Parental mental ill-health can have serious a impact on a child’s life, along with Domestic Abuse and substance misuse. Learning from recent Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews identify that understanding the lived experience of the child can help those working with children to identify risks and enable critical thinking to overcome an optimistic view of the situation, disguised compliance and parenting capability.
NSPCC Learning has published an updated Learning from case review briefing outlining risk factors and learning for improved practice around parental mental health and child welfare. The briefing, which looks at case reviews published between 2016 and 2022, highlights that professionals from adult and children’s services need to work together to safeguard children when there are signs that a parent’s mental ill-health is impacting their ability to look after their child.
Read the briefing: Parents with a mental health problem: learning from case reviews
The Board’s priority around negelct especially in the very young also focuses on perinatal mental ill-health and the engagement of mothers who experience poor mental health. As part of this commitment the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Maternity and Neonatal Partnership Board have commissioned University Hospital of North Midlands roles for a dedicated mental ill-health midwife and nurse. The Maternity Transformation Programme Board commission Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to deliver 0 – 19 families health and wellbeing service that includes a lead for perinatal mental health delivering training for staff and work closely within the perinatal mental health network across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-trent.
The network is working towards ensuring all women and families are supported to access the right help and intervention at the right time by embedding the Better Births National Maternity Review and the NHS Long Term Plan.
