Parent-Infant Foundation awareness training pilot in Wales sees positive results

The Parent-Infant Foundation’s pilot awareness raising training project, ‘BEAR – Building Early Attuned Relationships’, based in Wales, has come to an end, with some brilliant results and positive feedback.

The aim of the National Lottery supported ‘BEAR’ project is to increase knowledge across professional and community domains about the importance of the first 1000 days (known as the First 1001 Days in England). It also aims to increase awareness of the role parent-infant relationships play in making the most of the earliest years in a baby’s life and to offer practical ideas to support families to build early attuned relationships.

During November and December 2025, Dr Liz Gregory and Dr Nicola Canale travelled to all seven regions in Wales on behalf of the Parent-Infant Foundation and ran sessions for 172 participants across health, education, social care and the third sector.

The feedback has been fantastic. Almost all (99%) attendees said they would recommend the BEAR training to colleagues​ and 99% of attendees also noted they were leaving the training very or somewhat aware of key things to consider when observing and supporting parent-infant relationships.

One attendee commented: “This training is so important. It provides time for reflection and discussion and the messages need to be rolled out to anyone working with children in the first 1000 days.​”

We will now be reviewing the evaluations in more depth, tweaking the content and developing a strategy to plan a wider roll out across Wales, and possibly beyond. Keep an eye out for updates.

Find out more about the BEAR training pilot, watch our BEAR film and listen to the BEAR lullaby here.