ABSTRACT
There is a wide variation in how computer technology has been used with regard to child health records and allied services. A survey of health boards in Scotland was extended to English health authorities (HAs) to ascertain if information was collected from health visitor records for computer analysis. The results showed Greater Glasgow Health Board uses a record which is coded for a computer. Fife Health Board also used part of this system. In England, ten of the individually described health authorities have just or are in the process of redesigning their records for health visitors. There is a wide variation of how computer technology has been used with regard to health visiting. For an overall picture of family and child most records either relied on the manual part of the record or did not require this information to be recorded. Developments in health visiting which try to ensure a service to the family as well as the child would therefore remain hidden or, more worryingly, untouched.
