PIONEERING health visitors are leading the way by being the first to go online with a new social media service.

The effects of Covid-19 motivated the team, based across Greenock and Port Glasgow health centres, to look at new ways to connect with families in a safe and effective manner.

Health visitors Laura Gordon and Laura O'Donnell launched the page to make sure they could reach all parents, grandparents and carers of newborns to five-year-olds with important information.

Laura Gordon, who is based in Greenock Health Centre, told the Tele: "During lockdown our visits remained at normal levels, however we wanted to make it a focus to engage in different ways.

"Facebook seemed a front-runner for us in doing that.

"We've been able to post things like tips, development advice and guidance for parents of pre-school age children in order to assist them in providing them with the best start in life.

"It's really exciting for us as we are the first health visiting team in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area to launch this platform and we've had nothing but great feedback from other areas and families."

Health visitors continued to carry out their full service during lockdown and were able to keep providing information, carrying out assessments, providing advice and signposting people to other services, while wearing full PPE.

But the pandemic presented challenges, so they wanted to ensure they made it as easy as possible for families to get information.

Laura O'Donnell said: "Sometimes families can be harder to reach, so we hope by having this resource people will be able to keep up to date with new tips and advice.

"We're planning on launching pages on other social media platforms to ensure we reach a wider audience.

"The page isn't manned but we welcome everyone to like and share it with anyone who they think would benefit from it."

Visit www.facebook.com/InverclydeHealthVisitingTeam for more information.