A survey of primary care trusts in England found that caseloads for health visitors vary across the country and that parents face a postcode lottery.
In Doncaster, for example, there is one health visitor to every 161 children under five, but in Redbridge there is one health visitor for every 1,143 children under five.
The institute is calling for a universal, well-funded and well-trained health visitor service for all parents of under-fives.
A YouGov poll of 5,000 parents commissioned by the institute found that 76 per cent of parents of under-fives wanted parenting support and advice on child health and development from a trained health visitor with up-to-date knowledge.
Although the DfES is planning to set up the National Academy of Parenting Practitioners and a range of parenting support programmes, which the report says will need health visitors, there are at least 800 fewer health visitors than two years ago.
Annette Brooke MP, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for children, young people and families, said, 'Health visitors have a vital role to play in supporting the role of parents. What is the point of 57 supernannies spread across the whole country if important points of contact with health visitors are missing?'
The report is at www.familyparenting.org/healthvisitors.
