Wellbeing In Early Years Report, Bristol

In October 2017, Healthwatch Bristol supported 10 service users to share their experiences of the wellbeing early years’ service. Responses to their short emotional health and wellbeing questionnaire were received from a mix of parents, grandparents and carers attending the Baby Bounce and Rhyme and pre-school children's story time groups.

The focus of the questionnaire was on emotional and health and wellbeing and in particular Healthwatch Bristol wanted to hear from parents with pre-school children to find out if they experienced any emotional difficulties and what community activities or health and social care services they use to help keep them and their children emotionally well.

The feedback from respondents highlights the importance of support groups and states which types of health and social care services help support their families’ health and wellbeing needs. It also presents information about which services could be improved.

Four questions were asked in the survey and the questions and summary of the answers are provided in the report.

Recommendations:

• Some GP services could be improved to help support parents better and be more approachable to people’s questions and concerns.

• Statistics show that good quality natural landscape in urban areas can affect how people feel as it reduces stress and sadness, lifts the mood and makes people feel better. With this in mind more should be done to improve these outdoor areas. Half the parents felt that outdoor spaces, like parks, should be developed to make them more accessible and a safer environment for them and their younger children.