ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some possible reasons for certain gap between potential and actual achievement. It starts by looking at the health visitors' perceptions of their role in this field. Most of the discussions health visitors had about family planning were in mothers' homes. Seventeen per cent of the health visitors said this was the only place they ever discussed it, 64 per cent that most of their discussions were there, 18 per cent that about half were there, only 1 per cent that they were mainly elsewhere. Although a higher proportion of health visitors than general practitioners agreed that the promotion of family planning education was part of their job, only half the health visitors felt that they were the most appropriate person to advise people initially about family planning. A comparison of the views and actions of the health visitors in the different areas suggests that the health visitors in Oxford were more active in family planning.
