A strong emotional and physical attachment to at least one primary caregiver is critical to personal development.  Prolonged periods of stress that occur when a responsive and sensitive caregiver is absent (otherwise known as relational trauma) can significantly impact on a child’s ability to learn and develop.  These children are likely to achieve less in school and in the workplace, are more likely to engage in anti-social behaviour and are less healthy (both physically and mentally) than those who have had a better start in life.  This is likely to continue in an intergenerational cycle, if this cycle is not broken.

These difficulties can arise for many reasons e.g. difficulties during pregnancy and birth, childhood or parental illness, family stress, separation and loss.  Research has shown that having at least one secure attachment to an adult is the most significant protective factor to ameliorate the impact of ACES and build resilience in children and young people. The Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) has recently identified the importance of programmes which can improve attachment security.

In addition to the child-parent relationship, there are multiple family relationships and dynamics to consider e.g., siblings, partners and co-parents, blended families.

Through parenting positively and building meaningful relationships, parents can help raise healthy children, develop a more calm and peaceful household, with fewer arguments and conflicts. Research tells us that children who grow up with positive parenting are more likely to:

• Do better at school
• Have better relationships with family members and friends
• Have higher self-esteem and confidence
• Have fewer behavioural issues
• Be able to manage their emotions better

Advice, Support and Interventions to be delivered

Family Mediation – Family Mediation is a key tool for practitioners in working in the Cardiff Family Advice & Support. Family Mediation is an intervention that helps parents and adolescents where there has been a breakdown of communication within the home. It offers a safe space for families to talk openly and honestly to one another. Mediation workers work with both the parents and the young person, to guide the family through the presenting issues and get to the root problem.

Family Mediation is primarily used with adolescents (13 and upwards) and their families, however the intervention may incorporate all members of the household and wider family. It is a tool that can help families find the existing strengths they have, it builds resilience and seeks solutions to help deal with conflict. This in turn can reduce the overall stress within the home and help aid in a family’s functioning and ability to communicate. Family Mediation can prevent family breakdown and is a key intervention in preventing youth homelessness. It is also used in cases of parental separation and divorce, where plans around contact and finances need to be discussed and agreed upon.

Restorative approaches – is a communication approach for strengthening relationships, through repairing relationships and preventing and resolving conflict through addressing the needs of all involved. It gives all parties a voice and a way to move forward.

Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) – concentrates on finding solutions in the present time and exploring one’s hope for the future to find resolution. This method takes the approach that, you know what you need to do to improve your own life and, with the appropriate coaching and questioning, are capable of finding the best solutions.  SFBT can stand alone as a therapeutic intervention, or it can be used along with other therapy styles and treatments.  It is used to treat people of all ages and a variety of issues, including child behavioural problems, family dysfunction, domestic or child abuse, addiction, and relationship problems.

Watch, Wait & Wonder (WWW) – is a child led psychotherapeutic approach that specifically and directly uses the infant’s spontaneous activity in a free play format to enhance maternal sensitivity and responsiveness, the child’s sense of self and self-efficacy, emotion regulation, and the child-parent attachment relationship.  The approach provides space for the infant/child and parent to work through developmental and relational struggles through play.  Also central to the process is engaging the parent to be reflective about the child’s inner world of feelings, thoughts and desires, through which the parent recognises the separate self of the infant and gains an understanding of her own emotional responses to her child.  WWW is primarily suitable for young children (0-4 years) and their families, although it has been used with latency aged children and their parents quite effectively.

Motivational Interviewing – a counselling method that helps people resolve ambivalent feelings and insecurities to find the internal motivation they need to change their behaviour.  A practical, empathetic and short-term process takes into consideration how difficult it is to make life changes.  This intervention helps people become motivated to change the behaviours that are preventing them from making healthier choices.  It can also prepare individuals for further, more specific types of therapies. Research has shown that this intervention works well with individuals who start unmotivated or unprepared for change. Motivational interviewing is also appropriate for people who are angry or hostile.  They may not be ready to commit to change, but motivational interviewing can help them move through the emotional stages of change necessary to find their motivation.  The application of motivational interviewing techniques is considered a successful technique in Cardiff’s IPC Review.

Parenting. Give it Time.  – The Welsh Government have produced a number of information and advice sheets on tricky moments and behaviours, which practitioners can use to advise parents.

Primary Care Triple P – for 12-16 years. A series of 4 brief (15-30 minutes) 1:1 meetings to discuss any problems a parent is experiencing with their child or teenager’s behaviour. The trained practitioner can provide suggestions using DVD clips and Tip Sheets.

GroBrain – The Early Intervention Foundation has recently identified the importance of programmes which can address improved attachment security and improved child behavioural regulation.  GroBrain is run as a 5 week programme for expectant and new parents (with babies aged zero – 12 months), that explores the importance of the period from conception to the age of two when the vital foundations for lifelong health and wellbeing are laid.  Parents are encouraged to continue with the good things they are already doing while being given insight into the role they have to play in a babies’ brain development, enabling a strong motivation to make small significant changes to their parenting.

GroBrain explores:

• How the brain works
• Brain development in the womb — including the effects of substance use and diet, health problems and domestic violence and practical strategies to help with managing stress
• How parent’s ‘wire up’ their baby’s brain – helping the brain grow. Attachment and the ‘thinking’ and ‘emotional’ brain.
• Emotional regulation—the stress hormone cortisol and the part parents play in helping babies to calm and de stress
• GroBrain is designed as 4-session programme; the 5th week provides opportunity for introduction to the course and includes baby massage.

The Family Links Parent Nurturing Programme is a 10-week programme that aims to help adults understand and manage feelings and behaviour and become more positive and nurturing in their relationships with children and each other.  It encourages an approach to relationships that gives children and adults an emotionally healthy start for their lives and learning.

American child psychologist Dr Stephen J Bavolek developed the Nurturing Programme in the 1970s. Bavolek researched dysfunctional and abusive family interactions; he identified four destructive parental behaviour patterns and developed the Nurturing Programme to counter these.

The Nurturing Programme has been awarded the CANparent Quality Mark, which ensures that organisations running universal parenting classes are evidence based, monitored and evaluated to improve parent / child relationships and to make a positive difference.

The Strengthening Families Programme 10-14 is designed for parents and their children aged between 10-14 years to attend together and is aimed at both universal and targeted levels of need.  The programme goals are to:

• Enhance protective factors and reduce risk factors through delivery of core themes specifically related to issues experienced by all families with 10 to 14 year olds;
• Help families communicate and increase confidence in parenting skills;
• Help youth in the transition period and provide them with skills to prevent peer pressure;
• Help parents set boundaries.
• The success of the programme has been measured in a number of independent USA based RCTs, which indicated positive long-term outcomes including reduced substance use, aggression and hostility and improved school attendance and academics.

 

Parents Plus & Parents First – The psychology-led 1:1 based parenting services are for parents who would benefit from a bespoke, enhanced level of support in the three key areas of:

• building secure attachments
• enhancing positive behaviours
• promoting children’s development.

Interventions are informed by psychology and are time limited to 6-10 weeks. The service makes use of counselling skills, solution focused approaches and motivational interviewing approaches to engage with families and apply psychological theory during our interventions to help parents make changes in the three key areas above.  The offer includes specialist parent-infant work with parents and children in the First 1000 days. Interventions are informed by the Infant Mental Health Framework and practitioners in this team have also achieved level 1 of the AIMH UK (Association of Infant Mental Health) IMH Competency Framework.

An intervention is formulated and supervised under the guidance of an Educational Psychologist and is carried out by highly skilled parenting practitioners.

Attachment/Relational parenting interventions focus on:

• Helping parents to understanding early brain development, the effects of toxic stress and the importance of a secure attachment to build wellbeing and resilience in children.
• Building secure attachments through attuned, sensitive and mind-minded parenting.
• Helping parents to regulate their children’s behaviour.
• Helping children to recover from relational trauma or ACEs
• Behavioural parenting interventions focus on:
• Understanding behaviour as communication.
• Understanding the emotional source of problematic behaviours.
• High levels of warmth and nurture alongside age appropriate behavioural management strategies.
• Setting limits and problem solving.
• Clear and consistent boundaries.
• Promoting discipline alongside relational repair.
• Developmental parenting interventions focus on:
• Helping parents to play, interact and support their child in line with the child’s developmental stage (i.e., emotional, developmental and social age).

Teen Triple P – The Cardiff IPC review lists Triple P (0-16) as an example of an evidence-based early help programme addressing these needs relating to families with younger children.

