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A Better Start partnerships supported parental mental health and wellbeing through a family-focused, community-based approach that treated parents as partners with agency and choice, rather than as passive recipients of care. This reflected wider evidence that support is strongest when practitioners work in partnership with families, take a whole-family approach, and improve access to community-based services, including home visiting where appropriate.
In practice, ABS partnerships offered flexible, relationship-based support in accessible, non-clinical settings; gave parents control over how, where and when they engaged; and recognised that parents’ wellbeing is shaped by wider family, social and neighbourhood circumstances. This enabled a more holistic, preventative and personalised response than is often possible in more traditional services. The wider policy direction is now moving in the same direction, with national reforms emphasising prevention, neighbourhood-based care and stronger community mental health provision.
Taken together, ABS demonstrates how early, relational and place-based support can help meet parents’ mental health and wellbeing needs in ways that feel acceptable, practical and effective for families (Lagdon et al, 2021; Barnardos, 2023; Department of Health and Social Care, 2024; NHS England, 2025; Department of Health and Social Care, 2025).
Key learning from ABS partnerships about what helped support parental mental health and wellbeing:
- Treating parents as active partners with agency and control over their own mental health and wellbeing.
- Building warm, trusting relationships with parents as a key enabler of support.
- Working with the family as one unit while responding to different and holistic needs.
- Understanding the cultural, socio-economic and neighbourhood context so support can be tailored effectively.
- Offering support for as long as needed, without penalising parents for stepping back or re-engaging later.
- Giving parents choice over where support is delivered and how they engage with it.
- Using careful, validating language that normalises parents’ feelings and avoids implying that something is ‘wrong’.
- Using peer support, including trained parents and grandparents, to reduce isolation and build networks of support.
Contents of this guide
- Partnership working and the local context
- Supporting parents holistically
- Supporting parents to reduce anxiety
- Using a peer support approach
- Multi-agency working
- Further resources
1. Partnership working and the local context
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Read
Read Blackpool Better Start’s good practice guide to support the implementation of trauma-informed care in the perinatal period. The principles in this guide equally apply to non-registered staff, those in supportive or administrative roles and those who provide direct professional or clinical care, advice and support.
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Think about these questions:
- How might you and your colleagues use this good practice guide in your setting?
- Is there any new information for your practice as a practitioner that you have gained from this guide?
- Are there any amendments you might make to the principles mentioned to better support parents?
2. Supporting parents holistically
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Watch
Watch this video about how ABS partnerships worked to support parents holistically.
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Think about these questions:
- What activities do parents mention that have had a positive impact on their mental health and wellbeing?
- Which approaches used by the ABS partnerships could you adapt in your own setting to provide more holistic support for parents' mental health and wellbeing?
- Are there any barriers preventing you from implementing these into your practice? If so, how might such barriers be overcome?
3. Supporting parents to reduce anxiety
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Read
Read this blog post from Aisha, a mum from A Better Start Bradford about how support from Home Start, Better Start helped reduce her anxiety with her newborn.
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Think about these questions:
- From your experience working with parents, does Aisha’s experience feel familiar? In what way?
- How can you create opportunities for parents to talk openly about challenges they may be experiencing?
- How do you currently recognise and respond to parents who may be struggling but not explicitly asking for help?
- How can you build on your current practice to provide more effective support for parents' mental health and wellbeing?
4. Using a peer support approach
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Watch
Watch this video about supporting parents in uncertain times. It illustrates the range of issues parents can face, how these can negatively impact on their mental health and wellbeing and how ABS partnerships have helped them.
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Think about these questions:
- Are the issues faced by the parents in this video clip similar or different to those experienced by parents in your setting?
- What are the benefits of having peer support from other parents for the parents in the video?
- Does your setting utilise a peer approach to supporting parental mental health and wellbeing? If not, why not?
- If you do, how well does this work? Are there any ways in which it could be further enhanced?
5. Multi-agency working
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Watch
Watch this video about LEAP's Parent and Infant Relationship Service (PAIRS), which aimed to support the mental health of parents from pregnancy until their child turned 4 years old. The service supported both children’s and parents’ mental health and wellbeing.
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Think about these questions:
- PAIRS helped to fill a gap for children under 5 and their parents. Does a similar gap exist in your locality?
- The staff in the video refer various other organisations and professions that they work with. To what extent does your setting work with other agencies to support parental mental health and wellbeing?
- Is there anything else your setting could do to further enhance multi-disciplinary working to provide such support to parents and families?
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6. Resources to explore further
- ABS Southend has an entire section of its website dedicated to perinatal mental health – see here: A Better Start Southend | Family Resources - A Better Start Southend
- CBeebies Parenting Helpline offers a series of videos and podcasts where the presenters take calls from parents and receive advice from experts
- Institute of Health Visiting offers resources to understand and support the mental health and wellbeing of mothers and fathers.
- Institute of Health Visiting has developed a dramatised film about a father’s experience of becoming a dad and the factors which impacted his mental health during the journey.
- Lonely Parents Hub has a video which shares parent’s experiences of loneliness during pregnancy and in the two years after birth.
- The Maternal Mental Health Alliance offers a range of resources for practitioners that can be found here: Page 1 of Resource Hub | Maternal Mental Health Alliance.
- Alberta Family Wellness Initiative has created the Brain Story certification course which offers videos from over 30 leading experts in neurobiology and mental health and a certification of completion.
- Best Start in Life – NHS offers trusted advice and guidance for parents and carers about pregnancy, babies, healthy child development, childcare and early education.
- The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) produced a video about a mother’s experience of working with a multi-disciplinary team working holistically to address her and her family’s needs.