THE CHALLENGE
Like many Local Authorities, Kent County Council was looking for practical ways to strengthen support for families through its Family Hubs programme while ensuring workforce development remained both sustainable and cost-effective. Kent recognised that Baby Massage could play an important role in helping practitioners engage families, support bonding and attachment, and provide positive early experiences for babies and parents.
However, as services expanded across the county, Kent also wanted to develop a longer-term workforce strategy that would reduce reliance on external training providers while maintaining high-quality delivery and consistent standards.
A further challenge was that some practitioners had previously completed Baby Massage training with a range of different providers, resulting in variations in delivery approaches and service consistency across different areas.
Kent wanted a solution that would:
- Increase workforce capacity
- Create greater consistency across services
- Support long-term sustainability
- Provide a scalable model for future growth
- Maintain high-quality standards and accreditation
Building a Sustainable Train the Trainer Model
A key objective of the partnership was to create a sustainable workforce development model that could continue to grow internally.
Ten experienced practitioners were selected to undertake the Hands on Babies Train the Trainer programme. The Train the Trainer pathway provided participants with:
- Advanced delivery skills
- Mentoring and coaching techniques
- Practical training experience
- Workforce development knowledge
- Confidence to support local implementation
Once qualified, Kent's Train the Trainer team became responsible for delivering face-to-face instructor training across the county.
Hands on Babies continued to provide online support, quality assurance, assessment review and accreditation oversight, ensuring that standards remained consistent while allowing Kent to take greater ownership of local workforce development.
Delivery in Practice
The programme was delivered through a combination of:
- Face-to-face instructor training
- Train the Trainer development
- Conversion training
- Online mentoring and support
- Centralised assessment and accreditation
This blended approach enabled Kent to benefit from local delivery capacity while maintaining the reassurance of external quality assurance and professional oversight.
The model also provided flexibility, allowing training to be delivered when and where it was needed across the Family Hubs network.
Hands on Babies face to face pregnancy bonding, baby massage & baby yoga instructor training courses
What participants said
Kent Family Hubs Train the Trainer
Kent Family Hubs Train the Trainer
Kent Family Hubs Train the Trainer
"It was fantastic to train as a Train the Trainer. It provided me with a completely new set of skills and made me feel incredibly valued within the organisation."
Kent Family Hubs Commissioner
Kent Family Hubs Train the Trainer
Kent Family Hubs Train the Trainer
"This way of working enables us to deal with staff training flexibly and sustainably. We were much more in control but at the same time had the reassurance that we were supported by an experienced and tested training organisation."