Triple P Positive Parenting Programme is an evidence-based parenting programme which aims to give parents practical strategies to help them build healthy, strong relationships, confidently develop their child’s behaviour and emotional regulation, and prevent problems developing. Interventions can be delivered in a group or on a 1:1 basis for parents of children up to 12 years or 12 to 16 years of age. The intervention delivered will depend on family need:

• Group – five group sessions and home practice with support from a practitioner.
• Standard Triple P – 10 individual sessions with a practitioner where parents set their own goals and work out the changes they would like to see in their child’s behaviour.

Parents as Partners – Parents as Partners is a course to support couples or co-parents (not involved in court proceedings) in strengthening their relationship with each other, so they more able to face life’s ups and downs.  Parents as Partners has proven results in helping:

• Improve relationship and communication with co-parents
• Strengthen family relationships and improve child’s wellbeing and success
• Manage the challenges and stress of family life
• Reduce conflict in parental relationship

Groups of couples attend 16 weekly two-hour sessions delivered by male and female co-practitioners. Each group meeting begins with an open-ended check-in, followed by an agenda that focuses on one of the five aspects of life in the risk-protective model of family functioning.

• Parents’ individual adaptation
• Couple relationship quality
• Relationship quality in parents’ families of origin
• Quality of parents’ relationship with the child
• Balance between life stressors and social supports

A component of the programme is that it seeks to improve children’s outcomes by improving the quality of inter-parental relationships.  It has evidence of a short-term positive impact on child outcomes from at least one rigorous evaluation.

Child development refers to the changes that occur as a child grows and develops in relation to being physically healthy, mentally alert, emotionally sound, socially competent and ready to learn.

When a baby is born, the brain is very much unfinished.  A robust body of evidence highlights the vital role that sensitive and responsive parenting plays in ensuring optimal brain development and attachment security during this critical period.  We also know that the opposite is true. Although every child is unique, there are typical developmental patterns which can be expected in child and adolescent development.  The home environment plays a key role in supporting a child’s development.  The Early Intervention Foundation has recently identified the importance of programmes which can address improved attachment security and improved child behavioural regulation.

Advice, Support and Interventions to be delivered

Enhanced Heath Visiting – Flying Start Health Visitors deliver an enhanced core programme in addition to the Healthy Child Wales Programme (2015) to all families eligible in Cardiff. Health Visiting caseloads are reduced in Flying Start to increase effectiveness which results in more comprehensive and faster assessment of need, more effective referral to other support and more flexible and intensive support for families in the antenatal period and beyond. Health Visitors support the early identification of need and submit early referrals to improve outcomes.

 

Health Visitors complete specific assessments for early identification of need. The Wellcomm assessment is a toolkit designed to help identify children who might be experiencing delays with speech and language and is completed at 12 and 15 months of age as part of the Flying Start core programme, then again at 18 months as a targeted intervention if required. It can then help put immediate interventions into place while waiting for a more formal assessment, this would include referral to a Community Nursery Nurse.

 

Community Nursery Nurses provide intensive bespoke interventions in the family home for a wide range of issues including play and stimulation, speech and language and behavioural interventions such as toilet training, along with routinely providing home safety checks and advice. They are also involved in group delivery of specific areas such as baby massage and weaning parties known as “Food and Fun”.

 

The Assistant Practitioner for the Paediatric continence service (APPC) is a new role in Cardiff which focusses on early intervention and support to children and families regarding healthy bladder and bowels. The aim is to provide early intervention and support to children and families with toilet training and subsequently to increase the number of children entering nursery/ school fully toilet trained. As a result of this the long term aim is to reduce the number of children waiting for the Paediatric Continence Service and to reduce the long term morbidity for children.

 

The role of the health visiting team is also pivotal in promoting the pre-school immunisation schedule across the service aiming to increase the overall immunisation rate amongst pre-school children.

 

Flying Start Outreach – Although Flying Start is geographically targeted, local authorities receive a small element of ‘Outreach’ funding as part of their Flying Start grant to deliver elements of the programme to children across the wider local authority.  The Welsh government guidance states that Children in Wales, under 4 years of age can have access to all elements of Flying Start services, through Outreach funding, if they have an identified need and the resources are available. In Cardiff, the following have been identifies as being eligible for Flying Start Outreach:

• Families with 0-3’s who live in homeless accommodation in Cardiff
• Gypsy Traveller families with 0-3’s resident in Rover Way, Cardiff, will be offered the full Flying Start entitlement as far as it is practicable.
• Teen Parents under 16 years.
• Referrals will be considered for families who have been identified as high risk or vulnerable in the first 1000 days (See Flying Start Outreach Policy).

