Coventry Early Years strategy 2025 to 2028

Commitment:

We will empower families to achieve resilience, happiness, and health through continued work to build effective partnerships and delivery systems, which foster supportive, safe networks and promote holistic well-being and fulfilment.

Why is this important?

Research indicates that during the early childhood years, children need good quality care, opportunities for learning, adequate nutrition, and community support for families, to facilitate positive development of cognitive, social and self-regulation skills. Young children with positive attachment relationships learn to respond and adapt to change. They are likely to get off to a good start in life if their fundamental protective skills and relationships continue to operate and develop.

The greatest threats occur when key protective systems are harmed or disrupted. For example, the protection provided by attachment bonds with loving caregivers, the stimulation and nutrition required for healthy brain development, the opportunities to gain experience and acquire new skills, and the limit-setting or structure needed to develop self-control.

Many children face multiple and accumulating risks that require frequent protective interventions and comprehensive efforts to prevent or ameliorate risks to them and their families. No child is invulnerable. As risk levels rise, fewer children escape the developmental consequences of adversity. Early childhood is a crucial window of opportunity for families and societies to ensure that children have the resources and protections required to develop the adaptive tools and relationships they will need to engage the future well prepared.

Note: Masten AS. Resilience in children threatened by extreme adversity: Frameworks for research, practice, and translational synergy. Development and Psychopathology 2011;23(2):141-154. doi:10.1017/S0954579411000198

Where are we now?

The Childcare Act 2006 places a duty on local authorities, with their partners in settings ‘to improve the well-being of all young children in their area and to reduce the inequalities between them’.

Maternal mental health:

In Coventry, there are approximately 4500 births per year. If one assumes that between 10% to 20% will suffer from some form of mental ill health in the year after pregnancy, we can expect between 450 to 900 women to require some level of care. 581 are likely to suffer from anxiety and 536 are likely to be depressed.

There will be an overlap between these as some women will suffer from anxiety and depression. Between 5 and 10 women are likely to develop psychosis each year. Data quality is poor in this area, so local intelligence of the communities is critical in understanding the prevalence moving forward. There are many reasons why women develop mental health problems after giving birth, and this can be influenced by a number and often a combination of factors.

Some of the risk factors include:

• health: mothers who have experienced baby loss, alcohol and/or drug abuse, domestic violence, history of mental ill health, unwanted/unplanned pregnancy, multiple births, and victims of sexual abuse
• population: asylum seekers and refugees, care experienced by women, ethnic minorities and migrants, LGBTQ+ parents, Mothers from radicalised communities, Neurodiverse people and those living with physical disability have higher risk factors
• environment: carers, inadequate social support, single mothers, women in rural areas or precarious living situations, women in poverty or low income, young mothers, mothers with disabled children

Coventry Household survey 2022:

Responses to questions indicated a detrimental impact on mental wellbeing over time. The average score reduced from 26.4 in 2018 to 22.94 in 2021 and 21.75 in 2022. The proportion of Coventry adults diagnosed with depression according to GP registers, has been on an increasing trend. Mental ill health is of growing concern, in 2013 to 2014 it was 6.5% which increased to 11.9% in 2021to 2022, amounting to 40,743 residents (Coventry City Council Perinatal Mental Health Needs Review 2023).

Keeping children safe from harm

Children experiencing abuse and exploitation

Children in care: the Coventry parenting strategy 2024 to 2027 reports that, as of September 2024, Coventry had approximately 720 children in care, an increase from 668 in April 2024. This equates to a rate of 89.5 children per 10,000 under-18s, higher than the England average of 70 but like our statistical neighbours.

Domestic abuse remains a significant concern in Coventry, with recent data indicating notable trends. The ‘toxic trio’ of domestic abuse, mental health issues and drug and alcohol abuse are significant issues for Coventry parents, which impacts on their children.

There was a total of 9,280 domestic abuse incidents reported to the Police during 2020. This is a 33% increase on the previous highest number over the period which was 7,000 during 2019.

