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Plans for children’s centres to run home visiting and outreach programmes for parents of all newborn babies have confused health visitors’ leaders.

Cheryll Adams, professional officer at the Community Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association, said it was unclear how the plans differed from health visitors’ current duty to visit all newborn babies.

The announcement last week by children’s minister Beverley Hughes follows Tony Blair’s demand for health visitors to intervene earlier with children from “dysfunctional” families.

As Community Care went to press, the Department for Education and Skills was unable to provide any more details about the plans.

Hughes also set out a new requirement for children’s centres to ensure  their services meet the needs of the most disadvantaged people.