 

Flying Start Dietetics – The Dietetics team offer a range of interventions to support families to access a healthy, affordable, nutritious diet to benefit their health and wellbeing. These include AGORED Cymru accredited practical cookery and nutrition courses for families, and staff training around food and nutrition:

• Get Cooking is a practical cooking course for mums, dads and carers, including activities and messages about healthy eating, food safety, minimising food waste and eating well on a budget. The course is delivered over 9 weeks with 2 hour weekly sessions.
• Level 1 Community Food and Nutrition Skills is a course for mums, dads and carers, providing evidence based, accurate, and consistent information on food and nutrition to enable individuals to make healthy and sustainable food choices. The course is delivered over 5 weeks with 2 hour weekly sessions.
• Level 2 Community Food and Nutrition Skills is a course for early help staff and external partners working with families, delivered over 5 weeks and 4 hour weekly sessions. It equips participants with the nutrition knowledge and skills to cascade evidence based, consistent food and nutrition messages to the community groups they work with. Completion of this course is a requirement for community nursery nurses who support in the delivery of some of our dietetic interventions, such as Get Cooking.
• Staff training – An annual programme of nutrition training and update sessions are offered to health visitor and community nursery nurses to support delivery of the Healthy Child Wales Programme. The dietetic team also provide Little Cooks training to support staff in the delivery of the Little Cooks programme within Flying Start Stay and Play settings.
• Level 2 Community Food and Nutrition Skills Early Years is a course to equip early years practitioners with the nutrition knowledge and skills to cascade evidence based, consistent food and nutrition messages to children and families, and improve food and drink provision in their setting. The course is delivered over 6 weeks with 2 hour weekly sessions. Attendance to this course is recommended as part of the Gold Standard Healthy Snack Award and is a requirement to achieve the Gold Standard Healthy Snack Award Plus.
• The Cardiff Gold Standard Healthy Snack Award – is a scheme that all childcare settings within Flying Start are part of. It supports the provision of healthy snacks and drinks. Dietitians carry out visits to childcare settings to support them in achieving the award. The award is given to settings who meet the strict criteria around:
• Healthy snacks and drinks
• The environment children eat in
• Good food hygiene
• Promoting healthy eating through day-to-day activities

 

Flying Start Speech and Language – The Speech and Language Therapy team has written and supports training packages delivered by the Community Nursery Nurses. These sessions are delivered at critical points in the child’s development to promote a positive communication environment.

 

There is a clear pathway in place for referrals into the service from other teams. Referrals are primarily made by the Health Team and Childcare. The screening tool from The Wellcomm Toolkit is used to universally screen children at 12 and 15 and 18 months. This screen is carried out by the child’s Health Visitor. The child is then screened by their key worker during each term of childcare. Based on the results of The Wellcomm Screen children with mild to moderate communication delays are offered input by Community Nursery Nurses or by childcare staff. Children with moderate to severe communication delays are referred for targeted support by the FS SLT team. Parents are encouraged to self-refer into the service at any stage that they feel they would like advice or support. Once children are referred into the SLT team, they receive an initial assessment from one of the Speech and Language Therapists at a Communication Clinic. Following this they are the offered targeted and bespoke support or referred onto more appropriate services. This service is offered in the family home. The SLT will also support the childcare by providing specialist advice for children with more complex communication needs.

 

The Flying Start Inclusion Team work with, support and coordinate services for Flying Start children with additional needs, their families and childcare providers to ensure that children access their entitlement to Flying Start services with a smooth transition into settings/schools. They work closely with the Disability and Early Years Inclusion

Team and other professionals from health, education and the voluntary sector. The team monitor and support childcare providers and nurseries to successfully include Flying Start children with additional needs enabling them to access their entitlements, environment and make progress.

