Following the release of the 'The best start for life: a vision for the 1,001 critical days' report, we've looked at how peer support can complement the Start for Life recommendations...
The Start for Life vision:
- Every family will be supported by a range of professionals and volunteers, each of whom brings skills, knowledge and empathy to interactions with families. From their first appointment, every parent and carer must feel that they are heard and that they can ask for help.
- Parents and carers should be confident that the people there to help them have the right skills and knowledge and that whoever they speak to is aware of the full range of support available. Above all, families should feel that every individual they encounter treats them with dignity and respect.
- To make this possible, the Start for Life workforce, whether public or third sector, needs to have up to date skills and knowledge about their own area as well as manageable workloads and appropriate supervision. However, professionals and volunteers also need to understand how their service fits into the bigger picture of support for families.
Peer support has a key role to play
Improving seamless support
The report says at present, parents are being sent from one service to another and no one is looking at holistic support.
Local peer supporters can help parents navigate the services available to them. Well trained and supervised peer supporters guide and connect families into support available to them using inclusive and sensitive approaches.
The report emphasises the need to help signpost families to support and services available to where they live. Our experience however is that vulnerable families need supported signposting – a key role of peer support is nurturing the confidence of parents to take that vital first step.
We need to ensure that it isn’t just the confident parents that benefit from services. Many parents are very wary of professionals, they fear being judged.
Let’s ensure the vital role of peer support is valued and recognised as part of this important Start for Life initiative.
Sharing the lessons of best practice
Sharing best practice is a key priority for Start for Life.
The Parents 1st UK website shares “what works” around quality perinatal peer support and we encourage all our members to share their learning. Please let us know what’s going on in your area.
We welcome ideas of how to embed peer support alongside public services to make a real difference to parents and babies during the 1001 Critical Days. Please join the discussion below or email us at [email protected]
How can volunteers and peer support workers influence the Start for Life vision?
A key role for volunteering and peer support workers is to ensure the voices of parents are heard, help build and introduce parents to Family Hub Networks, and co-design approaches that are truly meaningful to local parents.
A relational approach is vital – which is why it’s so important to recruit peer supporters with the right personal qualities and support them to further develop their skills.
Impact measuring
There will be a lot of focus on impact measurement over the next 2 years for Start for Life so it will be interesting to see how that develops.
Demonstrating impact of peer support programmes will be beneficial and encourage investment. If you're not sure how to measure impact, or what you should be measuring, please read our free guide for useful tips and suggestions.