Last Friday (18/06/21), The Royal Foundation launched a new Centre for Early Childhood to drive awareness of the extraordinary impact of the early years, in order to transform society for generations to come.
Here at Parents 1st UK, we very much welcome the recognition that early prevention and community support are key to giving babies the best possible start in life. It reinforces what we, and other peer support initiatives have been saying for many years. The evidence is clear, and it is time ALL families get the support they need. This new Centre will help to keep the focus on early years and we hope as a result we’ll begin to see more investment in babies and their parents or carers.
Parents 1st UK was among the 8 organisations who attended a roundtable discussion with The Duchess of Cambridge in September 2020 to discuss parent-to-parent support. We are excited to see what’s next for The Royal Foundation’s Centre for Early Childhood and we hope to work further with both the Royal Foundation and other organisations to continue to raise awareness of why early prevention is vital to infant development and the unique contribution of quality perinatal peer support initiatives.
To coincide with this launch, The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood published their inaugural report, Big Change Starts Small, a summary of science and research which underlines the critical lifelong impact of the early years in building strong and healthy societies.
From pregnancy onwards, the context in which we develop matters too. Supporting healthy development in early childhood goes far beyond looking after the physical needs of babies and infants. Our earliest relationships, environments and experiences can profoundly shape the developing brain, which is characterised by exceptional plasticity during this period. This in turn influences the adults we become and also how we parent the next generation.
Big Change Starts Small
The report also sets out recommendations on how all aspects of society can contribute positively and make a difference on this important issue. We were particularly pleased to see the importance of using strengths in communities recognised, with the report calling for society to encourage and harness communities of support, scaling up existing provision and championing the value this brings. (Chapter 4)
This recommendation is at the very heart of our own core values. In 2004, Parents 1st UK CEO, Celia Suppiah, spent two years working with and evaluating 10 Community Parent Programmes that she had helped to establish across the UK. Drawing on the strengths of local mothers living in disadvantaged communities, she found them uniquely placed to offer a different kind of support to parents during pregnancy, birth and the early years.
Inspired by the findings, Celia resigned from a long career in the NHS and established a Community Parent programme in South Essex in 2010. The Essex programme became a national model of good practice and Celia began supporting other organisations to develop similar Community Parent programmes across the UK. In March 2020, Celia launched a new national charity, Parents 1st UK, which aims to raise awareness of the value of peer support and enable more good quality, sustainable peer support programmes to flourish across the UK.
Quality peer support initiatives make a unique contribution to achieving the aims that the Royal Foundation sets out. We use a tried and tested one-to-one, strengths-based model of perinatal peer support that builds on the wealth of experience within local communities. With careful recruitment, quality training and ongoing supervision, quality peer support embeds alongside professional services. By working together, we can nurture the confidence of parents to develop their resilience, knowledge and skills to give their babies the best possible start in life
Celia Suppiah, CEO Parents 1st UK