 

Mini Talkers, Mini Explorers is a 6 week course for parents/carers with toddlers up to the age of four. The programme is designed to support parents as they scaffold their child’s development through hands-on, fun, sensory activities. Over the 6 weeks, parent and child

will discover:

• Different types of play that involve the 5senses
• The importance of songs and rhymes
• The importance of books and stories
• Routines can be fun
• Physical Play
• Importance of talking to your child

 

It’s Child’s Play – An 8-week course for parents/carers of children between 18 months and 4 years of age full of hands on fun experiences to develop an understanding of how a child learns and develops through play. Over the 8 weeks parents:

• Understand how play supports physical development
• Understand how play supports emotional Well Being through books, stories and rhymes
• Understand how play helps a child to develop their thinking skills.
• Understand how play helps a child to develop language.
• Understand how play supports speech and language development
• Understand how playing with a child can help build relationships; show care and affection; and be fun for parents too.

 

Stay and Play (open access drop-in) – Stay & Play sessions are a chance for parents/carers get together and spend time playing with your children. It can be wonderful playing

together in your own home, and Stay & Play can add to that by offering you a place to

come together where you don’t have to worry about tidying up afterwards. Parents can enjoy playing too! Play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination and supports all areas of development; it is how children at a very early age make sense of the world around them. Share your little ones experiences by enjoying quality activities with them that encourage exploration through the senses.

 

Your Baby is Amazing – A small, intimate group run over 4 weeks for parents/carers and their baby, to learn about how face-to-face and tuning into a baby promotes their development.

 

Flying Start Speech and Language – Children with identified communication delays are offered assessment by an SLT in a clinic setting. Advice and intervention are offered as appropriate. This is home based and delivered via trained practitioners under the supervision of a Speech and Language Therapist. Alternatively, they may be offered intervention directly with an SLT or a Wellcomm intervention. Further bespoke input and advice may also be offered to the childcare staff supporting these identified children.

Primary Care Triple P –12-16 years. A series of 4 brief (15-30 minutes) 1:1 meetings over a 4-6 week period to discuss ways to manage common developmental issues or behaviours. The trained practitioner can provide suggestions using DVD clips and Tip Sheets.

GroBrain – GroBrain is run as a 5 week programme for expectant and new parents (with babies aged zero – 12 months), that explores the importance of the period from conception to the age of two when the vital foundations for lifelong health and wellbeing are laid.  Parents are encouraged to continue with the good things they are already doing while being given insight into the role they have to play in a babies’ brain development, enabling a strong motivation to make small significant changes to their parenting.

 

Parents Plus & Parents First are psychology-led 1:1 based parenting services for parents who would benefit from a bespoke, enhanced level of support in the three key areas of:

building secure attachments

enhancing positive behaviours

promoting children’s development.

 

The offer includes specialist parent-infant work with parents and children in the First 1000 days. Interventions are informed by the Infant Mental Health Framework and practitioners in this team have also achieved level 1 of the AIMH UK (Association of Infant Mental Health) IMH Competency Framework.

The stress of living in poverty or worrying about financial health, impacts families across Cardiff. Cardiff’s IPC Review notes the growing evidence base that rapid response for young people at risk of homelessness or entry into care includes an element of family mediation, practical support and access to appropriate accommodation or supported housing and other services.

Advice, Support and Interventions to be delivered

Possessing knowledge of national and local financial and housing systems and processes will enable practitioners to support parents with worries about feeding their family, paying bills and preventing homelessness. This will need to include (but is not exhaustive of):

• Grant and Discounts – assisting service users in understanding eligibility criteria, completing online applications e.g., Welsh Water Assist.
• Universal Credit/ Legacy Benefit – assisting service users in understanding the difference between the benefits, how to apply for UC, how to pay rent using benefits.
• What to do with a negative benefit decision or sanction – assisting a service user to ask a decision maker to review a decision (mandatory re-consideration), signpost to Advice Line for specialist advice when formal appeals are required.
• Food Benefits – signposting service users on the telephone to Hubs for Foodbank Vouchers or providing the Vouchers on home visits, advice on Free School Meals, SHEP, and Healthy Start Vouchers.
• Disability Benefits – providing advice on Personal Independence Payment, Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance, and Carers Allowance. Assisting service users making the call to request an application form and providing guidance on completing applications, or signposting to Hubs for assistance with the completion of longer forms.
• Overview of Housing Solutions (social housing and private rented sector) – and signposting to Housing Solutions Team when an appointment is required.
• Overview of homelessness support – providing initial advice and signposting to Housing Options Centre.
• Budget management & debt (include an overview of rent / mortgage arrears) – signposting to Money Advice Officers based in Hubs, providing assistance with simple budgeting based on Money Advice Service good practice.
• Overview of the benefit cap and schemes to help – providing advice about schemes to assist with shortfall e.g., Discretionary Housing Payments and how being in work or in receipt of Disability benefits removes the cap. Referrals to Into Work Service (referred via Gateway) to help with job seeking/ work readiness with a view to escaping the cap
• Overview of Into Work Services – refer in via Gateway for assessment for a variety of projects.
• Offering Advice line as a single point of contact for support for staff and service users.

