Available on the Learning Hub
This programme is available on the NHS Learning Hub. We recommend you read the information on this webpage to find out more about the programme before you access the learning. https://learninghub.nhs.uk/Catalogue/psychology-informed-neonatal-care
More information about the Learning Hub and the migration of elfh programmes can be found here.
About the Psychologically-Informed Neonatal Care programme
Psychosocial support should be available to all families on the neonatal unit, regardless of gestation of their baby, type of birth or level of obvious distress. Good psychosocial support includes the entire neonatal workforce and is enacted in every interaction staff have with an infant, their parents and the wider family. Good psychosocial support does not end at discharge. These families continue to be at risk of difficulties which impact on their wellbeing and functioning, including ongoing mental health difficulties in both parent and child.
Psychologically-informed care is all about building relationships and extending compassion and empathy to those around you. These are hard concepts to communicate via an e-learning package. In the development of these modules we have tried to strike a balance between providing useful information staff can use with giving you an understanding of the complexity of this work and the nuances which must be considered when providing an individualised, compassionate approach. We ask that you approach these modules with an open mind and a desire to develop your skills. These modules will never contain everything you need to know, but may give you cause for reflection on your practice and how you can enhance it to offer more psychologically informed care.
Target audience: The neonatal workforce including neonatal workforce including nurses, doctors, members of the AHP workforce, healthcare assistants, nursery nurses. Community staff including GPs, Health visitors, maternity staff and beyond. We would also like to extend this training to community members of the wider workforce supporting infants and families. This is in recognition of the role they play in supporting families long term.
Aim: Developing psychosocial skills across the workforce to enhance experience of all families on unit and mitigate distress caused by admission and treatment and which is experienced during and after the hospital stay. This training is an example of ‘spend to save’ as there is potential to improve the outcomes of infants, children and families and therefore reduce the later economic burden on services.
More information
The mandate for these modules comes from several key documents including the Toolkit for high quality neonatal services (2009) which highlight the need for “family centred care including psychological support for mothers and families”. In 2009 the Poppy project did some research finding out what the needs of parents were and proposed a model to support families. This was followed in 2010 by the British Association for Perinatal Medicine noting the need for psychological care for infants, families, individuals and staff teams. Despite these many policy and research drivers, it is clear that there is the belief that either psychological informed care is not necessary, or is already happening as standard, both of which were proved false when the Ockenden and Kirkup reports published searing findings of the challenges in maternity and neonatal care and tasked us to place families and staff wellbeing at the centre of care. These reports provide a mandate and highlight the need to provide all staff with the training they need to better support infants, families and the team around them. The Getting it right first time reports also showed the huge gaps in psychology provision on neonatal units and in 2022, the lead psychologists for neonatal care published staffing standards which laid out the evidence base for psychological provision and the various areas of focus. If you are interested in psychologically informed care, please do take the time to read this document Toolkit for high quality neonatal services.
Primary and secondary audiences
The neonatal workforce including neonatal workforce including nurses, doctors, members of the AHP workforce, healthcare assistants, nursery nurses. Community staff including GPs, health visitors, maternity staff and beyond. We would also like to extend this training to community members of the wider workforce supporting infants and families. This is in recognition of the role they play in supporting families long term.
Meet the team
Dr Davy Evans
Dr Angela Marsh
Dr Ellie Atkins
Dr Jacinta Cordwell
Dr Ruth Butterworth
Dr Samantha Cole
Dr Karen Barr
Dr Siobhan Higgins
Dr Anita D'Urso
Dr Rebecca Chilvers
Karole Smith
Programme Manager - Technology Enhanced Learning, NHS England
Essi Niittymaki
Senior Project Manager - Technology Enhanced Learning, NHS England
Stephen Gibbons
Lead Learning Designer - Technology Enhanced Learning, NHS England
Catherine Moran
Graphic Designer - Technology Enhanced Learning, NHS England
Louise Garrahan
Senior Marketing and Communications Officer - Technology Enhanced Learning, NHS England
How to access
To access this elfh programme, you will require a Learning Hub account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below. Note that if you hold a full elfh account, you can sign into the Learning Hub using your existing login credentials.
To view the Psychologically-Informed Neonatal Care programme, select the View button below. If you already have a Learning Hub account, you will also be able to login and access the resources within the programme .
NHS healthcare staff in England – ESR
The Psychologically-Informed Neonatal Care programme is also available to NHS healthcare staff via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Accessing this e-learning via ESR means that your completions will transfer with you throughout your NHS career.
Further details are available here.
Not an NHS organisation?
If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access to the Learning Hub, you may be able to access the service if you have an existing OpenAthens account. Please go to Learning Hub and sign in with your existing credentials.
If you do not have an existing OpenAthens account, please contact elfh directly to check whether you may be eligible for access.
Registering large numbers of users
If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the Psychologically-Informed Neonatal Care programme, please contact elfh directly.
Organisations wishing to use their own LMS
For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.
More information
Please select the following link for more information on how to use the Learning Hub