Essential Parent supports and promotes the factors that help children reach their potential – including good health, attachment, good mental health, responsive feeding, cognitive, physical and emotional development, and many more.

Essential Parent is a digital information service offering expert, evidence-based professional written and video content for conception, pregnancy, birth, babies, toddlers, children and teenagers.

Health Professionals can use the Essential Parent ‘eDelivery’ system to respond to parents’ needs and deliver bespoke content direct to them at the click of a button.

Essential Parent follows the advice of experts in the field including:

  • Professor Robert Winston
  • UNICEF UK Baby Friendly
  • The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
  • The Child Accident Prevention Trust
  • The St John Ambulance
  • The British Society of Paediatric Dentistry
  • The Samaritans
  • The National Literacy Trust
  • I CAN Children’s Communication Charity
  • The Meningitis Research Trust
  • Mental Health specialists
  • Health Visitors, Midwives, GPs, Paediatricians, Obstetricians, Sleep specialists, Attachment specialists, Teachers, and many more

Essential Parent is based on the principle that a combination of written and video content, deliverable online, supports the delivery of effective interventions alongside the clinical pathway. In some circumstances – for example, teenage mental health, digitally delivered information is sometimes more effective than the clinical pathway. Also, rural communities and some other hard-to-reach communities are often better served digitally. In general, digitally deliverable content forms a very useful service that can complement existing support of families by health care professionals.

Recommendations

“Excellent overview of key milestones in everyday care and health, and development of the infant, which will be helpful for all parents”

Dr Deborah HodesRCPH

“Essential Parent is a trusted partner of NHS Safeguarding.
… in a nutshell, this digital system saves much time, provides relevant up to date evidence based information which is standard across the board, is easy to access and generally makes my life much easier with regard to information sharing”

Aileem CrossTeam Leader, Whittington Hospital

“An EP trial run by the Whittington & Barts, and presented at an RCOG conference, assessed a new electronic leaflet had been developed for delivery via electronic devices. Parents who used it fed back on its' ease of use and depth of information. All parents who accessed the information leaflet stated that they would recommend it to their friends and family. The trial concluded that “New parents similarly want a one-click option to access reliable and consistent information, especially at a time of uncertainty such as the postnatal period. We believe that our electronic leaflet for postnatal information is something that could be used on a more national level with the ability for local organisations to adapt to their specific local needs.”

Dr Irene GafsonST7 Obstetrics and Gynaecology registrar, Whittington Health NHS Trust

“an excellent resource for parents providing a wealth of easy to access information which can be targeted to meet individual needs”

UNICEF UKBaby Friendly Initiative

“Be the best parent you can be”

Essential Parent is one of the world’s leading resources for expert led parenting advice. Our mission is to make sure that every parent has a free access to the best information available. Our courses are put together by leading experts following the advice of medical institutions such as the RCPCH, the NCT, UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative, The St John Ambulance, The Child Accident Prevention Trust, The Meningitis Research Foundation, The National Literacy Trust and many more.