Core Components

The Solihull Approach Antenatal Parenting Group: Understanding pregnancy, labour, birth and your baby is a universal parenting programme for anyone expecting a baby and for those around them including father, partner, grandparents or birth partner. It is a programme for participants who wish to access an antenatal course and build a strong healthy relationship with their baby. The programme is delivered in a group setting over a 5-week journey and can also be accessed online covering nine modules. Ten to twelve parents are invited to attend each group.

The programme provides practical information about pregnancy and birth whilst at the same time introducing parents to their baby. Course modules include a Welcome; Helping you and your baby through pregnancy and birth; Getting to know your baby in the womb; You, your baby and the stages of labour; Helping you and your baby through labour and birth; Feeding your baby; Who’s the Daddy now? – I’m the Daddy!; After your baby is born and Congratulations.

The programme is based on the Solihull Approach and brings together three core psychological constructs of containment, reciprocity and behaviour management to help parents understand their baby’s behaviour in the context of their development and the parent-child relationship. The programme aims to promote reflective, sensitive and effective parenting and so improve child behaviour. It also aims to develop the parent-baby relationship and child’s confidence and self-esteem.

Fidelity

The Solihull Approach Antenatal Parenting Group manages fidelity using a detailed manual, contracts with commissioners, trainers and facilitators and parental and facilitator evaluation forms submitted to the central team. Evaluation forms are periodically checked by the central team, and they follow up any concerns. The programme acknowledges the limits to their fidelity monitoring and have taken a pragmatic decision to have a limited burden on sites demonstrating fidelity to the central team, to support the widest possible roll out of the programme.

Modifiable Components 

Materials are available in a range of languages and an online version of the group is available with voiceovers in English and Urdu.  The online programme has the same structure and content. It can be used to support a parent who is unable to attend the group with the father, partner, grandparents, birth partner or as a standalone intervention. Solihull Approach has written other programmes targeting parents within the postnatal period, child and adolescent period and for foster carers.

The programme is available in 108 languages with voiceovers in English, Urdu and Welsh using the Google Translate widget.

Support for Organisation / Practice

The Solihull Approach Antenatal Parenting Group is one of the programmes from the Solihull Approach central team at the University Hospitals Birmingham, NHS Trust. It builds upon their two-day neonatal foundation training, which introduces the Solihull Approach model to practitioners.

Implementation Support

The Solihull Approach team can provide implementation support on request by phone and email and through resources on its website. Further support is available through linking with mature sites. The Solihull Approach team can provide direct individual training places in Solihull or provide training locally for groups of 12 delegates. In common with all Solihull trainings, the Antenatal Parenting Group training can be cascaded locally. The Solihull Approach team provide guidance on how training can be run sustainably in local areas. This includes “Train the Trainer” for both the initial foundation training, and specific parenting group training. The programme requires that parental session evaluations and facilitator session feedback forms are submitted to central team. They have a set of free outcome measures that they can provide to sites on request.  A free online webinar of 44 minutes is provided to support practitioners in effectively cascading the Solihull Approach training to colleagues. Purchase of the Public Health Multi-user licence includes liaison with Solihull central team about planning the role out of the programme.

Licence Requirements

There are no formal licencing requirements for facilitators; however, commissioners, trainers and facilitators are required to agree to a code of practice.

Start-up Costs

Prior to training as an Antenatal Parenting Group facilitator, the 2-day Foundation level Training must be completed:

• Face to face training for a group of 12 is £1997.
• Virtual places for a group of 12 is £1499 or individual places can be purchased at £189

Practitioners must then attend the one-day Antenatal Parenting Group training:

• Face to face for a group or 12 costs £998
• Virtual delivery for a group of 12 costs £879 or individual places can be purchased at £98

If practitioners have not completed the 2-day Foundation Training, there is a Combined Antenatal Foundation & Antenatal Parenting Group Facilitators’ 2 Day training for 12 delegates that can be provided locally for £1997, or virtually with the cost for a group of 12 at £1499 or individual places at £189.

The “Train the Trainer” provided locally is £998 or virtually for a group is £879 or an individual place is £98. These costs include a training manual. Both facilitators require course manuals at £98 each and the antenatal foundation resource packs which is £75 per pack.

Building Staff Competency

Qualifications Required

The Solihull Approach Antenatal Parenting Group is designed for Midwives, Children’s Centre Workers, Health Visitors, Infant Feeding Coordinators and anyone working in the antenatal or neonatal fields.  Facilitators need experience of working with pregnant women and families in the antenatal and postnatal period, to have completed the two-day Antenatal Foundation level course in the Solihull Approach and have completed the 1-day antenatal parenting group training. Alternatively, facilitators can complete the combined antenatal foundation and antenatal parenting group 2-day training.

