European Delegation Visit Westport

European Delegation Visit Westport

A European delegation visited Westport in July to understand more about Scotland’s approach to early child development and preventative home visiting health services.

David Garbutt, NES Chair, and Deputy Chief Executive Karen Wilson, Executive Director of Nursing welcomed UNICEF and Montenegrin delegates to Edinburgh on 8 July 2025, outlining the collaborative nature and shared commitment of NES’s vital work in nurturing excellence, innovation, and compassion within the Scottish health and social care workforce.

NES Chair David Garbutt, centre, welcoming the visiting delegation.

The Scottish Government invited NES to showcase our role in supporting professional development in health visiting and family nursing to the Government of Montenegro and UNICEF colleagues. In doing so, discussion focused on leadership through the Health Visiting Leadership Network (HVLN), which Clare McGuire, NES Head of Programme (NMAHP), Chairs.

Learning was also shared about other aspects of health visiting and Family Nurse Partnership, such as scope of services, monitoring/data collection and analysis, referral, and training of professionals. This led to discussion around the organisation and models of provision of health visiting in more remote and rural areas, application of information technology and innovations in service planning and delivery (such as telemedicine and Artificial Intelligence), and the role of health visiting and primary healthcare professionals in child development monitoring.

NES Chair David Garbutt, centre, and NES colleagues Clare McGuire (second from right) and Marion McPhillips (on the end, right) welcome the visiting delegation

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