In 2022 to 2023: West Midlands Police recorded 10,547 domestic abuse incidents in Coventry during this period.

2023 to 2024: there were 38,508 crimes recorded in Coventry in 2023 to 2024. This was a 10.1 % decrease compared to last year. Domestic abuse accounted for 5,737 incidents or 14.9% of total recorded crime (TRC) in Coventry. While this represents a decrease from the previous year, there has been an increase in referrals to domestic abuse services, suggesting heightened awareness and reporting.

It's important to note that domestic abuse is often underreported, with estimates suggesting that only about 20% of cases are brought to the attention of the police. These figures underscore the ongoing need for robust support services and preventive measures to address domestic abuse in Coventry.

Wider impacts on inequality and isolation

The Coventry JSNA 2023 explains that Digital Exclusion adds another dimension to inequalities of access to healthcare both directly and indirectly. Directly by residents not having the opportunity, skills, and confidence to access healthcare digitally, and indirectly as digital exclusion leads to poorer opportunities across the wider determinants of health, such as employment, education, and housing.

Priority 4: what this means for every child

Marmot Principles

Building strong and sustained resilience and well-being in young children across the social gradient,

What will we do?

1. Support for young and first-time parents:
   • expand the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) programme to increase young parents' access to specialist services.
   • ensure all first-time pregnant parents aged 21 and under are referred to FNP. If declined, an early intervention health visitor will be allocated
2. Perinatal Mental Health (PNMH):
   • increase access to PNMH support services, particularly targeting Black and Asian women experiencing low to moderate mental health issues during the perinatal period
3. Safeguarding and early help:
   • enhance the Early Years Safeguarding training offer by adding modules such as Domestic Abuse training
   • implement an Early Help Lead Practitioner role to develop early help practices within Early Years settings
4. Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED):
   • launch a programme to support PSED in schools and Early Years settings, responding to recent declines in achievement data
5. Parenting support and Practitioner development:
   • deliver Thrive Training citywide to practitioners and partners, promoting sustainable parenting skills
6. Safety and injury prevention:
   • raise awareness of home and road safety risks through seasonal campaigns in partnership with CAPT and RoSPA, aiming to reduce accidental injuries in children aged 0 to 5
7. Trauma-informed support:
   • deliver Tizz Time in schools and Early Years settings with high levels of violence exposure, offering trauma-informed support to children

Outcome Fulfilled - we will know that we have been successful when:

Outcomes:

• our families and those caring for us know how to take care of themselves to keep physically and emotionally healthy. They seek help when they need to, and they can navigate local services to keep us safe from harm
• we experience positive relationships and develop secure attachments with those who care for us. We have developed a sense of safety in relationships. When we are old enough, we know where to go for help
• the people who care for us are well trained and know what to do to keep us safe. They are well equipped to support our personal, social and emotional development
• there is specialist mental health support for our parents during the Perinatal period, they engage with this and find it beneficial

Performance measures:

• to increase the number of Black and Asian women experiencing low-moderate perinatal mental health issues who access services
• to increase the number of people accessing PNMH support services who show improvement on exit (via GAD-7/PHQ/HADS)
• to increase the numbers living in the top 10% IMD, who are experiencing low-moderate perinatal mental health issues to access services
• to promote engagement and success with breastfeeding from groups traditionally not breastfeeding
• to extend the reach of the Family Nurse Partnership programme to increase the number of young parents accessing specialist support services
• more parents of children aged 2 to 4, access HLE programmes delivered by a range of professionals including health and early years practitioners, and VCFS organisations
• workforce development -PSED / SEML30% practitioners access training to support children with SEML needs in the early years foundation stage
• more parents access targeted Family Help services receiving the support they need to thrive as a parent, when they need it
• increase the number of parents and practitioners who have accessed Thrive Training
• between 2025 to 2028 increase in the number of parents who access digital start for life services at universal and targeted level