In September the GP Care Group's Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) team held a graduation party in John Smith Children and Family Centre for parents that completed their programme during the year.
Young parents join the FNP programme in early pregnancy and most continue till their child is two years old.
The graduation party is a celebration and acknowledgement of parents’ commitment and achievement during their time on the programme, as well as a celebratory ending of the relationship they have built with their family nurses over the two and a half years.
Mums and Dads attended the party with their children and had lots of fun getting involved in party games, painting, balloons and bubbles, and prizes for some lucky winners.
Read on for positive feedback given by parents who graduated:
Ellie, Francis and Amelia graduated from FNP in February
While on FNP Ellie became involved in the Tower Hamlets Kickstart Scheme, which was introduced to give young people work experience. She now works for Tower Hamlets parks department and is positive about the resources we have in Tower Hamlets for enhancing not only the children’s wellbeing but the whole family. She feels proud of how well Amelia is doing in nursery and spoke positively about her experience being on the programme.
Josh and his daughter Hannah
Josh is going into his second year in university, studying childcare. He said: “Being a single dad has been a big learning curve. I have enjoyed it and it has given me a greater bond with my daughter. You gain lots of knowledge from your Family Nurse, if I had any concerns with my daughter I could ask, and the service found activities for us to do. It is really beneficial!”
Emma and Harley
“Having a Family Nurse as reassuring as you have someone to give you a second opinion, so you can do things right.”
The FNP team runs a weekly ‘young parents' group’ in John Smith children and family center which Emma attended and said: “Going to groups to meet other mums with children my age has really helped me and my son.”