Parenting and Family Support Steering Group
Summary Notes of meeting held on 11th February 2014
ITEM
1. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS
Sandra Holmes and Francesca Harris, Early Relationships Health
Visitors at the meeting to give more information about their
service.
Sandra and Francesca are employed by NBT NHS and have
been in post since January. The service is being piloted in Bristol
East Central from January until April 2014 before being rolled out
to other areas of Bristol. There is a commitment from NBT to train
more Health Visitors to support this expansion.
The Early Relationships Health Visiting Service offers therapeutic
early intervention to parents with young children who are affected
by mental health issues. The aim of the service is to promote
positive health and wellbeing for the parent, child and family. The
Health Visitors work with parents weekly for 6 weeks, and are
based at the Fishponds Family Practice.
The Early Relationship Health Visitors will do joint visits with the
family’s Health Visitor to assess the level of need in relation to
parental mental health and infant/child behaviour
Because the service is in the piloting stage, referrals are being
received only through Health Visitors. If early years practitioners
have a concern they can contact Sandra or Francesca for advice
via e-mail (their e-mail addresses are :
Francesca.harris@nbt.nhs.uk and
Sandra.holmes@nbt.nhs.uk.
Partnership Links
The following were suggested as useful links for the service :

Bluebell - a charity based in Bristol which provides a support
service for mothers with post natal depression both through group
work and 1:1 support. Further information is available at
http://www.bluebellcare.org

Rock- a –Bye – a programme providing targeted support for
mothers experiencing attachment issues with their babies. This
programme is currently being delivered for parents at Brentry and
Henbury Children’s Centre, Bannerman Road Children’s Centre,
St Pauls Children’s Centre and Illminster Avenue Children’s
Centre. This programme is being funded through the Early Years
Family Support Budget. Please contact Lucy Livingstone,
lucy.livingstone@homecall.co.uk for further information about
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training opportunities for staff and for information about staff
already trained to deliver the programme.

Early Help: it was suggested that the Early Relationship Health
Visitors could make links with East Central Early Help Manger,
Lindsey Dowdell, Lindsey.dowdell@bristol.gov.uk , for more
information about multi-agency partnership working in the East
Central area of Bristol.
2. Work with Parents Training Update
5 organisations had been invited to submit bids to deliver the
Work with Parents L3 Award. The closing date for submissions is 11th
February and it was anticipated that the contract would be awarded by
the 7th March.
The outcome of the service is for 32 learners (a mix of people
from different services) to achieve the Level 3 Award with an
opportunity for 2 practitioners to co-deliver the training and for 3
additional practitioners to shadow the trainers with a view to cofacilitation in the future.
An update will be provided at the next meeting of the PFSSG
.
3. Children’s Centre Staff Training Audit
A training audit has been completed which gives information
about staff at Children’s Centres trained to deliver parenting
programmes. This audit was carried out last summer in relation to
the Core Menu of 12 parenting programmes endorsed by the
PFSSG.
Information on data collected from this Audit is available on
request from Shamim Baloo (Shamim.baloo@bristol.gov.uk)by
the following categories:







