The iHV has been supported by the Tiny Lives Trust to develop and offer a programme of training for health visitors to be Neonatal Families Ambassadors. The training has been co-produced by parents and professionals to support health visitors in their role with families. The programme of training is grounded by evidence-based resources that will support health visiting teams to effectively help families who have had a baby and spent time on a neonatal unit. The programme is underpinned by the voices of parents and people with lived experience, and we are joined by expert speakers on the day.
Suitable for health visiting team members with an interest in preterm and sick babies, the training offers the opportunity to:
- Share learning with health visiting colleague
- Enhance the support that health visiting teams offer to families
- Following training, each Ambassador will receive access to resources to support with raising awareness.
Ambassadors training
The Ambassador model of training is a sustainable approach to accessible learning. Following training, the Ambassadors can continue their learning by accessing the Surviving to Thriving: Neonatal Ambassadors materials online. This includes further films, reading, e-learning and useful organisation resources. Following this, Ambassadors can also share their learning locally via access to Ambassador resources to provide a short awareness session to colleagues (where agreed locally).
Attributes of an Ambassador include: having a professional interest/role as an advocate for the subject, being a good communicator (to raise awareness from a lesson plan and session resources, where agreed locally), and contributing to local initiatives to improve communication and support to parents.
To raise awareness of the unique needs of preterm and sick babies and the health visiting role in providing personalised support to their families.
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To raise awareness of the family’s experience
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To increase knowledge of prematurity
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To increase knowledge and understanding the roles of practitioners in this period
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Introduce resources to support best practice, including Ambassador resources to support onward delivery of these key objectives to colleagues.
Our facilitators will be joined by parents with lived experience and experts to support your learning in this field, to increase your confidence and knowledge when working with families. We cover pre-term birth, bereavement, emotional wellbeing of families, the journey home, feeding, growth, development and surveillance, and immunisations.
The Ambassador one-day event will equip health visitors and early year team members to act as advocates for families with pre-term or sick babies who are in, or have previously spent time in, a neonatal unit. It will introduce resources contained in a digital toolkit including: Good Practice Points, Parent Tips, films, case studies, parent stories, useful organisations and collated research and literature. The programme and resources aim to support a broader knowledge base and provide quality assured resources that families can be signposted to. Finally, there is a slideset and session plan to support Ambassadors to provide a short awareness raising session for colleagues.
Access to Ambassador resources and the associated materials is granted for 2 years following training and can be renewed for a small fee following this period.
🏷️ Cost: £265 (iHV Member) / £290 (Non-member)
🕒 Duration: 1 Day
👥 Suitable for: Suitable for health visiting team members with an interest in preterm and sick babies
The programme is delivered as:
- Private events – commissioned by organisations. Costs on request.
- iHV hosted events - places can be booked individually or organisation (subject to availability)
[Hyperlink to event]
No suitable scheduled dates?
Contact us to register your interest.
For more information, contact us.
