Giving HOPE Project
Giving HOPE and Minimising Trauma
The HOPE Boxes are an intervention to help support women who are separated from their baby close to birth due to safeguarding concerns.
The HOPE Boxes intervention has been co-produced with a group of women with lived experience and builds on research findings from the Born into Care: Developing new national guidelines when the state intervenes at birth project. More information about the research and the project findings can be found HERE
This web-page is designed to provide information and support the implementation of the HOPE (Hold on Pain Eases) Boxes. On this page you will find a series of film clips and written information to help explain the background and purpose of the HOPE Boxes and
to support NHS Trusts, Local Authorities and partner agencies
embedding this intervention.
To contact the team, please email: givinghope@lancaster.ac.uk
We are grateful to our partners Birth Companions and NHS England National Maternity Safeguarding Network for their support with this work.
HOPE Boxes information and training resources
Below you will find a series of short films providing information and
detail about the HOPE Boxes. Each film begins with a short
introduction about the film and its content.
Click on the film below to hear a short explanation about the films
included on this web-page.
Why were the HOPE Boxes developed?
Watch the clip Why were the HOPE Boxes developed?
to hear the HOPE Mums explaining the need for the HOPE Boxes
intervention and their thoughts behind there development.
What do the HOPE Boxes contain
Watch What do the HOPE Boxes contain to hear from
the HOPE Mums about the purpose and thought behind some of the
carefully chosen items in the HOPE Boxes.
Offering the HOPE Boxes
Watch the clip Offering the HOPE Boxes to hear from the HOPE Mums and midwives who have already implemented similar interventions about important things to consider when offering women the HOPE Boxes.
Giving HOPE: A poem from mothers to mothers
Listen to one of the HOPE Mums group reading their poem ‘Giving
HOPE’. It has been written by the women in the group to convey
empathy and compassion and let women facing a separation from their
baby know that they are not alone. Each of the mother's HOPE Boxes
contains a copy of the poem in an envelope.
Piloting the HOPE Boxes
Through monies from the Economic and Social Research Council and the
NHS National Maternity Safeguarding Network, the HOPE Boxes will be
piloted in a number of NHS Trusts between summer 2022 and summer
2023. Inclusion in the pilot is based on the individual Trusts’
ability to demonstrate readiness for implementation.
The site readiness is a short two-stage self-assessment process designed to ensure that any Trust receiving the HOPE Boxes has the necessary processes in place to ensure they are delivered effectively and safely. The site readiness process also requires that implementation is in partnership with Children’s Social Care and other partners. A multi-agency approach to this work is essential.
Both stages of the site readiness will be approved, and sites chosen for the pilot by a HOPE Boxes Steering Group chaired by Rebecca Reynolds National Safeguarding Clinical Lead at NHS England.
Membership of the group includes named midwives for safeguarding and specialist midwives with the expertise in working with this cohort of women, some of whom have developed similar schemes within their own Trusts and Claire Mason the project lead for the HOPE Boxes at Lancaster University.
The HOPE Mums group is made up of women with lived experience of separation at birth. The group is facilitated by Claire Mason (Lancaster University) and Kate Chivers (Birth Companions). Support is also provided by Julie Brooks (Pause Greenwich)
The full Giving HOPE film can also be viewed below.
Contact
For more information about this project please contact the Giving Hope Team (givinghope@lancaster.ac.uk)
We are currently seeking funding for implementation work beyond our initial pilot.
NHS Trusts and Local Authorities interested in implementing the HOPE Boxes interested in implementing the HOPE Boxes must complete site readiness assessment. For more information please see the information pack below.
