Here we share with you our research, collaboration and piloting that have led to the rollout and delivery of Eyes on the Baby.
Increasingly the families at risk for SUDI in the UK are also at risk of other adverse outcomes, including child abuse and neglect. The National Child Safeguarding Practice Review panel’s Out of Routine report (2020) notes that although universal SUDI prevention information is rigorously delivered by health professionals, many of the families most at-risk of SUDI are unwilling or unable to receive or act on this information, and that “something needs to change in the way we work with these most vulnerable families” to prevent avoidable SUDI.
The following partners, either directly as main partners (in bold) or through collaboration, have been instrumental in the development and refinement of Eyes on the Baby. We thank them all for their input and support.
Back to the top ↑
The Eyes on the Baby pilot was a collaborative piece of work conducted by Durham County Council Public Health Unit, Durham Children’s Safeguarding Partnership, and Durham University’s Infancy & Sleep Centre. It was funded via a grant from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) North East and North Cumbria (NENC).
Eyes on the Baby is a training and implementation package to promote safer infant sleep and prevent sudden infant deaths in County Durham in 2022-23. This project is now closed and all training derived from it is hosted by DCC on the Durham Safeguarding Partnership training platform.
Eyes on the Baby Durham County Council Final Report (.pdf 4.87mb)
The Eyes on the Baby project is a collaborative training and implementation package to promote safer infant sleep and prevent sudden infant deaths in Northumberland commencing April 2023. the project collaborators are Northumberland County Council (Public Health), Northumberland Family Hubs, Northumbria NHS Foundation Trust and Durham University’s Infancy & Sleep Centre who will pilot and evaluate multi-agency SUDI prevention for Northumberland.
An extensive list of organisations and job roles were invited to the Northumberland Training. You can see the list here: Job Roles Invited to EotB Training Northumberland
The pilot project has now closed and the complete training package for NCC is now hosted on their Northumberland Learning Together platform.
Eyes on the Baby Northumberland Final Report (.pdf 2.85mb)
Outline of implementation with supporting documents.
Published works:
Ball, H. L., Grieve, L. M., Keegan, A.-A., Cooper, L., Lovell-Kennedy, S., Newbury-Birch, D., Cleghorn, N., & Healy, A. (2024). Piloting Eyes on the Baby: A Multiagency Training and Implementation Intervention Linking Sudden Unexpected Infant Death Prevention and Safeguarding. Health & Social Care in the Community, 2024, 4944268. https://doi.org/10.1155/2024/4944268
Ball, H. L., Keegan, A.-A., Whitehouse, D. R., Cooper, L. S., Lovell-Kennedy, S. R., Murray, L. M., Newbury-Birch, D., Cleghorn, N. J., & Healy, A. (2023). Multiagency approaches to preventing sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI): a review and analysis of UK policies. BMJ Public Health, 1(1), e000017. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjph-2023-000017
Reports:
Eyes on the Baby Durham County Council Final Report
Eyes on the Baby Northumberland Final Report
Resources:
Visit Training Strand Resources and Additional Resources for more content and links related to the training and SUDI.
Example Information for Team Leaders (from the Northumberland pilot)
Example Information for Trainees (from the Northumberland pilot)
Taking a multi-agency approach to reducing SUDI and supporting those affected. Return to the Eyes on the Baby home page.
We are one of the largest Anthropology Departments in the UK and one of only a few to span Social Anthropology, Evolutionary Anthropology and Anthropology of Health.
Taking a multi-agency approach to reducing SUDI and supporting those affected.
Anthropology DepartmentDurham UniversityHilton CottageDurhamDH1 3BN
/prod01/prodbucket01/media/durham-university/research-/research-centres/durham-infancy-and-sleep-centre-/eotb/EOTB_Banner_no_text.png)