Short-term health and social care benefits of the Family Nurse Partnership lack evidence in the UK context but there is promise for child developmental outcomes

Authors

Jacqueline Barnes, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

128485

Publication Details

Barnes, J. (2016). Short-term health and social care benefits of the Family Nurse Partnership lack evidence in the UK context but there is promise for child developmental outcomes. Evidence-Based Medicine, Online First 1-1.

Abstract

Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) home visiting from pregnancy to 24 months post partum, guided by a manualised curriculum, has been shown in three randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to have multiple beneficial outcomes and to be a cost-effective way to decrease the risk of child abuse for children of young, psychologically vulnerable first-time mothers.1 NFP has also been shown to strengthen families through increased maternal employment and wider spacing of pregnancies, and has demonstrated a range of benefits for children through adolescence.2 The US-developed programme was introduced into England in 2007 (renamed Family Nurse Partnership, FNP) and a pragmatic, non-blinded RCT was launched in 2009.