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Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week aims to raise awareness and understanding about mental health problems both during and after pregnancy. The most common form is typically Post Natal Depression, but can also include anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and eating disorders. Started by PMHP UK (Perinatal Mental Health Partnership UK) in 2017, the campaign aims to raise public and professional awareness around these concerns, advocate for families and change attitudes.

At Children North East, we want to ensure every child has the happy, healthy start in life they deserve – and this includes caring for expectant mothers too. We offer a range of welcoming and non-judgemental services to help support parents with their emotional wellbeing, creating a support community and developing essential skills to help them thrive.

 

“You helped me a lot in my bad time. I will never forget you.  Because of you, I know I have the strength to be a good mother”

 

Services range from one-on-one professional support through our Therapeutic Practices services, including Little Minds in Mind. This is our parent-infant service to help you and your baby (up to two years old) develop a healthy relationship. We can work with you if you are a mother, father, grandparent, foster carer or adoptive parent.

Our expert and welcoming team will work closely with you and your family to achieve the very best for you, your baby and family. You will work with a specially trained practitioner, who will get to know you and your baby and develop an understanding with you of the difficulties that are affecting your relationship.

 

“I can’t thank you enough, your support was amazing, just being able to talk openly and honestly without judgement was so helpful.  I felt like a complete failure as a parent but now I feel confident and I am finally enjoying my baby”

 

 

We also offer community based support, like Boogie Bairns, Stay & Play and Baby Massage where we encourage families to come together and build their own networks, to one-on-one volunteer support where volunteers are paired with an expectant mother to offer support and guidance.

 

1 in 5 women experience a perinatal mental health problem

 

All parents and carers are welcome at our family hub sessions for one to one support or our “preparing for baby” and “baby’s here” group work sessions. Outside factors including previous health issues, lack of support, financial concerns or insecure housing and traumatic experiences, including birth trauma, are all contributing factors to Maternal Mental Health issues and these can affect anyone.

 

”The sessions have been invaluable, very helpful and have been a sort of ‘Diversional Therapy’. My baby has been engaging and socialising with other babies, and I also learnt new things, and I got clarifications from my worries”

 

For more information, please contact us on [email protected]

The new North East Combined Authority offers an opportunity for investment and connection to make the North East a great place to live. Whoever is elected in the upcoming election must make children a priority in their decision-making, to give children here the best opportunities in life.  

It now seems indisputable that the political landscape of the UK is going to change significantly in the coming months. But whilst many eyes are focused on the general election – which must happen by January 2025 – for the North East, elections taking place on the 2nd of May are set to have a huge impact on the future and prosperity of our region.  

What is the North East Combined Authority? 

Unlike other city regions like Manchester, Liverpool and the West Midlands, up until now, there hasn’t been a devolved mayoral authority covering the whole of Tyne and Wear. Whilst other city regions have had significant investment made in their regional infrastructure, and the power to make big changes – like bringing buses back into public ownership – the North East has lagged behind.  

But finally, from May this year, a new combined authority covering the whole of Tyne and Wear, as well as Durham and Northumberland will be formed, led my an elected regional mayor.  

What powers will the Mayor have?  

The Devolution Deal, as it is called, signed by Westminster and the seven Local Authorities, will hand over powers and significant investment, with a 30-year commitment to strengthen and develop the region.  

This includes the power to make decisions about infrastructure and spending on public transport and active travel – cycling and walking – with over £500m of funding available for this, and power to make decisions about planning such as housebuilding and development of land for business, shopping and leisure. It also includes the adult education and skills investment being coordinated at a regional level. The mayor is also likely to have some additional investment it can use for other priorities they identify for the region, and to apply to the national government for further funding if there is a clear case for investment.  

This deal is being badged as a ‘trailblazer’ by the national government, with an additional focus on using innovation and technology to improve public services, a new Coastal and Rural Taskforce, and specific funding earmarked for redeveloping parts of the West End of Newcastle, and a new film and TV studio in Sunderland.  

The deal is set to be worth £4.2 billion over the next 30 years.  

What will this mean for babies, children and young people?  

Children North East is asking all candidates running to be mayor to make sure children are a priority. This means making public transport accessible and affordable for families so children growing up in households without access to a car don’t miss out.  

