Help in a crisis

Why use Ready to Relate

Babies are born ready to relate. Let’s nurture that connection.

Ready to Relate is an evidence-informed resource that empowers practitioners to help families understand, interact with, and strengthen their relationship with their baby — right from the start. What We Offer:

  • Training Package – Build practitioner confidence and skills with expert-led guidance.
  • Implementation Advice – Practical support to embed relational approaches in everyday practice.
  • Hand-Held Practitioner Tool – A conversation companion to spark meaningful engagement with families.
  • Localised Digital Companion – Tailored support for families, accessible anytime, anywhere.

Why It Matters:

Babies seek connection from birth. Ready to Relate helps you meet them there — with tools that make a difference.

Ready to Relate is a resource which can be used by practitioners to help assess, discuss and share information with families about the parent-infant relationship making NICE recommended interventions accessible.

The hand-held resource cards and digital resource complement one another and together can be a robust intervention.

Who is Ready to Relate suitable for?

Ready to Relate is suitable for any professional working with families with infants, including health visitors, family support workers, midwives and practitioners working in early years, mental health and social care.

Ready to Relate can support universal contacts as all parents and infants will benefit from the shared information. Where a family needs greater support, Ready to Relate can be part of a package of care. Practitioners can facilitate parents’ engagement with the resource and the Ready to Relate can be the basis for discussions and activities to practice. For some parents there may be a level of support or intervention required that Ready to Relate can support.

Ready to Relate aims to:

  • help parents develop the skills and knowledge to enrich their parent-infant relationship
  • promote secure attachment and infant development including mental health
  • facilitate understanding of the parent-infant relationship for practitioners and parents
  • enhance behaviours which encourage satisfaction and pleasure for infants and parents and families

The images used in the resource make it relatable to different kinds of family groups and across cultures. All text is translatable into community languages.

Awards

  • Innovation Award 2015, North London Perinatal Mental Health Consortium
  • 2nd Place in the Institute of Health Visiting Award 2018

More resources,
links and help

Ready to Relate and policy alignment

Ready to Relate and the Healthy Child Programme (0–5)

Ready to Relate pilot study

Ready to Relate was initially developed as a card-based resource in 2019. A pilot study of health visitors and nursery nurses, of 150 participants, 95 per cent of respondents were overwhelmingly positive about Ready to Relate.

Respondents credited Ready to Relate as: encouraging positive parenting and interaction between the parent and infant; learning to understand the importance of infant cues to respond appropriately to babies; and positively influencing aspects of neurodevelopment.

Preliminary evaluation with parents was extremely positive; parents were interviewed over 1 year after they had experienced a Ready to Relate intervention (that is a discussion supported by sharing pictures and information from the cards). Parents recalled the interventions, perceived that it had had a positive impact on their parenting and relationship with their infant and impacted subsequent relationships with infants they had since had.