PIP UK secures funding to support development across Essex

PIP UK has been awarded National Lottery Funding to test and evaluate the development of a specialised parent-infant relationship team across Essex.

We are delighted to have received £90,290 from the National Lottery Community Fund to test and evaluate our newly-developed toolkit, devised to support local areas set up and embed a specialist parent-infant relationship team.

We will be working in partnership with Thurrock CCG and Essex Partnership University Foundation Trust (EPUT). The specific project follows almost a year of partnership, working to establish the local needs for parent-infant work across the breadth of Essex and understanding how a team could be structured and operate over such a large geography.  The seven CCGs, the two local authorities and the single unitary authority across Essex have been integral in shaping and funding the project.

The next phase of work will be evaluated in terms of how the newly-formed team, known locally as Together with Baby, will begin its journey to supporting local families and multi-agency partners across Essex. 

The Together with Baby team will be the 29th parent-infant team within the UK.  Although only a few in number, their work is valued and valuable in supporting parent-infant relationship difficulties that put babies’ emotional development at risk.  Their importance in supporting this foundational time of life is being increasingly recognised by local and national decision makers and PIP UK are keen to see such support available across the UK. 

PIP UK has been developing and supporting local parent-infant teams for the last seven years, and in October, will be launching a comprehensive toolkit for local areas to use when considering or implementing a new parent-infant team. The toolkit is the result of contributions from many practitioners, academics, commissioners and other experts across the field of parent-infant relationships and is aimed to be a repository of expertise, guidance, information and resources.

The toolkit will be thoroughly evaluated, reviewed and enhanced in a years’ time as a result of this National Lottery-funded project.  We are delighted to have a small team from City University’s Maternal and Child Research Team evaluating the project.  All findings and process from the project will be communicated via various media over the coming year to facilitate sharing to the existing network of parent-infant teams around the country, and to support those local areas considering setting up a team.  Ultimately this project will formally shape how parent-infant teams are developed, sustained and measured in the UK.