Official Statistics

Health visitor service delivery metrics, 2024 to 2025: statistical commentary

Updated 4 November 2025

Applies to England

What’s new

Indicators for the 4 post-birth mandated health visitor reviews have been updated with England, regional and upper tier local authority data for 2024 to 2025.

Universal health visitor reviews

All families are eligible for 5 health reviews in pregnancy and the early years. These should ideally be face to face with a health visitor, or under their supervision.

The 5 mandated health visitor reviews are:

• antenatal health promoting review, for women more than 28 weeks pregnant
• new birth visit, for children aged 1 to 2 weeks
• 6 to 8 week review, for children aged 6 to 8 weeks
• 12 month review, for children aged 9 to 15 months
• 2 to 2 and a half year review, for children aged 24 to 30 months

Main findings

This update shows that:

• the coverage of all post-birth universal health visitor reviews in England increased in 2024 to 2025 when compared to 2023 to 2024. All 4 have coverage of over 80%
• there are differences in coverage between regions and between upper tier local authorities

Detailed findings

New birth visits within and after 14 days of birth

In 2024 to 2025, 85.2% of infants received their new birth visit within 14 days of birth, an increase from 2023 to 2024 (see figure 1). The percentage of infants who received a visit up to 30 days after birth has increased in 2024 to 2025 to 98.0%.

Figure 1: percentage of infants in England who received a new birth visit within 14 days, 2017 to 2018 to 2024 to 2025

Coverage varied across regions and across upper tier local authorities. Among regions, the lowest percentage who received a visit within 14 days was in the West Midlands (82.1%) and the highest in the North East (90.8%)(see figure 2). Among upper tier local authorities where a value could be calculated, coverage ranged from 9.7% to 99.1% in 2024 to 2025. Nearly all local authorities had coverage of over 90% when all new birth visits (occurring before or after 14 days) are considered.

Figure 2: percentage of infants who received a new birth visit within 14 days, English regions, 2024 to 2025

6 to 8 week health visitor reviews

In 2024 to 2025, 85.1% of infants received their 6 to 8 week review by 8 weeks, an increase from 81.8% in 2023 to 2024.

Figure 3: percentage of 6 to 8 week reviews by 8 weeks, 2017 to 2018 to 2024 to 2025

Among upper tier local authorities, where a value could be calculated, coverage ranged from 13.9% to 98.8%.

12 month health visitor reviews

In 2024 to 2025, 88.4% of children received their 12 month review by the time they were 15 months old. This is an increase from 86.5% in 2023 to 2024.

Figure 4: percentage of 12 month reviews by 15 months, 2017 to 2018 to 2024 to 2025

Coverage varied across regions and across upper tier local authorities. Among regions it ranged from the lowest at 80.0% in London to the highest at 95.7% in the South East. Among upper tier local authorities where a value could be calculated, coverage varied from 41.6% to 99.5%.

2 to 2 and a half year health visitor reviews including those with a completed ASQ-3

In 2024 to 2025, 80.8% of children received their 2 to 2 and a half year review, an increase from 78.4% in 2023 to 2024 (see figure 5). The percentage of children who completed ASQ-3 as part of their review also increased from 93.3% in 2023 to 2024 to 93.9% in 2024 to 2025.

Figure 5: percentage of 2 to 2 and a half year reviews, 2017 to 2018 to 2024 to 2025

Coverage for the 2 to 2 and a half year review varied across regions and across upper tier local authorities. Among regions it ranged from the lowest at 68.4% in London to the highest at 90.5% in the North East. Among upper tier local authorities where a value could be calculated, coverage ranged from 27.0% to 98.9%.

Background

The information in this publication shows service coverage and related health outcomes for services funded through the local authority public health grant for children’s public health 0 to 5 years. This includes the coverage of universal health visitor reviews, breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks and child development outcomes aged 2.

The data comes from the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID’s) interim reporting system for children’s public health 0 to 5 years. The technical guidance contains full details of the health visiting, breastfeeding and child development indicators, including definitions and methodology.

Caution should be used when interpreting these figures as it is a voluntary data collection and there is not full coverage. Any figures shown at a region or England level, or by deprivation, are based on an aggregate total of local authorities within those areas who supplied data items which complied with validation criteria for each indicator.

The health reviews may be targeted towards children who are likely to need more support. This includes those living in the most deprived areas and children who are known to be vulnerable due to family or other circumstances. This may contribute to low coverage of reviews or low numbers of children meeting the expected level of development for some local authorities.

The Community Services Data Set (CSDS) will be used as the basis for these metrics in the longer term, once the data quality has reached a suitable standard.

The data is also available on Fingertips.

Contact information

For media enquiries please contact the Department of Health and Social Care media team.

For all other enquiries relating to the statistics or to offer feedback on the publication please email interimreporting@dhsc.gov.uk.