Supporting early years mental health systems in the North West
Thursday, 16 October 2025
Parent Infant and Early Years Relationships (PIER) Network
The North West Coast’s Parent Infant and Early Years Relationships (PIER) Network supports systems to develop their infant and young child mental health services for families.
The network works with stakeholders in Cheshire and Merseyside and Lancashire and South Cumbia which include areas with high deprivation and ethnic diversity to develop policy, enabling collaboration between health and social care and sharing best practice through learning events.
Beth Luxmoore, Clinical Network Manager, said:
“Supporting the mental health of young children ages 0 to 5 is important for their happiness and wellbeing at the start of their lives, but also a vital investment in their health and happiness throughout life.
“We know positive early experiences, responsive care and strong relationships with parents and other care givers have lifelong positive impacts on people’s mental health, physical health, education, employment and social skills.
“Healthy, happy and productive people will likely have less need for health and social care services, supporting the 10 Year Health Plan’s shift from sickness to prevention.”
Supporting early years’ mental health requires a complex network of services – from health visitors and family hub provisions to specialist 0 to 5 mental health services and crisis response services. The availability of these services varies widely across England and within the North West Coast area.
Among the network’s recent projects are a best practice service model, a regional 0-5 mental health strategy and regional health and social care service reviews.
The PIER network has supported the provision and expansion of services across the system. These include the Blackpool Parent-Infant Relationship Service and driving strategic change by hosting listening events with health inequality groups, including young parents and ethnic minorities.
Additionally, it has supported staff training and increased awareness and understanding of the importance of early years mental health across the system, providing opportunities for services to work closer together and campaigns tirelessly for the voice of infants and young children to be heard and considered in policy and commissioning.
The network currently has over 400 members and is open to anyone locally with responsibility for or an interest in 0–5 mental health. You will be joining parents, clinicians, commissioners and representatives from charities.
If you would like to find out more about the PIER network and what they do, please email Beth Luxmoore: Bethany.luxmoore@nhs.net.
If you have any other examples where you or your team are doing work to support the 10 Year Health Plan, please let us know by emailing england.internalcommsteam@nhs.net.