We want to ensure decisions about housebuilding make sure families can access affordable homes when children can be safe and warm, free from damp, mould and overcrowding.  

We’re asking the next mayor to make sure post-16 education pathways ensure all young people have access to training, opportunities and jobs which reflect their talents and ambitions, and have good, well-paid job prospects in the region.  

Finally, we want the next mayor to continue work begun across the North of Tyne to focus on tackling and alleviating child poverty and the barriers it creates for children, especially in making the most of education and opportunities.  

Who are the candidates?  

There are six candidates running for the regional mayor. Each has a website where they have published a manifesto, a document setting out what they would do if elected.   

If you want to learn more about the issues that matter to children and young people, our Change Now report shares the voices of over 35,000 5 to 25 year olds on themes such as education, health, culture and services.

Researchers from Newcastle University have identified a link between reducing the stigma of poverty in schools and the reading and maths attainment of pupils.

One in three UK children are currently living in poverty. Whilst the report acknowledges that schools alone cannot tackle poverty, they “can implement policies that tackle the stigma of poverty and ensure that the school day is more equitable”.

The finding comes from the article Does tackling poverty related barriers to education improve school outcomes? which analysed the impact of Poverty Proofing® the school day. The work was led by Dr Morgan Beeson and Professor John Wildman, from Newcastle University Business School, and Dr Josephine Wildman.

Poverty Proofing® the School Day is a nationally recognised programme that works with schools to remove barriers for students living in poverty.

The research team looked at primary schools in the North East, comparing 38 primary schools that had recently undergone Poverty Proofing, to the region’s other 292 primary schools.

They found that pupils from all financial backgrounds benefitted from improvements in attainment. Over a two-year period after schools took action to remove barriers for those living in poverty, scores improved by approximately 5%.

To confirm this trend, the team separately analysed groups of children who received free school meals and therefore most likely to be living in poverty, and those who were not. The research pointed to a potential improvement in engagement in learning as a result of a reduction in disruptions caused by the consequences of poverty.

John Wildman, Professor of Economics at Newcastle University said: “Poverty is a trap that weighs heavily on children. If schools can make sure that poverty is left at the school gate, our results suggest that educational outcomes can improve and perhaps, in the long run, help pupils escape that trap.”

Morgan Beeson, Research Associate at Newcastle University, said: “What makes this research exciting is that by supporting children most impacted by poverty, the school environment can be made better for every child. The substantial impact on children’s learning underscores the urgent need for policy makers to consider interventions like Poverty Proofing.”

The research was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration (ARC North East and North Cumbria (NENC).

Lorna Nicoll, Operations Lead – Poverty Proofing at Children North East, said: “Every year our teams speak to over 30,000 children, families and staff about the impact finances have on their experiences of the school day. Time and time again we see financial pressures impacting pupils’ opportunity to thrive, whether through hunger, lack of learning resources, bullying or missing out on special moments. It is a huge milestone for researchers to demonstrate the link between our work removing those barriers and the educational outcomes and attendance of children in school.”

Changes schools have made as part of Poverty Proofing include making it harder to identify children accessing free school meals, ensuring that all cost-related support is given discretely, minimising or eliminating curriculum and after school clubs costs and giving families long notice periods about costs so they can financially plan.

“We’re a practice working at the deep end, looking after communities with significant deprivation”, shares Dr Guy Pilkington, Partner at Cruddas Park Surgery. “It’s a real issue. Day to day, patients are presenting with challenges connected to their income, housing or employment. It’s not always explicit, but these factors play a major part in their health.” 

Cruddas Park is situated in Elswick, which ranks in the top 1% of areas in the UK for deprivation, and was the first General Practice to take part in the Poverty Proofing® Health Settings. Guy was motivated to undergo the process because he “wanted to be a practice recognising these affects”, adding “we know our community. We were already ‘poverty minded’ but it was a good opportunity for the broader team to reflect and identify new areas for improvement.”  

“People engaged very positively. We sat together as team. It offered a way to validate some of the great things the staff were doing and a chance to sit together as a team, to be open.” 

