From Monday 2 November 2026, families and professionals can refer to Growing Well Together through the new Best Start in Life parent-infant relationship pathway. See below for more information and how to refer.

Growing Well Together is North East Lincolnshire's parent-infant relationship service. We help parents and caregivers build a strong bond with their baby, from pregnancy until their child turns two.

Having a baby can be a happy time. It can also be hard, and things don't always turn out the way you imagined. Lots of parents and caregivers feel overwhelmed, anxious or low. You might have difficult feelings about yourself, your partner or your baby. That's more common than you might think, and it's OK to ask for help.

If you are expecting a baby, or you're a parent or caregiver of a baby under two, we can help.

We offer support to local families through:

  • Dedicated appointments with our friendly team
  • Individual therapeutic support
  • Parent and caregiver groups
  • Focused sessions around baby’s brain development
  • Signposting to other services

All of our support is free. We can meet you wherever you feel most comfortable: at home, in a community centre, at a family hub or at our base at Freshney Green Primary Care Centre.

You might see us in a group, on your own or through a professional you already know, such as your health visitor.

We help parents and babies build a loving, secure relationship. That bond gives children a strong start for their health and wellbeing throughout life.

We use approaches with good evidence behind them, including: 

  • trauma-informed care
  • Video Interaction Guidance (VIG)
  • Newborn Behavioural Observation (NBO)
  • Circle of Security Parenting (COS-P)

We'll talk with you about what might help most and how to get it.

A group of local services meets every week to look at every referral. It includes Growing Well Together, health visitors, midwives, Family Hubs and mental health services.

Together, we think about individual strengths and needs of the parent-infant relationship, the parent or caregiver’s mental health and the best available support.

That might be Growing Well Together. It might be something else, such as a Family Hub baby group or extra visits from your health visitor. Either way, you'll only need to tell your story once.

How to get support

The easiest way to get support from Growing Well Together is to talk to a professional you already see, such as your midwife, health visitor or Family Hub worker.

They can refer you to the service.

You can also refer yourself to Growing Well Together by completing a self-referral form.

You can use this route if:

  • you're pregnant, or your baby is under two
  • your GP is in North East Lincolnshire

After we get your form, someone from our team will contact you for a chat about what's going on and what might help.

Referrals now go through the Best Start in Life parent-infant relationship pathway. Send the completed referral form and copies of the appropriate screening forms to pairsreferrals@nelincs.gov.uk.

For every referral, please send:

You don’t have to deal with screening alone. We’re here to support you:

  • We offer two weekly drop-in clinics: one on Wednesdays between 11am and 12.30pm at Nunsthorpe Family Hub, and another on Fridays between 11am and 12.30pm at Babyzone during term time. Bring the family along and we’ll help you complete, score and make sense of the measures.
  • Short training videos (about 10 minutes each) cover each measure and are available via AcademyNEL. Please search ‘SCP Best Start in Life’ and look for the name of the screening measure.

If you're in a mental health crisis, call the Single Point of Access on (01472) 256256 and choose option 3. It's open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also call NHS 111 for free.

If you or your baby are in immediate danger, call 999.

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