Blackpool Parent-Infant Relationship Service

About us

We are a multi-disciplinary team with expertise in supporting and strengthening the important relationships between babies and their primary caregivers, predominantly in pregnancy until the child is age 2.

The service is led by our Consultant Clinical Psychologist.

As the service develops, we aim to work flexibly with our Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) to ensure children aged 2 to 5 years and their families have access to support, where there are difficulties in the nurturing relationship.

We work with primary caregivers, including parents, foster carers, grandparents, or others who may be in this role.

What do we offer

The team will aim to promote a loving secure relationship between primary caregivers’ and their infants, which lays the positive foundation for health and well-being that can last a lifetime.

The three strands of the service will focus on Therapeutic Interventions, Consultations and Training for stakeholders.

Delivering the service utilising these strands enables us to reach as many families as possible.

If appropriate a member of the team will offer a comprehensive assessment, ensuring the family’s concerns and wishes are at the forefront of all care planning. All the information gathered will be discussed within the multi-disciplinary team to formulate a support plan.

The team will offer evidence based and practice-informed therapeutic interventions to strengthen the parent-infant/child relationship such as:

Psychological therapy and approaches, such as compassion focused, Solihull and trauma informed approaches, Video Interaction Guidance (VIG), Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS), and Circle of Security Parenting (COSP), this list is not exhaustive. The intervention may be one to one or group work and will be offered in the family home and/or various community settings according to preference of the client and availability.

The team will work by embedding the principles of the THRIVE model using a ‘needs led’ approach.

Who might this service support

The team provides consultancy support to all Blackpool services working with families who have concerns of parent-infant relationship difficulties. We would advise that you contact the team to discuss any concerns you may have prior to making a referral. 

Referrals can be received from any services who are currently working with primary caregivers, who would like therapeutic support to strengthen their relationship with their infant.

• They will predominantly be within the perinatal period and up to a child being 2 years old
• The primary caregiver and infant must be registered at a GP practice in Blackpool and have a Blackpool address
• Parental consent must be obtained

When might PaIRS not be suitable

• Primary caregiver currently being supported by the Specialist Perinatal Community Mental Health team (SPCMHT) and assessing parent-infant relationship support. In the first instance contact SPCMHT on 01524 550887
• When the primary caregiver’s mental health needs are the main concern and requires addressing first
• Primary caregiver currently being supported by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) for children 0 to 5 years. In the first instance contact the CAMHS allocated practitioner
• Primary caregiver’s with a substance dependency, who are not currently supported by substance misuse services.  In such situations careful considerations should be given to establishing a collaborative joint working relationship between services to ensure assessment of family lifestyle and capacity to identify and place baby’s needs as a priority. Further discussions between services should always be sought

What you can expect from us following a referral

We aim to:

• Acknowledge the referral within 2 working days
• Triage process within 10 to 15 working days: following outcome of triage we will offer an assessment or suggest an alternative course of action that may be more appropriate to meet the family’s needs
• Following outcome of assessment, we will formulate a care plan and if direct intervention meets the family’s needs, this will be offered within 6 weeks or we may suggest an alternative course of action
• The team will provide feedback of the assessment outcome to the referrer and if allocated, the name of the PaIRS practitioner
• Send a discharge letter to the client and forwarded to the referrer / GP 

Please note the team duty box will be monitored Monday to Friday 9am to 4pm excluding bank holidays.

We are not a crisis/urgent or emergency service. If you have any safeguarding concerns, please follow your local service policy/procedures.

Training

We offer a suite of training packages to all stakeholders from a 30 min introduction to the PaIR service including the referral pathway, to more in-depth training of Infant Mental Health and the importance of ‘The First 1001 critical days’.

Circle of Security Parenting group

Jointly facilitated by CAMHS and PaIRS, suitable for Blackpool parents/caregivers of children aged 2 to 5 years old. Please ask for more information. Referral only.