Put babies and children at heart of Covid recovery plan, urges Home-Start Blackpool Fylde and Wyre

A national survey by Home-Start, which has a branch covering Blackpool Fylde and Wyre, and two other family charities has found parents are still struggling to access essential services to help them through pregnancy and beyond, and are encountering problems including accessing face-to-face medical care, reduced access to health visitors and a lack of community parent and baby groups.

For example, 30 per cent of professionals and volunteers across the UK said health visitor drop-in clinics are no longer operating in their area.

The report, compiled by Home-Start with the Parent-Infant Foundation and Best Beginnings and called 'No-one Wants To See My Baby', claims that its taking a toll on parents' mental health - and its authors are urging the Government to take decisive action to help families with young children recover from the pandemic.

Pat Naylor, chief executive of Home-Start Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre said: “When families face stress and adversity, it is harder for parents to provide their babies with the nurturing care they need to thrive.

"We know that poverty, mental health problems, conflict and abuse can all impact early childhood development and that for many families these issues have increased during the pandemic.

"That’s why there is a real urgency that there are services and resources in communities to support parents and children right now.”

More than a quarter of professionals and volunteers surveyed for the report say that health visiting routine checks remain mainly on the phone or online, which can limit opportunities to keep babies safe.

The three charities are not the first to raise concerns about the ongoing use of remote consultations with parents.

Academics, children’s charities, doctors and politicians have all raised concerns about remote delivery, pointing out that a baby’s development and wellbeing cannot be adequately assessed unless they are seen face-to-face. This is particularly true for vulnerable babies.

'No-one Wants To See My Baby' has been published to coincide with a backbench debate in the House of Commonsand is designed to give a voice to babies and toddlers to ensure the Government takes their specific needs into consideration.

The report is a follow up to the 2020 'Babies in Lockdown' report from the same authors, and the three charities claim that both reports show that Covid-19 and the measures introduced to control it are still having an impact on babies, their families and the services that support them and exacerbating underlying inequalities.

Their findings have prompted a call for three actions towards recovery. They want the Government to: invest in health visiting services; take a cautious, evidence-based approach to remote and phone-based service delivery and ensure babies, and services supporting them, are at the heart of Covid-19 recovery policy and investment.

Sally Hogg, of the Parent Infant Foundation said: “We remain very concerned about the development of young children exposed to the greatest adversity during the pandemic. In the 15 months since our initial research was published, we have seen increasing evidence of the concerning impact of Covid-19 on the most vulnerable children. If services remain remote, many of these babies are invisible and their needs go unaddressed.”

Alison Baum, chief executive of Best Beginnings, said: “The evidence is unequivocal; we must invest in babies and their families now. It is a win: win: win. Not only will increased support make a difference to the health and wellbeing of children and reduce inequalities in outcomes, it will support the wider community, and ultimately support the economy in years to come.

"Collaboration is the key here, the investment needs to be in statutory services, charities and in grass-roots organisations, with co-creation with parents and evidence at the heart of it.”

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