Training Requirements

One facilitator needs to have attended the pre-requisite two-day Antenatal Foundation Level training followed by the specific one-day training in the Antenatal Parenting Group, or the combined 2-day Antenatal Foundation Level and Antenatal Parenting group training. Training is available onsite for groups of up to 12 people or remotely, delivered online via Zoom/MS Teams. The Solihull Approach encourages a local cascade of training and to support this provide a free “Delivering Solihull Approach” 44 minutes Webinar.  A “train the trainer” group training is also available for practitioners that have completed the both the foundation and group training and run at least one group.

Supervision Requirements

Supervision is recommended but not mandated.

Theory of Change

The Solihull Approach brings together three psychological constructs from psychoanalytic theory, developmental psychology, and social learning theory in its theory of change. It emphasises the importance of emotional containment and reciprocity in parent-child relationships as the foundations which are necessary for behaviour management skills to be effective. The aim is that the group provides a containing experience for parents so that they can be calm, process emotions and have a capacity to think. This in turn enables parents to be more in tune with their child's feelings and developmental needs so that where necessary they can use individualised, sensitive, and appropriate behaviour management strategies with their babies/children.

Values

The Solihull Approach Antenatal Parenting Group focuses on the importance of the infant-parent relationship and helping parenting understand their baby’s behaviour and development.

• Does this approach align with the key values of your organisation?

Priorities

The Solihull Approach Antenatal Parenting Group is a universal programme, designed as a first response parenting intervention for pregnant women and their families in the antenatal period. Course practitioners seek to positively influence mothers and parents’ experience of pregnancy, labour, birth and to start their relationship with their baby before it even makes an appearance.

• Is working with pregnant mothers and families to help them to better understand their pregnancy and antenatal journey a current priority for your organisation?
• Is helping parents understand babies in utero development and brain development a priority for your organisation?
• Is having a first response parenting intervention a priority for your organisation?

Existing Initiatives

• Does your service already provide early intervention programmes aiming to help parents understand the antenatal journey, their baby’s development and the parent-infant relationship?
• Does your area have practitioners trained in delivering the EasyPeasy Programme?
• Do you have links with CAMHS, Adult Mental Health Services and Child Protection Services to refer onto if required? (9)

Workforce

To deliver the Solihull Approach Antenatal Programme requires at least 2 practitioners with experience using the Solihull Approach and running groups, available for 1 session per week for 5 weeks of the group.

• Do you have practitioners with the appropriate qualification, experience, interest and time to form TFCO-P teams and deliver the programme?
• Can your organisation support the time commitment required for practitioner training, accreditation, and programme delivery?

Technology Support

The Solihull Approach Antenatal Parenting Group does not have any specific technological requirements.  The online version requires the parents to have access to an internet enabled device.

Administrative Support

• Do you have the administrative support to book venues?
• Do you have the administrative support and systems to manage referrals?

Financial Support

The minimum training costs are for two practitioners completing facilitator training (£98 virtual per person) and two manuals (£98 each) and completion of the pre-requisite foundation training (£189 virtual per person). Both facilitators require course manuals (£98 each) and the antenatal foundation resource packs (£75 per pack).

• Do you have the finances to pay for practitioners to attend this training?

Ongoing costs are primarily the costs of facilitators and group venues, estimated to be £1500 per group.

• Does your service have the finances to meet these running costs?

Individual places on the online programme can support parents unable to attend the group. The online programme cost £19 for individual lifetime access with discounts for multiple places ranging from 10-20%.

• Does your service have the finances to support either the funding of individual places, or a wider role out of the online programme?

Comparable Population

The Solihull Approach Antenatal Parenting Group runs with groups of 10-12 parents and anyone around the mother wishing to build a strong and healthy relationship with the baby.

Research has demonstrated effectiveness in parents in the UK who have undertaken either the face to face or online version of the programme.

• Do you have sufficient demand for this kind of antenatal support?
• Is the running of groups suitable for the geographical spread of your organisation?

Desired Outcome

The Solihull Approach Antenatal Parenting Group seeks to positively influence mothers and parents’ experience of pregnancy, labour, birth and to help parents better understand their baby’s in utero, and brain development to enable them to develop a close bond and positive healthy parent-child relationship.

Outcomes from evaluation have demonstrated improvements in parental anxiety related to pregnancy, labour and birth, improved parental attachment and increased intention to breastfeed.

• Are these outcomes a current priority for your organisation?
• Do you have other existing initiatives that would be supportive of addressing this need and achieving these outcomes?