starts to attend school. The 2010 Coalition Government sought to reverse the move towards reducing the scope of health visitors by giving a commitment to recruit more health visitors, to ensure that their caseloads were not negatively impacted. The government's reorganisation of the NHS returned responsibility for public health, at a local level, to local councils once again, with national issues and oversight being provided by Public Health England. Health visitor services will therefore now be commissioned by local councils, in partnership with clinical commissioning groups. Numbers of health visitors In 1977 there were 10,623 health visitors in the UK. In 2015 there were 12,292 in England and Wales, an increase from 10,046 in 2000. In 2000 there were 297 children under 5 per health visitor, a figure which rose to 419 in 2011. UK training In the early days of statutory health visiting, training in the UK was overseen by the Royal Sanitary Institute, who later evolved into the Royal Society for Public Health. Training was later taken over by the government's Ministry of Health, and they are now regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Post-qualification, a 1-year full-time (or equivalent part-time) degree or masters level course. Sources of further information The Journal of Health Visiting, launched in January 2013, is a monthly peer-reviewed journal for health visitors. Researchers interested in the history of health visitors may be interested in consulting the Welcome Trust's London's Pulse collection, which provides a digital archive of London's Medical Officer of Health reports, for the period 1848-1972. These reports often referred to the activities of health visitors. Notes References Health Visitor description at UK NHS Careers website October 2013 at UK NHS Careers website Community nursing Health care occupations