The journey…
- February 2021 – Parents 1st appointed by the 7 Clinical Commissioning Groups across Essex, Southend and Thurrock to lead coproduction phase of developing a Perinatal Mental Health Peer Support Model
- March to September 2021 - 4 stakeholder workshops and establishing a steering group with Voluntary Community Sector organisations, clinicians and commissioners across Essex.
- Autumn 2021 - The model proposed during this coproduction phase was to establish a Pan Essex Perinatal Mental Health Peer Support Collaborative – developing a hub of good practice across Essex using a 15 month ‘test and learn’
- Winter 2021 – Parents 1st appointed to deliver collaborative programme
- February 2022 – Parents 1st appoint Pan Essex Perinatal Peer Support Coordinator
- 28 February 2022 - 1st Advisory Group meeting: Launch of the 15 month test and learn project
- July 2022 - Peer Support Link Workers appointed.
- September 2022 - Request system for Peer Support Link Workers goes live.
- October 2022 - Dads survey and workshop. 402 local dads responded to our online survey and shared their opinions about what dads need, what is currently missing support-wise and how to design peer support that works for them. Read the results. Following on from this research, we went on to run a 3-hour workshop on the 17 October, with speakers from Dads’ Café, DadPad, Dads Rock and Dad Matters, to explore how we can strengthen peer support for dads across Essex.
- November 2022 - Workshop to explore peer support for Black, Asian and Other Minority Groups across Essex. Read more about findings from this workshop.
- 29 March 2023 - Online workshop to consolidate the 1 year pilot: Learning insights and next steps. Read the summary report
- March 2023 - NHS funding for us to continue to deliver the Essex Peer to Parent Network work has been approved for the next 3 years.