The impact has been thoughtful and incremental, as the Cruddas Park team began sharing the report with leadership and partners, then developed a plan to work through recommendations identified through the Poverty Proofing process. “We’ve introduced more consistency into how staff approach charging for support letters, changed our advertising, increased signposting to services such as food bank vouchers and now fund access to welfare right support.” 

Guy shares the most thought-provoking consideration to emerge from the process was how the community is supported and encouraged to participate in the surgery.  

“We have a statutory participation group that provide insights, which we wanted to reinvigorate. Poverty Proofing has played an important role in encouraging our thinking about the group, for example we are doing more targeted recruitment in the hope of gaining representation from more diverse voices. The group will now be driving the wellbeing function of the surgery and we have a plan in place to gain charity status for them, giving them the opportunity to access funding to realise their ideas.” 

Guy is driven by a vision of the role a General Practice can play for communities and therefore in addressing social inequalities.  

“We need a power dynamic shift. General Practices are important neighbourhood institutions. We are a gateway to NHS services and medicine, as is expected, but we are also a community space where people bring complex lives and we have an important role to play in encouraging engagement with other community assets.” 

Today, we announce a new community experience programme funded by NCS (National Citizen Service) that will support young people from communities across Sunderland, Gateshead, South Tyneside and Durham County.  

The grant is part of a significant £20m funding package that NCS Trust have awarded to organisations across England for the delivery of community-based experiences at a local and grassroots level. 

These new experiences will complement NCS’ existing away from home residential offer by providing more opportunities for teenagers to engage in local activities that foster skills development, deepen their understanding of the community, and empower them to contribute positively to its improvement. The grants will also support organisations that cater to specific groups of young people who may not have participated in previous NCS initiatives.  

In collaboration with the National Youth Agency and StreetGames, NCS assessed more than 400 applications and Children North East was selected as one of around 100 organisations to receive funding.  

The grant will allow Children North East to deliver opportunities for teenagers to engage in local activities that foster skills development, deepen their understanding of the community, and empower them to contribute positively to its improvement. Delivery partners for the programme include Foundation of Light, Durham City Youth Project, Groundwork NE & Cumbria, Go the Distance, Delta North Consett, Our 1 Community, Blue Sky Trust, Newcastle United Foundation with support from The Enterprise Academy, Nourish Food School and National Trust. 

Kate Sandberg, Youth Team Manager, Children North East, said: “There has been a 77% real-terms reduction in funding for youth work since 2011, so the NCS Trust funding is an important opportunity to provide young people with experiences that will help them grow their experiences, networks and aspirations for the future. We are incredibly grateful to NCS, the National Youth Agency and Streetgames for investing in the next generation through this project.” 

Mark Gifford, CEO of NCS Trust, added: “I am delighted to welcome a diverse range of local, grassroots and community organisations from across the youth sector to deliver reimagined NCS experiences. This allows us to reach more young people than ever before, ensuring they are equipped with the skills and perspective to become work ready and world ready. Additionally, our grants for targeted experiences will enable us to reach underserved young people and communities.” 

Gifford added, “Together, we will work towards creating a country of confident, connected, caring citizens where everyone feels at home.” 

Over the past decade, more than 800,000 young people have benefitted from an NCS experience, dedicating over 18 million hours to community based social action, while gaining invaluable life experiences. 

For more information about the programme and how to get involved in opportunities local to you, please contact Una Mac Dermott (NCS Project Coordinator) at [email protected]. 

Children North East is proud to announce the publication of its most recent report, Change Now: the largest consultation it has conducted to date.

Consolidating learning from consultations with children and young people carried out since 2020, it brings together the voices of over 35,000 children and young people into a single report with a number of key recommendations for the North East of England. 

At the heart of Children North East is the desire for all children to be happy and healthy, safe and loved, resilient to challenges, and valued and confident. In order to achieve this mission, hearing – and listening to – first-hand experiences and feelings of young people across the North East is paramount. This report puts the voices of children and young people at the centre of understanding what’s important to them. 

With equality, empowerment and building relationships as core values, Children North East is excited to have completed a framework that embodies all three. Through this milestone publication, it ensures that those involved in improving key services – increasing children’s quality of life and opportunities – are informed by lived experiences of a wide range of young people across the region. 

