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Andrea Leadsom MP Supports Calls For Sure Start Children's Centres To Be Relaunched

Andrea Leadsom speaking at 'Churchills Babies' conference. A global perspective on best practice in infant metal health. Photo:n ©Clive Totman 2018
 
The Rt Hon. Andrea Leadsom MP, Member of Parliament for South Northamptonshire, in a speech to a conference of early years professionals last Friday at the end of Infant Mental Health Awareness Week, reaffirmed her support for the call in the 1001 Critical Days Manifesto to relaunch Sure Start Children’s Centres with a focus on the perinatal period.
 
Hosted by the Mercers’ Company in their beautiful Mercers’ Hall in central London and organised by PIP UK, the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, the Wave Trust, and the Dulverton Trust, the conference brought together some of the leading specialists in the infant and maternal mental health space. Other speakers included a number of Churchill Fellows who have been funded by the Memorial Trust to do the research overseas that they were presenting at the conference.
 
Andrea has long been an advocate for infant mental health, setting up charities before she came to Parliament to provide parent-infant psychotherapy to families and their babies. Their aims are not only to address the immediate problems in the relationship between the baby and its parent, but also to support a more positive and secure attachment for the long-term.

Her work as a backbencher through the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Conception to Age Two, particularly the 1001 Critical Days Manifesto which called for Children’s Centres to be repurposed, has received the support of over 100 different organisations including the NSPCC, Barnardo’s, Best Beginnings, the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal College of GPs, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and many others.
 
Speaking at the conference, Andrea said:
 
“Infant mental health, or more specifically early intervention in the first 1001 critical days of life, has been a passion of mine that predates my work in Parliament. Maternal depression is something that affects a great number of women each year, and it can go on to have a lifelong impact on the opportunities and outcomes for the baby.
 
“A secure and loving relationship with a key carer literally shapes the way a baby’s brain develops, with long-term positive consequences for that baby’s emotional health.
 
“I am delighted that the Government has been taking action, including the recent Department of Health & Social Care Green Paper consultation on Transforming Children’s Mental Health, our Better Births strategy and the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, the funding of almost 600 perinatal mental health visitor champions, and £365 million of investment to ensure that, by 2020/21, up to 30,000 more women will be able to access high-quality mental health care in the community or in specialist Mother and Baby Units.
 
“But the responsibility to break the cycle sits with more than just a midwife, or health visitor, or any one Government department. We’ve seen that the impact of insecure attachment touches every corner of society, from schools, to hospital admissions, to reoffending.
 
“That is why a key ask of the 1001 Critical Days Manifesto – that I launched as a backbencher with cross-party support – has been to relaunch Sure Starts, and to bring together the myriad of different services available to support new babies and their parents under one roof. From birth registrations to antenatal support, relationship guidance to psychotherapeutic services, Children’s Centres could be reenergised. By making them a hub for families, health visitors, midwives, early years professionals and others, with a clear presumption of data sharing and a much-needed focus on Dads, we could better address the challenge of insecure early attachment and the hardship it inflicts in later life, giving all babies the best start.”
 
 

www.andrealeadsom.com

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