Staff Recognition Week: Supporting vulnerable young families safely during Covid-19

Throughout week commencing 21 – 25 September, we are holding a special staff Recognition Week to say thank you to our fabulous staff for everything they have done over the past few difficult months and continue to do during the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Recognition Week will showcase and celebrate the amazing work of our staff and how they have been innovative in adapting their practices to ensure that our patients and service users have continued to get the very best care and treatment possible throughout this time. The commitment of our staff to making a difference in these unprecedented times is truly inspiring.  You can read about our inspiring staff and how they have adapted during the pandemic below. 

The Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) is a home visiting parenting programme delivered across Nottinghamshire to first-time young mothers, their partners and families. It supports up to 375 young families at a time to have a healthy pregnancy, improve their child’s physical and emotional health and development, plan their own futures and achieve their aspirations.

It provides intensive support for vulnerable first-time young mothers, including those from highly disadvantaged backgrounds and childhood adversity, for example Looked after Children who are pregnant or young parents.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown the team’s focus has been on how the Family Nurses can continue to deliver the FNP programme whilst ensuring the safety of their clients, babies and themselves.

FNP Supervisor Lisa Wilson said: “We recognised that, during lockdown, the isolation and lack of resources, positive relationships and healthy family support were impacting negatively on many of our clients and their babies.

“Some were forced to live in homeless accommodation with their babies due to family breakdown, whilst others were isolated in violent relationships. Many parents shared feelings of raised anxiety with their Family Nurse, with concern over their emotional availability for their babies.”

Finding ways to help young parents share their concerns during a difficult time

Although some young parents felt confident to talk to their Family Nurse over the phone, many did not. “The reduction in engagement from some families concerned the nursing team,” added Lisa. “It increased their drive to visit as many clients face-to-face as possible.”

The Family Nurses triaged their caseload and prioritised home visits for their most vulnerable clients who were experiencing poor mental health, domestic violence or where there were safeguarding concerns. Offering walks in the park or visits in the garden – following the rules on social distancing and protective equipment – enabled clients to be open and honest about their concerns for themselves and their babies.

“The Family Nurses felt that home visits were so important as many clients held onto concerns until they were able to see them face-to-face and really valued these visits,” said Lisa. “The nurses have also been able to share and explain the public health messaging around the pandemic to help keep families safe.”

Alongside home visiting, the Family Nurses have also used virtual consultations, email, telephone calls, text and posted information out to clients. However, some clients did not have the data or technology needed or an understanding of online materials and information.

Vital continuity of care and face-to-face support

The team of 16 nurses, two supervisors and one admin colleague have worked tirelessly to ensure that the babies on their caseload are safeguarded from harm and that their clients are safe. Working relationships and communication with social workers, midwives, GPs and other services has been pivotal in supporting families and the team has been delighted with the level of information sharing over this difficult time.

“The learning from this experience is that face to face consultation is valued by both the Family Nurse and clients, enhancing the therapeutic relationship, supporting self efficacy and positive change,” said Lisa.

The team has received feedback that clients have really valued the continuity of service especially with their named nurse. For staff it has been incredibly important to keep their clients safe during these challenging times when serious issues such as domestic violence have been on the increase.

Lisa concluded: “The Family Nurses have been a person that young families can trust and feel consistently supported by both before and during the pandemic. They are reliable, non-judgemental and honest. Nurses are unable to make a true holistic assessment over a phone call; being with our clients enables us alongside the client to identify areas of need and work with them to support with their physical and emotional wellbeing, attachment, child development, safety, relationships, support networks and aspirations.

“We will continue to work to deliver even more of our visits face to face and hope to return to normal visits for everyone as soon as possible.”