Working in Partnership with the Voluntary Sector: Early Explorer Clinics (Professional AND RESEARCH: PEER Reviewed) (Report‪)‬

Introduction Child health clinics continue to have a role in promoting the wellbeing of young children by providing a non-stigmatising, regular, and open context within which parents can weigh babies, meet other parents and discuss problems with the health visitor. However, many child health clinics can feel clinical and business-like, with practitioners often presiding over a 'production line' of babies in need of being weighed, and contact limited to brief exchanges that are designed to enable overworked staff to 'keep the line moving'. Furthermore, increasing knowledge about the importance of early interaction and sensitive relationships (Schonkoff and Phillips, 2000) has shifted the focus of child health clinics toward primary preventive work focused on the emotional wellbeing of infants.