In Manchester, the council are piloting the Thriving Babies: Confident Parents programme, which looks to provide early support to potentially vulnerable parents before and after their babies are born. Those eligible for support include parents with complex vulnerabilities, including learning disability, those with mental health or substance misuse issues, those who have been subject to domestic abuse, those who have had a child removed or have experienced the care system. The intervention, which takes place in the family home and in children’s centres, is being piloted with 60 families over a 12 month period, with targeted outreach to BAME families. It focuses on proactively supporting parents to develop their skills, strengths, resilience and wellbeing, as well as helping them to understand the needs of babies and children. The involvement with the family is coordinated by a key worker assigned to each family, and the programme aims to ensure support is holistic, joined up and caters to the needs of the families at that time. There is engagement with both the voluntary sector and adult services, and families are provided with a Think Family Co-Ordinator.
The pilot is looking at whether this process enables services to provide better, more culturally attuned and coordinated support to families and the knock on effect this has on outcomes for children e.g. better parenting, fewer risk factors, greater permanency for infants. The Institute of Public Care at Oxford Brookes University will be producing an evaluation report later in 2022. Acknowledging the fundamental importance of the early years of a child’s life to their life chances, this multi-agency approach is showing promise in facilitating a reduction in escalation to statutory services, better early permanence decision making and overall ensuring parents can be better support to navigate a crucial time in their lives and the lives of their children.