Session 7: Professionals and parents working together

Introduction

This session encourages you to consider the ways that professionals, including practitioners in early childhood settings as well as Health Visitors and school nurses, can work together to promote the health of babies and young children. You will be encouraged to consider each child, and to learn more about practices and beliefs about health at home. To achieve this, it is important to consult parents and work together to be successful in identifying a relevant, realistic and low-cost intervention. An example of a questionnaire that can be adapted by practitioners to use as a way of learning more about home practices is included.

This session gives examples from the pilot study (Musgrave and Payler, 2021) of how the setting worked with parents. There are examples of the practical ways that health promotion interventions can be implemented in settings and includes some of the resources that were created by the practitioners. Some of the key features that can contribute to successfully promoting health in setting are examined. Such features include the importance of adults being positive role models for babies and young children. It will highlight the importance of interventions being realistic and relevant to the children and families. Also conveying the sensitive ways that the practitioners approached working with the families to identify, implement and evaluate their chosen health promotion intervention. It will highlight how they embedded opportunities into everyday routines and events to send health promotion messages to parents.