Tameside and Glossop early attachment service

What we do

Research tells us that healthy first relationships are vitally important for a baby’s future wellbeing and development. These positive early relationship experiences lay the foundations for building babies’ brains, and form the basis of children’s capacities to manage their own feelings, to explore the world and learn and to develop the social skills that allow them to make friendships and cope with everyday demands on them.

There are many and varied reasons why mental health and parent-infant relationship difficulties can arise during your pregnancy, following your baby’s birth or during your child’s early years. You or your midwife, health visitor, GP or other health/early years professional may feel you need to be referred for more specialist support.

Our overall aim is to support you as parents and carers and your baby/young child to feel safe and secure, to manage the emotional demands of infancy and new parenthood, and to build positive relationships that you can both enjoy.

We have led the borough in developing integrated perinatal and parent–infant mental health services for parents and children under five.

We have received wide recognition for its good practice and forward thinking from other professionals and services around the country.  The model for the early attachment service is currently being replicated across the other nine boroughs in Greater Manchester. 

We are also part of the Greater Manchester strategic network of perinatal and parent infant mental health services.

We all have core professional trainings in health visiting, psychology, psychotherapy and social work, with many years’ experience of working with parents, babies and children. 

We have all undertaken extra training in supporting the parent-infant relationship and can offer a wide range of skills and approaches.

We work in community health clinics, children’s centres and homes across Tameside and Glossop, and work closely with health visitors, midwives, GPs, nurseries and other early years professionals. 

Being pregnant and having a baby is a special and memorable time in life, but it can be a difficult time too.

Different emotions, experiences and expectations can get in the way, and affect how you feel about yourself or about your baby.

Some parents have all the support they need from family, friends, or professionals such as health visitors. However, we can provide more specialist or intensive support when it is needed.

This is done by listening, observing, making sense of difficult feelings and strengthening the relationship between you and your baby, supporting your baby’s development and wellbeing, and supporting you to develop the confidence to manage the challenges of being a parent.

We provide information for all new and expectant parents in Tameside and Glossop, in the form of a booklet ‘Getting it Right from the Start’, available from your midwife or health visitor. The DVD content is also available on You Tube, watch the getting it right from the start video.

Young children are full of passions and conflicting feelings. Their development doesn’t always run smoothly and sometimes things get stuck.

Being a parent of a young child can be a rewarding and positive experience but it is also full of real challenges. It is common for you to feel overwhelmed, lose confidence and struggle with new responsibilities.

As a parent, you may also have worries and strong feelings, and all these things can affect family relationships.

We can provide more intensive support when needed, for you to work things out and get back on track. This can include supporting you if your child's development is causing concern.

Some children have more complex developmental needs which parents or early years professionals begin to notice and want support to understand better.

'Helping at home' is an intensive community-based assessment and treatment apporach to understand your child's development, and the concerns you may have as a parent in more detail.

Your GP, midwife, health visitor or another professional will need to refer you for support.

A referral would always be discussed with you first, and a leaflet should be given to you explaining the service you will be offered.

Once we receive a referral

All the referrals are screened to ensure our approach is right for you. Where possible and required we will try to offer you an appointment within two weeks of a referral being accepted into the service.

Sometimes, instead of working directly with you, we might support other professionals in the work they are doing to help you and your baby/child.

You will usually be offered a time to meet with us where we can get to know each other and spend some time talking about your baby or toddler.

We will talk about your experiences, your hopes and concerns and about your day to day life. We will also get to know you and your baby or child through watching you play, thinking about your baby or young child’s cues and behaviours, as well as ways of responding.

You will also have a chance to discuss your problems and concerns, and the needs of both yourself and your baby or young child. Together we will work out what sort of help will be most appropriate for you. We offer both group and individual support.

At regular intervals and at the end of our work together, we will write to you so that you have a record of your progress. We will send a copy of the letter to the professional who first referred you, and your GP, so that they know how you’re getting on and how else to support you, if necessary.

Don’t forget

You can receive support for your relationship with your baby without being referred directly to us. Health visitors, early years workers and community midwives have extra training in supporting your relationship with your baby and they will often provide the support you need, sometimes with extra advice from a member of our team.

We have also developed some materials and leaflets with information about the service, please contact us if you need the information in this format. 

Email: pcn-tr.eas@nhs.net 

Phone: 0161 716 3569

Your Baby and You has been written by families and professionals together, with information, videos and things to help you to get to know and understand your baby.

Take your time to read through the content during pregnancy, and remember to revisit it following birth.