In January 2012, Viv was appointed as the Department of Health’s Director of Nursing and the Government’s Principal Advisor on Public Health Nursing, providing high quality and independent nursing advice to ministers and officials on policy issues and public health nursing. She leads the national Health Visiting Programme and School Nurse Development Programme. As of September 2012, Viv was also appointed the Director of Nursing at Public Health England.
She trained as a nurse in Oxford in 1976 and worked in children’s nursing before training as a health visitor in Oxford in the early 1980s. She worked as a health visitor and research health visitor in Oxford whilst studying for a BA and then
Masters degree in health and social policy.
Viv has worked in a number of NHS operational management and commissioning roles and undertaken nurse executive roles in both provider and commissioning organisations. She has also worked for SHA and local government on projects relating to nursing strategy and services for children and families.
Viv joined the Department of Health (DH) as Deputy Chief Nursing Officer in November 2007. She is a Fellow of the Queen’s Nursing Institute, a Visiting Professor at King’s College London, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Coventry in November 2012.
We all want the best start for our children. Protecting babies and infants from illness and disease is crucial and a key priority for PHE. Immunisations are quick, safe and effective. In England we have added to the immunisation schedule …
The health visiting service has been transformed in recent years to improve access, experience, outcomes and contribute to reducing health inequalities. This is the story of what's been achieved through more health visitors and renewed vision. Follow @VivJBennett or https://vivbennett.blog.gov.uk/
In Jan 2015, the Department of Health (DH) and Public Health England (PHE) announced that ‘responsibility for public health nursing and midwifery leadership will transfer to PHE from April, replacing the current joint arrangement between us both. The new arrangements …
As we come to the end of the year it seems timely to use this blog to highlight some of the progress we’ve made in ensuring the roles of nurses and midwives - in health protection and improvement - are …
The ‘best start for all our children’ is vital for a healthy and thriving future society. All the evidence shows us that what happens in early childhood and the developing years’ impacts on health and well-being and life chances throughout …
...other changes. All school nurse services should be approachable – students shouldn’t feel embarrassed to access them. School nurses should have an active role in educating school staff and other...
This weekend I am devoting to sport! (For the record, it will be some cycling alongside enjoying the current plethora of sport viewing opportunities). This is my R&R following the excitement that was our third week of action (on health …
...The six areas for ‘population health activities’ are: wider determinants of health health improvement and making every contact count (MECC) health protection healthcare public health supporting independence and wellbeing a...
...learnt. Learning good habits and building emotional resilience in the school years is vital for life chances and school nurses are a key part of the public health workforce giving...
...help us tackle the global AMR challenge. Public health support to local partners to work together is vital. One example is ‘school as place’-based work, where school nurses work closely...
