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BackgroundHealth visiting, a universal home visiting programme for new parents, aims to prevent and reduce inequalities in child development. Health visiting in England, however, is under strain after years of funding cuts. COVID-19 has exacerbated pressures on services, due to redeployment of staff and knock-on impacts of the pandemic to families. Objectives: To evaluate how COVID-19 has impacted health visiting staff, the services they provide, and the families they serve. Also, to document the scale and variation in redeployment of health visiting staff due to COVID-19.MethodsWe used two different sources of data.Our first source is a survey of health visiting professionals. The first sweep (n=740) was carried out between 19 June-10 September 2020. Topics covered include how COVID-19 has impacted health visiting services, concerns for children and parents, and the mental and physical health of staff. The second sweep is being fielded and will capture the current lockdown.Our second source is data on health visiting staffing numbers and caseload prior to the pandemic and redeployment during the first COVID-19 wave, which we collected for n=140/151 local authorities through FOI requests. We will collect FOI data for the second COVID-19 wave.We conduct descriptive analysis and data visualisation of the survey and FOI data using Stata 16.ResultsPrior to the pandemic, in 80% of local authorities, caseloads were greater than 250 children per staff, the maximum recommended by the Institute of Health Visiting. We find evidence of widespread redeployment of health visiting staff and significant variation in the level of redeployment across local authorities. In many cases redeployment led to caseload increases. 38% of health visiting staff surveyed reported increased caseload between 19 March-3 June 2020. With growth in caseloads and face-to-face contact limited, there was widespread concern amongst health visitors that children’s needs would be missed, particularly those of vulnerable children. Our first wave results revealed poor staff mental health. We examine the association between redeployment and local COVID-19 prevalence on physical and mental health and will analyse how mental and physical health has evolved since the first COVID-19 wave using SF-12 questionnaire data.ConclusionHealth visiting services were already stretched prior to COVID-19, and redeployment will likely have materially impacted families who rely on health visitors. With geographical variation in redeployment, families’ access to health visitors was determined by their postcode. Increased funding for health visiting services to boost workforce size is necessary.

The development of novel Ti-based amorphous or &beta, phase nanostructured metallic materials could have significant benefits for implant applications, due to potentially improved corrosion properties, and mechanical characteristics (lower Young&rsquo, s modulus, better wear performance, improved fracture toughness) in comparison to the standardized &alpha, +&beta, titanium alloys. Moreover, the devitrification phenomenon, occurring during heating, could contribute to lower input power during additive manufacturing technologies. Ti-based alloy ribbons were obtained by melt-spinning, considering the ultra-fast cooling rates this method can provide. The titanium alloys contain Zr, Nb, and Si (Ti60Zr10Si15Nb15, Ti64Zr10Si15Nb11, Ti56Zr10Si15Nb19) in various proportions. These elements were chosen due to their reported biological safety, as in the case of Zr and Nb, and the metallic glass-forming ability and biocompatibility of Si. The morphology and chemical composition were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, while the structural features (crystallinity, phase attribution after devitrification (after heat treatment)) were assessed by X-ray diffraction. Some of the mechanical properties (hardness, Young&rsquo, s modulus) were assessed by instrumented indentation. The thermal stability and crystallization temperatures were measured by differential thermal analysis. High-intensity exothermal peaks were observed during heating of melt-spun ribbons. The corrosion behavior was assessed by electrocorrosion tests. The results show the potential of these alloys to be implemented as materials for biomedical applications.