New contract awarded to Nottingham City Council Parent Infant Relationship Team

From an early age, most infants will be in receipt of loving and nurturing care from their primary caregivers and as a result will go on to develop secure emotional relationships with them.  However, some new babies have caregivers who are unable to meet their needs and this in turn, can result in attachment disorders.  This inability to meet the needs of the infant, can be as a result of a number of factors including social issues such as poverty, domestic abuse, maternal mental health issues, parents who themselves suffer from attachment disorders or even the negative impact of Covid 19 on families.

In Nottingham, it is estimated that there are at least 6,900, under four year olds with insecure attachment (Early years (2016) - Nottingham Insight).

The experiences they have can impact on their behaviour in a number of ways including challenges in developing emotionally stable relationships with caregivers, refusal to engage with others, and/or exhibiting signs of anger, fear and anxiety.

The PIR team will support the parent-infant relationship to ensure positive long term impact on the emotional well-being of babies and infants.  They will do this by driving change and championing the importance of infant mental health and attachment, supporting existing services providing training, assessment tools, supervision and consultancy and delivering specialist evidence based services including therapeutic activities in group or one to one sessions.

For more information on this new service please contact [email protected] or [email protected]