Library weigh-and-chat extends help for new London parents

A community health visitor team has moved a weekly “weigh-and-chat” from clinic rooms into a public library meeting space, so parents with prams can combine book loans with baby checks, breastfeeding support and signposting without navigating hospital parking or daytime appointment queues.

The shift was completed this spring after staff mapped footfall and found mid-morning library sessions drew families who rarely booked health-centre slots; a portable scale, a screening corner and a short advice rota now run for two hours, with siblings able to use the children’s area while infants are seen.

National context helps explain the timing: Office for Health Improvement and Disparities figures for 2024–25 show 85.2% of babies in England received a new-birth visit within 14 days and 88.4% received a 12-month review by 15 months, while London’s regional coverage for those toddler checks remains lower—around 80.0%—indicating room for easy-to-reach drop-ins that reduce missed contacts (source labelled below).

Practical access has been built in: the room sits beside step-free doors and pram parking, cards explain support in the most requested languages, and a simple ticket is used so families can pause feeds and rejoin without losing a turn; staff record the median time from arrival to weigh to judge whether a second weekly slot is needed.

Cost-of-living pressures are quietly addressed alongside the checks, with printed guides to the Healthy Start scheme and local breastfeeding cafés placed next to the sign-in desk, so parents who struggle with travel or data access can leave with details they can use offline.

Day to day, the effect is modest but cumulative—one family leaves with latch advice and a growth chart update, another books a language-supported home visit, a third learns how to claim milk tokens—while the team tracks weekly attendance and completion of overdue 12-month or 2–2½-year reviews through the rest of 2025.

18 November 2025 08:39 By London Health News Desk