Families with children living in areas of high deprivation face multiple health and social challenges, and this high level of need has impacts on the work of health practitioners working in such areas. All families in the UK with children under five years have access to health visiting services, and health visitors have a key role in mitigating the effects of deprivation by addressing health needs through evidence based practice. This paper reports the first stage of a project in Tower Hamlets, London, an area of significant deprivation, which aims to develop an evidence-based toolkit to support health visitors in their practice with families. The first stage used a modified Delphi process to identify the priority health needs of families in the area between June and July 2012. The three-stage Delphi process involved 25 people: four health visitors, four other members of the health visiting service, and 17 representatives of other services working with families. A focus group event was followed by a second event where individuals completed a questionnaire ranking the 27 priorities identified in the first event. The consultation process concluded with participants completing a second questionnaire, by email, confirming or changing their prioritisation of the topics. 1. Introduction Development of methods to enable practitioners to use evidence in practice has had increasing focus within the evidence-based health care movement and in all areas of the NHS, with the aim of delivering high-quality care [1]. Prior to the development of interventions in an area of practice, there needs to be an understanding of the priorities for practice in that particular field [2]. This paper reports on the first stage of a six-stage project which aims to develop a toolkit of resources for evidence-based practice in health visiting, in an inner city area, characterised by high levels of deprivation and a high under 25s population. The first stage involved identification of the priority areas of practice for health visitors (HVs) working with families with children under the age of five years. The project is being undertaken in Tower Hamlets, an inner city borough in east London, UK. Tower Hamlets is a densely populated area of eight square miles characterised by multiple aspects of deprivation which impact the health and wellbeing of the population. The borough is divided into 17 administrative wards and 16 of these are in 20% pf most deprived wards in England and 12 are in the lowest 5% [3]. Of the approximate 250,000 population, 50,000 are under the age of 16 years and of
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