4
Name of training programme
Name of staff trained
Role of staff
Date when training completed
Date when programme last delivered
Name of Children's Centre/Nursery School
Area where Children’s Centre is located
Notes of meeting held 27th November 2013 and Matters
Arising
Agenda Item 2 : Kids Company
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There has been no contact with Rachel Williams from Kids
Company regarding links with Children’s Centres to date. It was
agreed that links could be improved and that we need to work
closely with family support agencies to avoid duplication,
maximise resources and most importantly offer an accessible
service to families and young people
Agenda Item 3: Family Nurse Partnership
Francesca Harris corrected the minutes. In the first wave there
will be two FNP teams one to cover South Gloucestershire and
the other to cover North Bristol. Each team will have 4 nurses.
The second wave will cover North Somerset and South Bristol.
Referrals will be mainly through midwives. The initiative is based
on an American model with weekly visits to deliver “strength
based” intervention for pregnant young women under the age of
19. Pregnancy is a key time for women to have the information
and support to make healthy choices and changes (e.g. in
relation to obesity and smoking).
Francesca suggested contacting Nicola Lawrence at NBT to give
an update on progress at a future PFSSG meeting.
Agenda Item 4: Partnership working with Housing
List of Area Managers and Customer Service Points have been
sent to all members of the PFSSG.
5 Information Share
Jane Crane (Brentry and Henbury Children’s Centre )/Michaela
Willcox (St Pauls Nursery and Children’s Centre) :
The 3 Specialist Leaders in Education (SLE) for Family Support have
now established Area Family Support forums to share area based
information and practice for family support workers and partners
working in the areas . Please contact Sharyn Ayres
(sharyn.ayres@bristol.gov.uk) for information about the South Area
Forum, Michaela Willcox for the forum in East Central
michaela.willcox@bristol.gov.uk and Jane Crane for the Forum in
Bristol North jane@bhchildrenscentre.org.uk.
The East Central and North Forums meet as part of the wider Multi
Agency Network meetings in those areas
Rachel Williams (Early Years)
Rachel also reported that shortened versions of Children’s Centre
Registration forms for parents to complete are now available from the
Early Years Service . Please contact Rachel
(Rachel.williams@bristol.gov.uk) if you are able to distribute these
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registration forms to parents who have children under 5. Increasing
the numbers of children registered at Children’s Centres is a high
priority as the number of children reached by Children’s Centres has
a direct effect on the Children’s Centre OFSTED judgement.
Linda Vousden (Specialist HV with Gypsies and
Travellers/Heather Mundy (Joint Commissioning Team):
Linda highlighted the continuing challenges for families on the transit
site at Lawrence Weston where there is a requirement to move after
a maximum 12 week period. This affects the majority of families she
is working with.
Linda and Heather highlighted the importance of providing families
with an integrated service with close partnership working between
Health and education colleagues, site managers and the Gypsy,
Roma and Traveller community and their support networks.
The Forest School Project at Compass point attracted children from a
range of ages from 2 to 14. Partnership work with Four Villages
Children’s Centre Longcross is currently being planned.
For further information about support for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller
families please contact Linda Vousden (linda.vousden@nbt.nhs.uk)
In the first instance and Linda will signpost you as appropriate.
In the meantime , Shamim will forward Linda’s contact information to
Jane Crane, Sharyn Ayres and Michaela Willcox so that she can be
notified of meetings of the Family Support Area Forums (se above)
Simon Bird, (CAMHS NBT) and Hannah Russell (Emotional
Health and Wellbeing, BCC)
Simon reported that NBT has been awarded funding for Incredible
Years, and evidence based parenting programmes for the 8-9 year
age group. There was discussion about clarifying pathways into the
CAMHS service and how the CAMHS service can be better
integrated with the offer of other parent support services. Simon
suggested the mapping of services, and how these are connected,
with clearer communication about referrals so that professionals can
increase their knowledge and awareness. He would also welcome
opportunities for the sharing of expertise to improve outcomes for
families.
There is a meeting planned between Health colleagues and
managers of the Troubled Families Programme to look at joining up
the offer of support to families.
Morgan Daly : Healthwatch
Morgan reported that the service in Bristol was coming to the end of
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its first financial year. Healthwatch aims to make health and social
care services accessible to patients and the public by giving them a
voice to shape and influence these services. Healthwatch can offer
services advice on how they can get a better understanding of what
communities want and need. Please contact Morgan for further
information (morgan.daly@thecareforum.org.uk )
6 Any Other Business
Rachel reported that the Early Years Service has been instructed to
reduce the funding for the Family Information Service which provides
information to families with children and young people from pre –birth
to 25. The Service is therefore under review and some posts are at
risk. Until this review has been finalised it will be business as usual,
with the current service proposed to be closed at the end of March
2014.
Summary by Asma Ahmad
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