 

Building Blocks (Save The Children) – Cardiff Early Helps teams are referral partners for Building Blocks.  Building Blocks grants allow families with a child under 6 to be provided with early learning packs tailored to their child’s age and stage of development and household items to help alleviate stress and build positive routines around meal and bedtimes.

The World Health Organisation describes mental health as “a state of well-being in which the individual realises his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”.  Mental health is determined by biological, psychological, social, economic and environmental factors which interact in complex ways.  Public Health Wales notes that around a quarter of the population experience mental health problems. The Early Intervention Foundation notes that the wellbeing and mental health of a child or young person supports positive outcomes in other areas, such as performance at school or behaviour at home. Early intervention can help to build up the social and emotional skills which are so essential for learning and life, support future good mental health, and discourage risky behaviour such as smoking and substance abuse.

Anyone can be affected at any stage of life. As such, in Cardiff Early Help, we consider the mental health of the infant, the child or young person and the parent.  Infant mental health describes the social and emotional well-being and development of children in the earliest years of life. Crucially, infant mental health relies on the healthy functioning of the nurturing relationship between caregiver and child. In other words, infant mental health reflects whether children have the secure, responsive relationships that they need to thrive.

Advice, Support and Interventions to be delivered

Primary Mental Health Specialists (PMHS) – available to offer consultations to colleagues, assessments and direct clinical work to support the mental health of children and young people aged 4 to 17 years 9 months, where there are concerns around emotional wellbeing and mental health. The core business of PMHS is:

1. The mental health assessment of Children and Young People up to 18 years, under Part 1 of the Mental Health Measure (Wales). The Measure specifies that referrals for a Part 1 assessment can only be made by GPs and Secondary mental health services (i.e. CAMHS). Contact with family has to be made within 28 days of receiving the referral for an assessment.
2. Provide brief (6 sessions) therapeutic interventions for children and young people with mental health difficulties in the mild to moderate range, following assessment.
3. Provide consultation and advice to parents and children, which might include signposting and facilitating referrals to community resources and other health service teams. This latter function might be carried out by the core team or the community based senior practitioners who can offer face to face consultations in schools and other community settings.
4. Provide consultation and advice to professionals working with children and families e.g. GPs, Other health service professionals, Schools, Social Services, Youth Service, Third Sector.

 

Parents Plus & Parents First are psychology-led 1:1 based parenting services for parents of children aged up to 4, living in Flying Start areas who would benefit from a bespoke, enhanced level of support in the three key areas of:

• building secure attachments
• enhancing positive behaviours
• promoting children’s development.

The offer includes specialist parent-infant work with parents and children in the First 1000 days. Interventions are informed by the Infant Mental Health Framework and practitioners in this team have also achieved level 1 of the AIMH UK (Association of Infant Mental Health) IMH Competency Framework.

 

ASSIST – Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training teaches participants to recognise warning signs of suicide, and how to then create plans to support immediate safety.  It is widely used by healthcare providers, but participants do not require any formal training to attend the workshop.  It helps individuals understand the ways personal and societal attitudes affect views on suicide and interventions, it provides guidance and first aid to a person at risk, it helps participants identify key elements of a suicide safety plans and it orchestrate the actions to implement it.

SafeTALK – training prepares anyone 15 or older, regardless of prior experience or training, to become a suicide-alert helper.  Training as a SafeTALK-trained suicide alert helper aims to equip individuals to:

• Move beyond common tendencies to miss, dismiss or avoid suicide.
• Identify people who have thoughts of suicide.
• Apply the TALK steps (Tell, Ask, Listen and Keep-safe) to connect a person thinking about suicide to a suicide intervention resource.

