The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust has teamed up with parents to co-produce a new animation promoting Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting (VIPP), a project which TACT helped initiate.

Rachel James, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Associate Clinical Director and Paul Dugmore, Consultant Social Worker and Associate Dean, worked with parents who received the VIPP intervention to produce the animation which is launched today, Monday, June 10.

VIPP was originally developed by attachment researchers from Leiden University in the Netherlands. It was brought to the UK in 2014 when TACT helped the Tavistock Trust secure funding from the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies (CVAA).

In VIPP, the practitioner works primarily with caregivers and young children, filming interactions and making use of video-feedback.

The practitioner records the child and their parent/carer carrying out different activities such as playing together, reading a book, tidying up and having a meal. After the filming, the parent and the practitioner watch the recording from the previous visit and think together about what they see happening between the parent/carer and their child.

This enables detailed observations and discussions to take place, alongside sharing knowledge of child development. This helps the parent/carer to identify their child’s signals and to see the world through their eyes, understanding them more clearly.

VIPP usually takes place in the family home, with up to 7 visits taking place 2 to 4 weeks apart. Each visit lasts approximately 90 minutes.

A parent and co-producer of the film said:

“The intervention was hugely beneficial – life changing for us all – and I was keen to help the team bring the benefits we had experienced to more families.”

Andy Elvin, TACT CEO said:

“TACT is proud to have worked with the Tavistock and Coram BAAF to help embed VIPP into practice in the UK. This therapeutic support intervention is helping adoptive, Special Guardianship Order and foster families across the UK but its use can be so much more widespread. It is approved by NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) and is an ideal first step for families where children have recently moved in.”

Andy added: ”TACT encourages all Local Authorities, Voluntary Adoption Agencies and Independent Fostering Agencies to consider using this intervention and they can contact the Tavistock to enquire about having staff trained to deliver this excellent support.”

Rachel James, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, co-lead for the National VIPP Unit said:

“We know that service users are the experts on their experience on receiving services and it was crucial that we would co-produce the video with parents or carers who had lived experience of VIPP.  We also saw it as an opportunity to build capacity in the broader children’s workforce and therefore wanted to ensure the animation would help professionals to understand the benefits to parents.”

Paul Dugmore, Consultant Social Worker and co-lead for the National VIPP Unit said:

“We wanted to develop the animation to enable evidence-based help to be promoted to parents, carers and the universal children’s workforce. It was important for us to do this in an accessible way, to reduce any stigma around the challenges of parenting and ensure early intervention to support good mental health and well-being for infants, young children and their parents or carers.”

The video is available to watch by clicking here

Contact John Ratchford: 0771 9722 793 / [email protected]

 The VIPP Unit at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust were awarded funding by the Trust’s Quality and Patient Experience Team to co-produce the animation. They chose to develop their animation with Mummu, a London based animation production company who have a passion for provoking change through helping organisations share their stories, broadening the horizons of their audiences for the better.