Change Now: Broad picture; fine details

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So as to gather a truly full picture of young people’s lives and recommendations, the themes of consultations and projects were many and varied. Commissioned for a variety of purposes, all asking questions of children and young people in different contexts, every single one had children and young people – and their futures – at the centre. 

The largest consultation, Poverty Proofing the School Day, focused on socioeconomic status and its impact on the school day. The Voices project was the next largest number of participants, concentrating on the impact of Covid-19. The Now and Next consultation had over one thousand voices; this explored Culture and Creativity in Newcastle and Gateshead. Other consultations, whilst smaller, focused on specific areas (including accessing health settings and safety) – providing valuable insight and visibility into a broader picture.

Despite this wide variety of consultations, common themes were easily identified. They were split into the following main categories: 

  • School and Education; 
  • Learning Disabilities and SEND;
  • Relationships and Communication;
  • Health and Wellbeing (including acceptance and inclusion) (substance misuse); 
  • Protected Characteristics; 
  • Digital Lives;
  • Culture; 
  • Covid-19;
  • Services and activities outside of school (including transport).

Naturally, there is much interconnection and cross-over between these themes, as they govern and influence so many aspects of young people’s lives.

Change Now: Main areas for improvement

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of their key recommendations regarding school and education were for them to be taken seriously, feeling their opinions are sought in a tokenistic way and not fully valued. It is clear that ‘school councils’ are not always representative of all children and young people. Staff training was another main issue, with respondents wanting all school staff to be comfortable, confident and knowledgeable on the subjects which matter to young people including areas such as mental health, LGBTQ+ inclusion, gender and poverty. 

There was also a call for consistency in the way individuals are treated and how racism and bullying is addressed. Poverty awareness was also found to be lacking – respondents sought equality across the school day including accessing food, uniform, extra-curricular activities and trips. They want to not face stigma, shame, or additional obstacles to learning because they are living in poverty. 

The current economic climate, as well as the evolution of, and access to, technology have made their mark on our younger generations. Children and young people are struggling more than they ever have before with their emotional wellbeing. They want help to build resilience and deal with the challenges they face. It was also mentioned that education pressures limit time for creative expression as a coping mechanism. Respondents asked that creativity be acknowledged as vital in developing good emotional wellbeing and given higher priority in schools. 

Whilst technology and digitalisation are a significant part of children and young people’s lives – particularly since the pandemic – there remains a digital divide, which needs to be addressed. One key recommendation was that students shouldn’t be punished when unable to access digitised work. There were also calls for a digital curriculum to be built, based on what they enjoy.


Change Now: Every child matters

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two consultations, SEND Health and The Learning Disability and Autism Programme, spoke with children and young people with SEND exclusively. Other consultations included children and young people with SEND or additional needs, such as Poverty Proofing® the School Day and The Inclusion Audit – their voices were particularly thought-provoking around the development of information around SEND. 

Children and young people talked about how they access services and are supported in Health and Education settings, with particular reference to communication and how they are listened to. Many children and young people with additional needs felt that this required improvement.

The Change Now report found that neurodiverse children and young people want communication to be direct, age appropriate and regular with normal language – they don’t want to be talked down to and want to be kept informed about what is happening. 

There was also a recommendation that the Keyworker service be expanded, with more awareness of the role among professionals and families and autistic young people.

Change Now: Time for action

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clearly, there needs to be the investment of time, money and policy change to support these recommendations and build consistency across schools, health services and Local Authorities in the North East.

Ultimately, children and young people want to be listened to effectively, as the ‘experts in their lived experience’. This means fully listened to, with their opinions and thoughts taken seriously and suggestions acted upon. Only then will this viably reflect Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989: the right to be heard. 

The overwhelming factor underpinning all the recommendations is that children and young people do not feel listened to and valued. There needs to be significant change – at all levels – in approaches to, and engaging with, children and young people on the things which impact them. 

There needs to be change, now.

 

For a copy of the Children North East Change Now report, click here.

For more information about the Change Now report email Billie Jenkins, Communications and Fundraising Manager at [email protected].
To donate to Children North East, or to get involved in fundraising campaigns, visit ‘How You Can Help’ on the website.

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