Community Mothers Programme

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The Community Mothers Programme has now been relaunched as Community Families and all information on the Programme can be found on the Community Families website here. 

Below is a timeline of the process and KHF’s involvement in the work of the review and subsequent update of the Programme.

Background

The Community Mothers Programme was originally developed within the Public Health Nursing Service in the then Eastern Heath Board in the early 1980s. It was adapted from a programme developed in Bristol, UK and offered a volunteer-led home visiting service to families with young children, particularly in communities of disadvantage. The Programme focused on maternal health and wellbeing and infant health and development. The Community Mothers Programme was one of the first Irish family support programmes to undergo a Randomised Control Trial.

Initially the Programme was rolled out across the Eastern Heath Board area (Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare) with 11 service sites developed by the 1990s. In the following years the Programme was adopted in a number of community sites around the country. Currently there are Community Mothers (or equivalent) Programmes in operation in: Dublin Docklands, Kerry, Laois / Offaly, Longford / Westmeath, Limerick, North Tipperary and South Tipperary.

National Review of the Community Mothers Programme April 2019

This Review was commissioned by the Katharine Howard Foundation and Community Foundation for Ireland arising from their concerns about the future of the Programme. The review was conducted in partnership with Tusla and the Health Service Executive as the principal funders and key partners of the Programme sites. The National Review Report was launched in April 2019 by Bernie McNally, Assistant Secretary in the Department of Children and Youth Affairs at a very successful event. The Report makes a series of recommendations about the strategic development of the Community Mothers Programme, aligned with current service priorities and fully integrated into the continuum of local service delivery.

Community Mothers Programme Development Project 2020-2021: Leading to the creation of Community Families

In 2019 funding was obtained from the Sláintecare Integration Fund and from a private donor, secured by the Early Learning Initiative at the National College of Ireland, to carry out a Development Project seeking to implement the recommendations of the National Review. Once more, this Project was carried out in partnership with Tusla and the Health Service Executive.

Susan Brocklesby, an independent consultant who conducted the National Review, was commissioned to manage the Development Project which commenced it work in early 2020. In spite of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was possible for Susan to undertake an intensive schedule of work with the project sites and with a wide range of stakeholders, supported by the Project Oversight Group. In February 2021, the Development Project made a short video of its work, as part of a presentation to the Sláintecare Integration Fund Network. The Development Project completed its work at the end of 2021, holding an online event in December 2021 for everybody who contributed to the work. The key achievement of the Development Project has been the creation of Community Families, a new updated, evidence-based and integrated national home visiting programme which aims to improve outcomes for children and families in pregnancy and early childhood. In 2022, the next phase of the work continued with the establishment of a new national structure, co-chaired by Tusla and the HSE, to support the transition of the Community Mothers Programme sites to Community Families and its continued roll out, quality assurance and future development.

On 02 October, 2024, Community Families was officially launched. For all information on the Programme please visit: www.communityfamilies.ie