Parent-Infant Foundation

Parent-Infant Foundation

At a glance

Causes

  • Campaigning
  • Children / families
  • Health and well being / research and care
  • Local / community
  • Mental health

Other details

Organisation type: 
Charity
Geographical remit: 
National - Britain

Objectives

Our vision is that all babies have a sensitive, nurturing relationship to lay the foundation for lifelong mental and physical health.

Our mission is to support the growth and quality of specialised parent-infant relationship teams across the UK.

The first 1001 days of life, from conception to age two, is a time of unique opportunity and vulnerability. It is a period of particularly rapid growth, when the foundations for later development are laid. During this time, babies’ brains are shaped by the interactions they have with their parents. The evidence is clear: at least one secure, responsive relationship with a consistent adult is a vital ingredient in babies’ healthy brain development, and their social and emotional wellbeing. Persistent, severe difficulties in early relationships can have pervasive effects on many aspects of child development, with long term costs to individuals, families, communities and society. Early emotional wellbeing is an important factor in influencing to what extent individuals will be able to make the most of life’s opportunities. This includes succeeding in education and making a positive contribution to society and the economy, and how they will manage later relationships with partners and their own children.
The early parent-infant relationship builds the foundation upon which all later development rests.

The Parent-Infant Foundation brings the sector together through collaborative leadership. We work to advance thinking and
practice, improve collective understanding, provide a much-needed national voice, and campaign for policy change.

Activities

We support the development, growth and quality of specialised parent-infant relationship teams.

Across the UK, we support local areas in the following ways:

- Support.  Bespoke development, implementation and strategic consultation, advice and mentoring.  We have learnt how to set up strong and effective services across the UK. Over the last six years, we have supported seven services around the country and have close relationships with other specialised parent-infant relationship teams nationwide. We freely share these learnings via this website, our toolkit, conversations and partnerships. 

- The Parent-Infant Network.  We invite every specialised parent-infant relationship team around the UK to join the national Parent-Infant Network. It is a free, multi-disciplinary collective that provides:

  • A space for shared learning and information
  • Continued professional development, peer discussions and mutual support

With the aim of:

  • Facilitating the sharing of resources, good practice and help with common challenges
  • Fostering a shared drive to improve the reach, quality and impact of team.

The Network offers:

  • Two face-to-face events each year
  • The network newsletter which further facilitates networking and collaboration

- Quality Standards.  With the Parent-Infant Network, we are developing a set of service standards for teams. This will complement the AIMH UK competencies for individual practitioners.  Over the coming year, we will co-create these standards and launch an accreditation scheme based on a peer-review process.

- Data Management.  

The Parent-Infant Foundation provides free software and support to any specialised parent-infant relationship team in the UK to enable the collection of relevant data about their service.  The Foundation data portal tracks bespoke output and outcome data that statutory or off-the-shelf data management systems often miss. 

This helps local teams to:

  • Communicate more easily with stakeholders, funders and commissioners
  • Benchmark their performance against an anonymised national data set
  • Support their quality improvement work

- Policy and Campaigns.  Part of our mission is to convince national and local decision makers across the UK about the importance of policies and services to support parent-infant relationships, and specifically about the importance of specialised parent-infant relationship teams.  We co-ordinate the Conception to Age 2 All-Party Parliamentary Group and the 1001 Critical Days movement.  Our most recent report Rare Jewels: Specialised Parent-infant Relationship Teams in the UK contains the most up-to-date analysis of provision across the UK and advocated for policy changes that will support the growth of services across the country.

- Contributing to the evidence base.  

The Parent-Infant Foundation is an evidence-based organisation:

  • We use and signpost to current evidence to assist our work with specialised parent-infant relationship teams and decision makers.
  • We support the creation of new evidence through our own research and evidence activities, and through our support to local teams.

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