re also here to chat to families about day-to-day parenting issues like toilet training, sleep, feeding and development.”

Stephanie, was itching to do more training to continue her professional development in the service. She said: “I wanted to stay with health visiting, I love my job but felt I could do more. I started an assistant practitioner course that’s taken four years and has paved the way for me to start my nurse apprenticeship. I’ve just started that course and will be on placements within health visiting four days a week, with one day of study leave at the Open University every week. I’ll qualify as an adult nurse in two and a half years, which is slightly shorter because of my assistant practitioner course.

My manager has always been so supportive. She encouraged me to apply for the apprenticeship and without her support, I may not of had the courage to make the jump.

Community public health nurse

Specialist community public health nurse (SCPHN) programme to become a health visitor

Ready to take the next step? We provide an excellent learning environment supported by practice supervisors and  assessors who will support you to become fully qualified at either the University of Greenwich or Canterbury Christ Church.

You could be fully qualified in just 12 months; all while being employed as a vital part of our friendly and professional team helping children to have the best possible start in life. Once you are accepted onto the course, you’ll settle into your team for two months, stay with your team during your training and be offered a substantive role in that team following successful completion of your training. You'll be paid throughout your training year as a mid-point band five team member and, following successful completion, you will be a fully qualified band six health visitor, with opportunities to progress your career further.

Visit our website for some top tips to make your specialist community public health nurse (SCPHN) programme application a success from our Programme Lead, Sue Sharman (pictured) in Health Visiting and Education Lead, Chris Beer in School Health and

Qualified health visitors

We welcome applications from qualified health visitors and can offer attractive recruitment bonuses in areas of Kent. Read Kailey Sparks, our Education Lead for Health Visiting's blog about her journey and what she enjoys about being a health visitor.  You can also watch Alison Saunders, a Health Visitor in Swale talk about her role in the Swale team.

Return to practice roles

If you have previously worked as a qualified health visitor and would like to return to these roles, you may need to undertake a Return to Practice (RTP) training course. These are individually tailored, according to how long you have been away from practice and whether you also need to be readmitted to part one or two of the NMC register (as a registered nurse or midwife). The courses are flexible, usually taking between six months to a year to complete. Find out more at the South East Clinical Networks website.