Family Nurse Partnership: third evaluation report

Date: 18th February 2013
Category: Disability, Basic Health and Welfare

The third interim evaluation report of the NHS Lothian Family Nurse Partnership programme is now available, covering the programme's delivery in the infancy period (from 6 weeks to first Birthday).

The report, titled Evaluation of the Family Nurse Partnership Programme in NHS Lothian Scotland: 3rd Report - Infancy, is an evaluation of Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) in Scotland and focuses on learning from the experience of implementing FNP in the first Scottish test site, based in NHS Lothian, Edinburgh.

It is not an experimental impact evaluation, but rather focuses on learning around how the programme works in a Scottish context.

The Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) programme is a licensed preventative programme which aims to improve outcomes for young first time mothers and their children. It does this through a structured programme of home visits delivered by specially trained Family Nurses from pregnancy until the child is two years old.

Early signs are promising for FNP in Lothian, with a very high uptake rate by those eligible for the programme and low attrition one year into the programme delivery. Family Nurses report that the education and training experience is of an extremely high quality and equips them well to undertake this new role.

At an early stage of testing FNP in Scotland, it is important to note the findings and lessons learned across the sites in England where FNP has been tested since 2007.