We are recruiting a practitioner to deliver For Baby’s Sake in our UK-wide CONNECT team. In response to COVID-19, The For Baby’s Sake Trust launched For Baby’s Sake CONNECT in March 2021, delivering the For Baby’s Sake programme through 1:1 sessions conducted remotely via video and phone calls. The Practitioners are home-based but must be able to travel to Stevenage for occasional meetings and training. They will have the opportunity to support the continued evolution of For Baby’s Sake and its remote delivery, whilst ensuring fidelity to the For Baby’s Sake programme and sustaining the ethos and values of The For Baby’s Sake Trust.

The For Baby’s Sake Trust is one of over 60 First 1001 Days member organisations who have today jointly written to the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid, asking him to address the impacts of the pandemic on babies and their families, and to take longer-term action to ensure all our children have the best start in life.

The pandemic has been difficult for many families, with impacts on a range of factors that significantly contribute to child development, including domestic abuse.  The letter points out that more than £3bn has been spent on mitigating the impact of the pandemic on older children, but nothing on those under two. 

The letter demands urgent action to ensure that babies’ health, wellbeing and safety is prioritised and that Government acts on its own commitment to “ensuring that children have the best start in life”.  

It also describes three things that the Secretary of State should prioritise to make a significant difference:

1. Securing funding in the upcoming Spending Review to deliver the Government’s Best Start for Life vision.
2.  Setting out clear expectations in the Health and Care Bill that local partners will cooperate in order to improve outcomes and reducing inequalities for children in the first 1001 days.
3. Ensure that the new Office of Health Promotion can intervene when a local area is not delivering the Healthy Child Programme or is experiencing poor, declining, or unequal outcomes in the first 1001 days, providing additional support and resources where needed.

The letter has been signed by 64 charities and supporter organisations including the Parent-Infant Foundation, NSPCC, NCT, Action for Children and Home-Start UK.

Read the letter in full here.

The For Baby’s Sake Trust is releasing a new animated film, “The Impact”, where mothers and fathers tell their stories, in their own voices, of how For Baby’s Sake has empowered them to break cycles of domestic abuse and create a better future for themselves and their baby.  

(You can watch the film here.)

The film is being released to coincide with two major international conferences which feature the learning from For Baby’s Sake, as the first known programme globally to work with both parents, from pregnancy until the baby’s second birthday, where there is domestic abuse.

The For Baby’s Sake Symposium, taking place within the World Association of Infant Mental Health Congress (WAIMH 20201, Brisbane, Australia and online, 22-26 June) is the major event on domestic abuse within the WAIMH2021 online programme.

For this WAIMH2021 symposium, The For Baby’s Sake Trust’s senior leadership team is joined by Dr Kylee Trevillion and Dr Jill Domoney from King’s College London, who led the evaluation of For Baby’s Sake, and Australia’s leading experts on infant mental health and domestic abuse, Dr Wendy Bunston and Kathy Eyre. 

The Virtual Trauma Recovery Summit (Titanic Belfast and online, 21-23 June) brings together the world’s leading experts on trauma and trauma recovery, including Bessel van der Kolk and Gabor Mate.  The For Baby’s Sake Trust is honoured to have been invited to present an online workshop at the Summit.

At the Trauma Recovery Summit, Amanda McIntyre, CEO and Judith Rees, Operational Director, share the learning from how For Baby’s Sake integrates trauma-informed approaches to breaking cycles of domestic abuse and childhood trauma with attachment-focused parenting interventions, notably Video Interaction Guidance.

Their workshop at the Summit incorporates the premiere showing of seven new films, produced by BAAFTA award-winning film director, Emma Lazenby and the ForMed films team.  In each of the first six films, parents describe a particular dimension of For Baby’s Sake.  In the last film, ‘The Impact,’ parents share some overall feelings about the difference  that For Baby’s Sake has made to them and their baby. As a preview, The For Baby’s Sake Trust has put this last film,  ‘The Impact’, on general release, on its website and youtube channel.

Judith Rees, Director of Operations at The For Baby’s Sake Trust, said,

“To understand how For Baby’s Sake works and the impact for parents and their babies, listen to the mothers and fathers in our new animated film. We are grateful to them for telling their stories and proud of what they are achieving.

“We are thrilled to share the learning from For Baby’s Sake with the World Association of Infant Mental Health and at the prestigious Trauma Recovery Summit.  It is especially meaningful that the parents who work with us can speak directly to these audiences, in their own voices, through our powerful new films and recordings.”