SafeTALK-trained helpers can recognise signals and take action by connecting those struggling with life-saving intervention resources, such as caregivers trained in ASSIST. Trained helpers work to provide suicide-safer communities, alongside intervention resources, to identify and avert suicide risks.  Those trained will learn to notice and respond to scenarios whereby they suspect suicidal thoughts are present, recognize invitations for help and move beyond common tendency to miss, dismiss or avoid.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) – is a talking therapy that can help manage problems by changing the way we think and behave.  Its most commonly used to treat anxiety and depression, but can be useful for other mental and physical health problems.  CBT is based on the concept that thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and actions are interconnected, and that negative thoughts and feelings can trap individuals in a vicious cycle.  CBT aims to help individuals to deal with overwhelming problems in a more positive way by breaking them down into smaller parts.  Individuals are shown how to change these negative patterns to improve the way they feel.  It deals with current problems, rather than focusing on issues from the past.  It looks for practical ways to improve state of mind on a daily basis.  The eventual aim of therapy is to teach individuals to apply the skills in daily life, helping them to manage problems and to stop them having a negative impact even after a course of treatment finishes.

The specialised parent-infant relationship team in Cardiff Parenting works with the parent and infant to support the parent-infant relationship and mental health in the first 1000 days.  In partnership with specialised practitioners from the Flying Start Health Visiting Team, Thinking Together Conversations are available to colleagues to focus on developing the parent-infant relationship.

Education is one of the surest routes out of poverty.  Cardiff’s’ Capital Ambition states that we are committed to making sure that every child has the best start in life and that we will double our efforts to make sure that no child is left behind.  A key factor in developing Cardiff Family Advice & Support will be supporting families to:

• Understand the importance of education.
• How they can support their and their children’s learning and foster a sense of ambition.
• Encourage good attendance and engagement/participation in school.

Advice, Support and Interventions to be delivered

Accredited Centre – Having an Accredited Centre within the service allows us to offer accreditation on the courses that our teams deliver. This provides family members who engage with our services an acknowledgment of their time and commitment by gaining a recognised qualification. Through providing these opportunities we are contributing to the promotion of lifelong learning, as well as having a positive impact on the well-being, resilience and skills within the family.

 

The courses currently accredited through our centre include ‘Its Child’s Play’, ‘Mini Talkers, Mini Explorers’, ‘Get Cooking’ and the ‘Parent Nurturing Programme’.

 

Any centre delivering Agored provision must have appropriate quality systems in place to underpin delivery and evidence that it is implemented effectively. Within Early Help our aim is to provide quality assured training through:

• A team of well informed, committed and supported tutors
• Standardised, evidence based, up-to-date resources to support learner’s study
• Guidance and support for learners and provision for individual needs
• Equal opportunities in practice that help to maximise the participation of learners
• Assessment procedures, which are inclusive and offer participation, equity and reliable standardisation
• Systems which provide efficient recording and evaluation
• Progression routes for learners

 

The Flying Start Advisory Team’s role is to monitor and evaluate the quality of childcare provision for two to three year olds within Flying Start Childcare settings. This is based on current research into early year’s development. Support will include visits to settings to monitor and model good practice; arranging good practice visits; practical workshops; signposting staff to other professionals; facilitating central based mandatory training, and providing bespoke in house training. Quality of service delivered through settings is continually evaluated.

The Thrive Approach – has been adopted by many Cardiff schools, often in combination with nurture provision.  Any family-trained practitioners would complement this approach.  The approach provides a way of working with children and young people that supports optimal social and emotional development.  In addition, the approach can work in a targeted way with children and young people who may have struggled with difficult life events to help them re-engage with life and learning.

Theraplay – has been adopted by many Cardiff schools, often in combination with nurture provision.  Any trained practitioners would complement this approach.  Theraplay is a child and family therapy for building and enhancing attachment, self-esteem, trust in others, and joyful engagement.  It is based on the natural patterns of playful, healthy interaction between parent and child and is personal, physical, and fun.  Theraplay interactions focus on four essential qualities found in parent-child relationships: Structure, Engagement, Nurture, and Challenge.  Theraplay sessions create an active, emotional connection between the child and parent or caregiver, resulting in a changed view of the self as worthy and lovable and of relationships as positive and rewarding.  In treatment the Theraplay practitioner guides the parent and child through playful, fun games, developmentally challenging activities, and tender, nurturing activities.  The very act of engaging each other in this way helps the parent regulate the child’s behaviour and communicate love, joy, and safety to the child. It helps the child feel secure, cared for, connected and worthy.