Healthy Babies expansion and perinatal mental health

Jo Brook reflects on what the planned expansion of the Healthy Babies programme means for perinatal mental health provision in England.

Opinion

5 November 2026

Jo Brook

I recently spoke at a conference about the role of Family Hubs in helping to deliver integrated, multi-agency perinatal mental health support.

This has been brought into focus again following the UK government’s recent announcement that the Healthy Babies programme will now be rolled out to every Best Start Family Hub in England, with the aim of creating a national network of up to 1,000 Best Start Family Hubs and 2,000 connected services by the end of 2028.

This news is very welcome. Currently, more than half of local authorities in England do not have Healthy Babies services, meaning families cannot always access integrated health, early years development and family support in one place. This kind of local provision is particularly important for parents and carers who might otherwise be reticent to access support for perinatal mental health problems.

I have championed a more integrated approach to family support for many years in my role as Perinatal Mental Health Training and Service Development Lead. Perinatal mental health needs are complex and span multiple systems, including maternity services, health visiting, primary care, specialist perinatal mental health, children’s social care and more.  It is imperative that all professionals working with families, children and babies understand the importance of multi-agency and partnership working, good communication and their role within the system. It is vital that they know how to recognise and detect perinatal mental health problems, where to make referrals, and how their local care pathways work. This helps to build an integrated perinatal mental health approach, based upon a common language and culture across agencies.

To achieve this, local authority leads responsible for Family Hubs must create workforce development plans which include ongoing perinatal mental health and parent-infant mental health training. This will ensure that all the different types of practitioners who come into contact with women, birthing people and their families have the skills, competencies and expertise needed to support those experiencing mental illness during the perinatal period. A recent study, in which I was involved, found that women feel more confident engaging with practitioners who are trained and knowledgeable, or ‘perinatally competent’ – further reinforcing the importance of workforce training.

At Tavistock Education and Training, I am pleased to have already worked with a wide range of practitioners within Family Hubs – including Midwives, Health Visitors, Early Years Workers, Nursery Nurses, Infant Feeding Leads, Family Support Workers, Voluntary Sector Practitioners and Parenting Practitioners – who have undertaken our online training then joined reflective groups, enabling them to reflect upon what they have learnt and how this relates to their roles and practice.

The response from practitioners has been very positive. For instance, Dr Sara Roberts, Clinical Lead for the Best Start for Baby Psychology service at Camden Council, whose staff undertook our Perinatal mental health, risk, care and treatment self-study course, commented that: “Feedback has consistently highlighted its clinical depth, practical relevance and reflective rigour. Practitioners particularly valued the psychologically informed framing of perinatal mental health, the emphasis on relationships and parent–infant interaction and the protected space for reflective dialogue about complexity, risk and difference. The training has really supported colleagues to consider application to practice and has strengthened confidence in supporting those experiencing perinatal mental health difficulties. It has been a vital contributor to embedding psychologically minded, trauma-informed and equity-focused practice across Camden’s Family Hubs.”

As more Family Hubs integrate the Healthy Babies programme, I look forward to supporting even more practitioners to deliver joined-up, knowledgeable and compassionate care for parents, infants and families.