The Parent Leaders Project aims to create opportunities for the seldom heard voices of marginalised women most likely to experience not only maternal mental health issues but also significant barriers to access local services.

The national narrative is failing to adequately capture and take the experiences of Black Asian & Minority Ethnic women into account, meaning that the women most at risk of experiencing maternal mental ill health are excluded from influencing policy and practice.

The Parent Leaders project will engage pregnant women and new parents from disadvantaged communities in Newham and Birmingham in improving their health and well-being, with the support of Baby Buddy Community Champions.

Over the 3 years we will:

• Reach disadvantaged and vulnerable families at risk of poor outcomes.
• Enable communities to take an active part in encouraging vulnerable families to adopt health-improving behaviours.
• Support grass roots organisations to use a digital innovation in their ongoing work with parents, so that families have access to evidence-based information in their transition to parenthood 24/7.
• Train 10-15 parents in Birmingham and Newham to become Parent Leaders who will feed into decision making platforms locally, regionally and nationally.