What happens during pregnancy and the first few years of life can have a big influence on our health. Children growing up in poverty experience many disadvantages that can have a negative impact on their health throughout their lives.
Through engagement with the local community we have learned that the biggest concerns facing our residents for children during conception to age two are:
- Access to and the quality of parent and baby/toddler groups
- Financial issues for working families
- Teenage pregnancy
- Impact and gaps in early years provision
- Healthy eating
- Maternal mental health impact on children
- Social work support offer
- Support for parents with children with Special Education Needs & Disabilities
- Home safety
- Park play areas and activities for families
- Stigma
- Domestic abuse
Blackpool Researching Together is working to provide research in areas that will help address some of these concerns.
Research projects
Born into Care
In 2018, The Centre for Child and Family Justice Research at Lancaster University, with the support of the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, conducted a study on newborns in care proceedings in England and Wales. The data analysis, as part of this work identified Blackpool as having the highest rates of newborns in care proceedings that any local authority in England. The incidence rate in Blackpool was over four times that of England. This study catalysed the Born into Care programme of work in Blackpool.
In 2023, Blackpool Researching Together, drawing on support from across Children’s Social Care and The Centre for Early Childhood development, did a detailed file study of babies who entered care within 8 weeks of birth between 2020 and 2022 inclusive. This was to expatiate the patterns and timing of exposure to care proceedings and the characteristics of parents to inform the programme of transformation.
The team also worked on a rapid evidence review for the born into care team looking to answer which therapeutic interventions improve mental health outcomes and parenting skills for parents with multiple disadvantage. The review focused on research with parents at highest risk, affected by complex trauma and multiple disadvantages.
Guidance and support
The NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) Blackpool is part of the NIHR and hosted by Blackpool Council. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.
NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaborations enable local authorities to become more research-active, embedding a culture of evidence-based decision making.