GroBrain helps Blaenau Gwent reduce impact of adverse childhood experiences in most deprived areas

Blaenau Gwent Children’s Services recently undertook fresh GroBrain training because the programme perfectly with its initiatives to reduce the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) for children living in poverty.

GroBrain delivers the full programme of Foundation, Baby and Toddler courses across Blaenau Gwent to Flying Start Family Support Workers, Dads’ Support Workers and Health Visitors. It is predominantly focused in the Flying Start and Pathfinder areas which have been identified by the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) as the most deprived areas within the borough

Tania Hayward, Deputy Flying Start Manager for Blaenau Gwent Borough Council, says, “There is a lot of focus on adverse childhood experiences and how they impact babies and young children in the first 1000 days of life.  Grobrain is a fantastic training programme to help show parents the importance of attachment, brain development and how stress can affect the growing baby and toddler.”

The council has been using GroBrain for the past two years and has received numerous training cohorts. Fresh funding provided an ideal opportunity to get more professionals trained and ensure all the council’s staff working with families are giving consistent messages. 

Tania Hayward explains, “It has been a fantastic experience.  The organisers are very accommodating and the programme is flexible. GroBrain helped us receive the training to suit our needs; they even accommodated our virtual platform needs as there were restrictions on which platform we could use.

Blaenau Gwent staff have used GroBrain training to deliver programmes have exceeded their targets. There is a vast amount of great materials to use with families which are parent friendly and easy for them to understand. 

Since pandemic restrictions came into force, these programmes have been delivered on a one to one basis and virtually to groups of parents. Tania says, “The presentations have been so useful for staff – particularly delivering virtually (which has been a learning curve for us all).”