A pilot evaluation of the Thriving Babies: Confident Parents (TBCP) programme, an initiative designed and delivered by Manchester City Council, in partnership with Barnardo’s and Home-Start. The programme aims to intervene early and support potentially vulnerable parents of babies and infants, both pre- and post-birth.
This report presents findings from a pilot evaluation of the the Thriving Babies: Confident Parents (TBCP) programme, an initiative designed and delivered by Manchester City Council, involving a multi-agency partnership of local authority children’s services (Early Help and Social Care) and two voluntary sector providers, Barnardo’s and Home-Start. The programme aims to intervene early and support parents of babies and infants, both pre- and post-birth, in cases where the (prospective) parents are recognised as having specific vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities include learning difficulties; mental ill-health; domestic abuse; substance misuse; social isolation; being in care or a care leaver; or having had a child previously removed from their care. Practitioners work proactively with parents to build upon their strengths, develop their parenting skills, reduce risk and promote family resilience and parent wellbeing.
The programme was evaluated by the Institute of Public Care at Oxford Brookes University and took place between May 2021 and June 2022. The aim of the evaluation was to explore the key elements of TBCP, the programme’s feasibility, and its evidence of promise with reference to the key aims of the project. The evaluators sought to explore not only whether the model seemed to work, but also in what circumstances, for whom, why, and to what extent. The evaluation was implemented in a collaborative manner, working with TBCP partners to generate the best learning about what works.
It must be noted that the pilot took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, which had a significant impact on delivery and the evaluation. This is an important caveat to the findings.
The evaluation was designed to answer the following questions:
The pilot evaluation was undertaken from May 2021 to August 2022. The evaluators adopted a mixed methods approach, drawing upon quantitative as well as qualitative data. The evaluation used a range of methods, including:
The evaluation of this multidisciplinary, intensive and perinatal support for parents with high-level vulnerabilities has demonstrated that:
The evaluation suggests that this pilot programme has been well implemented and has started to become consolidated in Manchester. The programme has demonstrated strong evidence of promise in terms of its impact. With regard to the implementation of a model of this kind, the pilot study highlighted the importance of: