‘It depends what you class as vulnerable’: risk discourse and the framing of vulnerability in health visiting policy and practice

Policy change, a decade ago, saw a shift towards a more targeted health visiting service, focused on supporting vulnerable families. Health visitors, similar to child and family nurses in other countries, work with families with young children. In this article I draw on a study that explored the policy shift described, to critically examine the framing of vulnerability in health visiting practice. The article is informed by analysis of interviews with 16 health visitors and 20 mothers, as well as my own reflexive account as a mother. The findings suggest that health visitors’ practice is both shaped by a risk discourse and that they resist this discourse; and that a risk discourse can act to silence vulnerabilities for mothers. As health visiting continues to evolve, a reframing of how vulnerability is enacted within health visiting could prove a difficult, yet, important, move in the provision of family support.