CONCERNS have been raised that not enough babies are being seen by health visitors at the age of one.

The borough council prioritises visits at six to eight weeks and aged two.

But health visitor and councillor Fay Howard says more should younger children should be seen.

The Labour councillor for Liden, Eldene and Park South spoke out at the council’s children’s health, care and education overview and scrutiny committee meeting.

She quizzed one of the officers in charge of the health visiting service, Katie Currie.

Ms Currie presented a report which showed that there was a shortage of health visitors in Swindon.

Coun Howard said: “I’m a health visitor in Wiltshire and we have the same pressures, but the only visits we’ve dropped are the antenatal ones.

"I don’t know what we’re doing right, or what’s happening in Swindon.”

She took issue with the policy of prioritising visits to newly-born babies and then at 24 to 30 months of age.

She said: “I understand that two-and-a-half year visit is important for child development purposes and before a child goes to school but I think we should be visiting at a year old as well.

"If you don’t see a child between six to eight weeks and two and a half, then you don’t know what’s happening.

"There could be a risk of abuse or neglect and we wouldn’t know anything about it.

“Children at two and a half are often in nursery so they’re already being seen by professionals regularly.”

She asked why the rate of two-year visits had dropped from 74.9 percent in October to December 2018 to 68.8 per cent in January to March this year.

Ms Currie said: “That’s not the direction I want to see but there are seasonal variations in the levels of staffing over the year.”

She told the councillors that 19.4 per cent of all one-year-olds had been seen by health visitors because there was sufficient concern to merit making a visit at that time.

She said:”Most families are doing well, but if there has been something that has raised concern, then we make sure that there’s a visit at 12 months.”

Councillors wanted to know what proportion of children assessed as vulnerable were seen at 12 months, but Ms Currie said that a visit was always made if a child was deemed vulnerable.

She added that the council was trying to “grow its own” health visitors in the face of a national recruitment shortage of the staff.