The World Around Babies

Calling all social care, health care and child care/education professionals!

Join PSS Parent-Baby Service at our exclusive conference, ‘The World Around Babies’ where we’ll delve into the contexts that help and hinder early family life.

?️ Keynote speakers:Join our full-day session where you'll be able to listen to insights from thought leaders as they share their perspectives on the impact of social care in shaping the world around babies.

Taiwo Afuape (Clinical Psychologist and Family Therapist at the Institute for Family Therapy) will give a talk about attachment narratives and how they are fundamental to understanding developmental trauma, child development and the wellbeing of children and babies, within the global minority. There will also be a discussion around historical, cultural, social and political contexts and how well they speak to a diverse global world and respond to the current social, cultural and political challenges facing families, parents and young people.

There will also be a discussion relating to attachment theory and how health professionals can better understand, and respond to, the complex needs of families within wider contexts of oppression such as poverty and institutional racism.

Peter Toolan (Parent-Infant Psychotherapist and previous clinical lead for Newcastle PIP) will be describing the context and history of establishing a pioneering parent-infant therapeutic support service in Newcastle and the struggles and issues arising from trying to raise the profile of babies as important people, in widely contrasting strategic, organisational and clinical contexts.

With some examples from parent-infant psychotherapy and from his more recent work on the Mental Health Tribunal, he will be inviting thinking and discussion about working across organisational boundaries with babies in mind, dealing with individual and systemic anxieties and considering the links between early experiences and later life outcomes.

Jane Ellis (Clinical Psychologist at Little Minds Matter in Bradford) will be presenting her doctoral research, which explored parents' stories of caring for a baby during austerity and a cost-of-living crisis. She interviewed ten parents in Liverpool and Manchester using narrative inquiry.

Jane will discuss her results with a particular focus on the harm caused by financial precarity induced by austerity measures, the contraction of public services, and austerity discourses. Jane will also discuss the implications for policymakers and clinicians and is an advocate for relationally informed, socially contextualised approaches to clinical work, the delivery of services, and the development of policy.

? Tailored workshops - Two afternoon sessions (booking required):

· 1:45 - 2:30 / 2:45 - 3:30

Understanding co-production from a parent's perspective: Understand the collaborative power of co-production through the eyes of parents.

What it is like to be a parent:

Explore the use of humour and laughter when supporting parents to share their experiences of parenthood through standup comedy.

We’ll also have stalls from:

· Everton in the Community

· Family Hubs

· Perinatal CAB

?️ Register Now:

Join us in shaping the future of social care and in supporting families on their journey into parenthood. When it comes to support – babies can’t wait.

Please register your attendance and sign up for the workshops you’d like to attend on the day.

For more information get in touch with the team at [email protected]

Host or Publisher Parent and Baby service - PSS