Project overview
Dr Samantha Hornsey and Dr Amy Dobson are Co-Leads on this study, if you have any questions please contact Dr Amy Dobson at A.E.Dobson@soton.ac.uk.
What we already know:
The first two-years of life is an important time for families. When families seek help for their baby they say health services seem confusing and hard to access. A recent report pointed out that services for children need to work better together, especially because babies and children are growing, so delays in care have a serious impact.
What we want to do:
1. Produce a map of the support services in the UK which shows how parents currently get help when they are worried about their baby’s health.
2. Understand how the different parts of the map fit together
3.Understand how some groups of families (such as families in poverty or families who struggle with English) find help for their baby’s health
How we are going to do it:
We will draw a map of all the ways parents and carers in the UK look for help when they are worried about their baby, particularly focusing on parents who find it difficult to access support in the existing system.
To do this we will hold an online meeting for anyone who works in a job role where they try to help parents/carers of children up to 2years. We will ask them to list where they think parents are getting support from.
We will also parents where they go for support. We will try to talk to parents who don’t normally take part in research. We will ask them about how they found getting help when they were worried about their baby’s health.
Finally, we will also make an online place where anyone can tell us about their experiences; and make sure these are also included in the map.
What we will produce:
The main output of this project will be a map of current support networks for families worried about their baby’s health in the UK. This will include the opinions of groups who might not have been heard before and will think about how the services might work together or against each other. Looking at this map might help us work out where we can make the biggest difference.
This map could help show what is missing, supporting decisions for researchers, health professionals and policy makers to make changes in early support for parents support for parents. This would help with future research, funding applications, changes to services, and new support for families.
What we already know:
The first two-years of life is an important time for families. When families seek help for their baby they say health services seem confusing and hard to access. A recent report pointed out that services for children need to work better together, especially because babies and children are growing, so delays in care have a serious impact.
What we want to do:
1. Produce a map of the support services in the UK which shows how parents currently get help when they are worried about their baby’s health.
2. Understand how the different parts of the map fit together
3.Understand how some groups of families (such as families in poverty or families who struggle with English) find help for their baby’s health
How we are going to do it:
We will draw a map of all the ways parents and carers in the UK look for help when they are worried about their baby, particularly focusing on parents who find it difficult to access support in the existing system.
To do this we will hold an online meeting for anyone who works in a job role where they try to help parents/carers of children up to 2years. We will ask them to list where they think parents are getting support from.
We will also parents where they go for support. We will try to talk to parents who don’t normally take part in research. We will ask them about how they found getting help when they were worried about their baby’s health.
Finally, we will also make an online place where anyone can tell us about their experiences; and make sure these are also included in the map.
What we will produce:
The main output of this project will be a map of current support networks for families worried about their baby’s health in the UK. This will include the opinions of groups who might not have been heard before and will think about how the services might work together or against each other. Looking at this map might help us work out where we can make the biggest difference.
This map could help show what is missing, supporting decisions for researchers, health professionals and policy makers to make changes in early support for parents support for parents. This would help with future research, funding applications, changes to services, and new support for families.
