ICON Week :: Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust

Background

Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust hosted the successful launch of The Pan Cheshire ICON Partnership on Wednesday 17th July 2019 in a bid to help to reduce harm and provide help and support for our families. The Pan-Cheshire partners have since continued to work closely together to plan, organise and deliver the ICON programme across the whole of Cheshire and continued to raise awareness through additional events, including a recent successful North West Regional ICON Webinar which was delivered by the founder of ICON Sue Smith and attended by over 330 participants.

Despite the challenges faced during the global pandemic, the Pan-Cheshire ICON group have continued to thrive, ensuring the provision of ICON training to multi-professionals and agencies and that ICON is firmly embedded, including in GP practice. The ICON message and crying plan are now also included in Cheshire and Mersey Personal Child Health Record (red book).

Feedback from colleagues who have delivered ICON to new parents has been incredibly positive. ICON has just become part of what we do in our day to day work. A quote from a parent of premature twins demonstrates how significant the impact of ICON can be. The mum of premature twins reported to a neonatal nurse “my twins were just crying and crying and not settling and then I remembered the ICON message. It really helped me re-focus and I found it calming”, another mother from a HMP mother and baby unit said ‘When my baby began to cry more frequently, I remembered the ICON discussion with my Health Visitor, I felt prepared and able to cope’.

Looking forward to 2021

ICON is well embedded with health services across Cheshire and is going from strength to strength. The focus for the Pan-Cheshire group will now turn to our multiagency partners and for 2021 the Pan-Cheshire ICON group already have exciting developments planned.

March 2021 there is to be an ICON week in which the ICON programme will be further promoted across health and social care services
ICON training programme will continue to be delivered to multi-agencies and partnerships across Pan Cheshire and Scoping exercises carried out to reach out to other agencies, ie, the voluntary sector and child minders.
Work in collaboration with Cheshire Fire Service to further promote ICON