Understand Your Child Better: Free Online Solihull Courses For Cumbernauld Parents

Cumbernauld Family Hub is encouraging local parents and parents-to-be to take advantage of some excellent online courses being made available free of charge courtesy of NHS Lanarkshire’s Early Years Team.

A selection of quality antenatal and parenting courses are being provided during COVID-19 restrictions for Lanarkshire families via the Solihull Approach’s website, including Understanding Your Child’s Feelings, a new programme which helps mums and dads connect better with the moods and emotions of their offspring.

The Solihull Approach is a not-for-profit organisation which consists of registered professionals within the NHS working with practitioners and parents to develop new resources to support emotional health and wellbeing in children, families and adults.

Based on robust theoretical structure and evidence, the Solihull Approach focusses on the importance of the relationship between parent and child. It consists of training for practitioners and a range of skills development courses for parents, emphasising containment, reciprocity and behaviour management.

The methodology is recognised as innovative practice within early years development across Scotland. Various agencies across North Lanarkshire, including Cornerstone House Centre, utilise the Solihull Approach to help local families be supported in developing positive relationships with their children. Notably, the philosophy supports a local understanding of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and provides an early intervention framework to address childhood adversities and build resilience.

Understanding Your Child’s Feelings incorporates seven modules which each take about five minutes to complete. Other courses available include Understanding Your Child, Understanding Your Child With Additional Needs, Understanding Your Baby and Understanding Pregnancy, Labour, Birth and Your Baby. Furthermore, parents of older children may be interested in participating in Understanding Your Teenager’s Brain, whilst teenagers themselves can benefit from course Understanding Your Brain.

Further information about each of the courses and links to participate can be accessed by clicking here. Lanarkshire residents can join any of the programmes free of charge using the access codes LANERCH1 (for Understanding Pregnancy, Labour, Birth and Your Baby), LANERCH2 (for Understanding Your Baby) and LANERCH3 (for all other courses) and subsequently creating a personal online account. Mary McNeil, Development Manager at Cornerstone House Centre, said:

“Being a parent can be a challenging, worrying and sometimes distressing time under the best of circumstances, and even more so during this extraordinary time of coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions.

“Whether you are pregnant and awaiting arrival of your first child, mother of an active toddler and fighting to keep them entertained or father to a teenager who is transitioning from childhood to adulthood, Solihull training can be extremely beneficial and help you develop evidence-based parenting skills that work.

“Online training courses produced by the Solihull Approach are concise, easy to use and suitable for all parents living in Greater Cumbernauld. Indeed, Cumbernauld Family Hub highly recommends them.

“Parents who have taken Solihull courses report an increased understanding of their children’s behaviour and can identify changes they want to make in their own behaviour.

“The courses teach strategies that mums and dads can adopt to ensure that they are supporting and guiding their children in the right way as well as coping themselves with the daily challenges of being a parent.”

In addition to Solihull training, Cumbernauld Family Hub, funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, continues offer a raft of free services with a view to improving the lives of children and families in the local area.

The Family Hub, first launched in 2017, is a family support resource for Greater Cumbernauld that covers a multitude of activities, seeking to create interesting and unique personal development opportunities for local families. It is designed to be utilised by couples, lone parents and kinship carers, and aims to maximise social, environmental and cultural outcomes for parents and children.

During the current pandemic, many Family Hub provisions are being delivered remotely and online, including telephone wellbeing calls to local parents, Living Life to the Full participation and learning, support with family and personal development activities and facilitation of practical health promotion. Other activities such as Bookbug and Stay and Play Sessions will be resumed as soon as it is deemed safe for face-to-face groups to restart.

Since its inception, the Family Hub has achieved an array of positive outcomes for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth families in relation to childhood obesity, mental health, physical health, parent-child attachment and financial health. Further information about engaging with Cumbernauld Family Hub can be obtained by telephoning 07940 569527 or emailing familyhub@cornerstone-house.org.uk.

Meanwhile, parents of children aged 11 and over attending schools in Greater Cumbernauld will be interested to hear that North Lanarkshire Council has agreed changes to its secondary school curriculum and calendar to provide every young person with the opportunity to access ‘enrichment’ activities one afternoon each week.

Enrichment afternoons will incorporate a wide spectrum of themes to advance the educational experiences of young people, including citizenship and leadership, creative arts, digital learning, enterprise and employability, healthy living, outdoor life skills, learning sport and music.

The move, which comes following consultation with Cumbernauld pupils and parents last year, reduces the number of school periods in the week by one and is expected to save North Lanarkshire Council in the region of £1.8 million.