Warwickshire Child and Family
HCRG Care Group delivers Warwickshire’s Healthy Child Programme, providing joined-up health and wellbeing support for babies, children, young people and families from birth to 19, and up to 25 for those with special educational needs and disabilities.
Warwickshire Child and Family
In 2026, HCRG Care Group brought together previously separate health visitors and school nurses into one integrated team, and we began delivering the Healthy Child Programme across Warwickshire. After a rapid three month mobilisation, we are already seeing the benefits of an integrated service, and we’re beginning to contribute to the delivery of Best Start for Life guidance – even though it’s not a contract requirement.
Visit Service Website
Services include:
- A Single Point of Access (SPA) for care coordination
- A digital front door for self-support, easier access to services and triage
- Health visiting and school nursing
This service is led by
Lisa Farrell
Regional Director
Lisa leads the delivery of HCRG Care Group’s integrated 0–19 service in Warwickshire, bringing together health visiting and school nursing into a single, cohesive model. Previously the Director of Operations of Essex Children’s Services, Lisa is bringing the lessons from that groundbreaking service to the pressing, local priorities of Warwickshire.
We mobilised the service in just three months
Instead of a standard six month mobilisation period – demonstrating our agility to meet commissioning priorities while upholding our quality promise.
We invested upfront in a transformation that brought previously separate services into a single, integrated organisation
This will ensure families experience seamless care, with professionals working towards shared goals, using the same clinical system – all with the aim of changing community health for good.
Even within the first weeks of the contract, progress could be seen
Health visiting and school nurse team leaders were beginning to share office space, and from a safeguarding perspective they could see where their work overlapped and how each team’s insights could benefit the other. Previously separate services such as the Healthy Lifestyles Programme are being redesigned to work across the full 0 – 19 age range. No longer in separate silos, they can better be designed and driven by the needs of service users.
The power of this collaboration was quickly on display in the SEND team
We gave the SEND Band 7 for 0 – 5 oversight of SEND provision for 0 – 25. She’s partnering with our SEND practitioner from school nursing and together they’re integrating 0 – 5 and school nursing insight, as well as big picture strategy and on-the-ground insight.
This is all supporting our Band 7 to oversee 0-25 provision, a caseload of 1,000 in 0-5 through staff supervision of SEND champions, and at the same time incorporate school nurses in requests for supervision.
Another example of collaboration comes from our work with Compass
We’re working very closely with Compass – performing their administration and sharing clinical data.
Compass are delivering the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) in Warwickshire, part of the health needs assessment, and they’re supporting schools to deliver on their part of the Healthy Child Programme. We’re not contracted to deliver this, but we partner closely with Compass – even sharing administration services – so the work is happening in a seamless, joined-up way
We’re also committed to go beyond the requirements of our contract to deliver on the Best Start for Life guidance
Working with partners such as Barnardo’s and St Michael’s, and having a physical presence in their Family Centres.
We play a pivotal role as a system leader and partner here even though Best Start for Life is not part of our public health contract. We see the latest guidance as a critical part of providing a high quality service, and a vital part of our focus on outreach, prevention and education.
As part of a clinically backed shift from analogue to digital, we’re investing upfront in an accessible digital front door
Ensuring families and young people can access support when they need it. The Warwickshire Health Visiting and School Nursing app will provide parents and carers with age-specific advice and guidance, with links to system partners and a messaging service so they can contact health visitors directly.
Looking ahead
We’re going to be looking at how we can solve challenges associated with serving a deprived rural population in the south of Warwickshire. We’re also looking to encourage colocation with more of our team members, and collaborate more closely with family centres in codelivering services.
What’s happening at a glance
Rapid, safe mobilisation in three months, demonstrating agility.
Health visiting and school nursing are becoming one cohesive service, with one clinical system.
Collaboration between health visitors and school nursing that’s unprecedented in Warwickshire.
Expanded SEND pathway covering 0 - 25.
Contributing to the delivery of Best Start for Life guidance – even though it’s not part of the contract.
Our partners for this service
