Health needs assessment in the health visiting service and the impact on the ethnic community

The purpose of this article is to share the experience of using a health needs assessment tool in health visiting practice in Great Britain, with clients who do not speak English. This is an important issue in developing equity of practice across the growing multi-cultural and diverse populations of the United Kingdom. The paper outlines the findings relevant to these issues drawn from a wider study that used qualitative methods to observe and interview both health visitors and clients regarding the use of the tool. It focuses on one vignette to demonstrate the practical and difficult issues when a formal system is used to assess needs in clients who do not speak English as a first language.