SIDS and safer sleep for babies training
This in-depth training is designed for professionals and practitioners who work closely with families and have a core responsibility for providing safer sleep advice.
Why did Cornwall Council decide to offer practitioners in the area safer sleep training?
Following three local Rapid Reviews related to sudden infant deaths in 2023/24, partner agencies came together to develop a coordinated approach to improving the safety and wellbeing of babies and young children.
The Rapid Reviews resulted in a series of recommendations which included strengthening safer sleep promotion and ensuring that all professionals working with infants understand the key risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). A dedicated working group, organised by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Safeguarding Childrens Partnership, continues to oversee the implementation of the recommendations.
The Lullaby Trust has always been our go-to for resources, posters and leaflets about safer sleep. As part of a rigorous procurement process that explored already available safer sleep training, The Lullaby Trust was a clear choice.
The fact that our Public Health team and Safeguarding Children Partnership decided to fund The Lullaby Trust’s training, so we could offer it free to all relevant practitioners in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, was an incredibly important part of a wider piece of work around safer sleep.
Why did you decide to offer the training to such a broad range of agencies, not just health professionals, but also those in the emergency services, and housing practitioners?
A big priority for us is reinforcing how safer sleep should be everyone’s business. We want to stress that it’s a multi-agency responsibility, and this means that anyone who might have conversations with families with young children in their role, should be aware of not only the risk factors for SIDS, but how to have meaningful conversations about it with families. Every opportunity to reinforce safer sleep messages should be grasped.
It was for this reason that we took on three different trainings, all related to SIDS and safer sleep. Each reflected the different needs of professionals and the different contacts they have with families.
Being able to offer practitioners a course that is more tailored to their role helped with course interest and uptake. For example, members of the emergency services and housing officers were offered brief conversation training, enabling even those who have only brief contact with families to benefit from the learning. They learnt how to confidently handle real-life conversations and ensure these conversations were productive.
The SIDS and safer sleep training for early years professionals was really well received, potentially due to recent media discussions surrounding the safety of early years settings. We’ve heard from feedback that this training really changed their practice.
Are you a local authority or large organisation?
The Lullaby Trust can work with you to explore group bookings and training packages designed around your needs. We can support professionals in your area to feel empowered with knowledge and confidence when it comes to baby safety and bereavement support. If you're passionate about making baby safety everyone's business, we'd love to hear from you.
How many practitioners did you want to train across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly?
Between 13 January 2025 and 19 December 2025, a total of 1,811 practitioners requested access to The Lullaby Trust’s training packages.
Why did you choose The Lullaby Trust’s training? What appealed to you about it?
Practitioners and families in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are already widely familiar with The Lullaby Trust and the work they do to keep babies safe. People recognise The Lullaby Trust and associate them with high-quality, reliable, evidence-based guidance, which was really helpful when promoting the offer.
We also chose The Lullaby Trust’s safer sleep training because it offered differentiated training for a variety of roles. Having these tailored packages as opposed to one, standard package, really appealed to us and we knew it aligned with our goal of a multi-agency approach.
Another reason we selected training with The Lullaby Trust, was because the training itself was flexible and self-guided. Previous trainings we offered were at a set time and only reached about 50 people per year. On The Lullaby Trust’s platform however, users could log in whenever suited them and had the ability to pause and restart as they wish. This suited those who have shift-based roles and a heavy workload.
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Why did you feel it was important for Cornwall Council to commit to improving safer sleep knowledge and understanding amongst practitioners?
Ultimately, we want all babies to be able to sleep safely. Unfortunately, around 188 babies still die from SIDS each year in the UK, and there has been a widening gap in social inequalities. By empowering a workforce with more knowledge and confidence, we can save lives.
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What has the feedback been like from those who completed the training?
Overall, across all training courses combined, the proportion of respondents rating their knowledge as ‘excellent’ increased from 6.1% to 52.9% post-training. Following the training, 98.1% of practitioners rated their knowledge of safer sleep advice as either ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ and no practitioners rated their knowledge as either ‘very poor’ or ‘poor’, reflecting a substantial improvement in perceived knowledge of safer sleep advice.
Notably, the training undertaken by professionals who only have brief contact with families succeeded in increasing knowledge amongst those who do not routinely involve safer sleep in their roles. Only 32.9% rated their knowledge as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ before the training. Following the training, this increased to 95.6%.
In feedback, there was a huge improvement in both knowledge and confidence amongst practitioners.
Would you recommend that other councils consider purchasing The Lullaby Trust’s training? Why?
I would definitely recommend other councils consider purchasing The Lullaby Trust’s training. The training is of high quality, accessible and straightforward to complete, and was incredibly well-received. The training has served to increase awareness of safer sleep and increase knowledge and confidence amongst a wide variety of practitioners in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. However, recognising that one-off training alone is not a magic solution to prevent sudden infant death we will continue to explore with practitioners the impact of the training on their practice.
The team at The Lullaby Trust are easy to work with, receptive to feedback, and proactive in understanding our local challenges and needs. I’ve learnt that some of our feedback has already been taken on board, with administrative changes ensuring that the training platform is more functional and the introduction of even more interactive elements for those with different learning styles.
What difference do you think the training will make for the families in Cornwall?
We are confident that The Lullaby Trust training will be a key driver in our systemwide effort to ensure all babies in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly sleep as safely as possible. Families should be receiving clear, consistent, information for all practitioners they come into contact with, giving them the ability to make informed choices for their baby. Families are often so bombarded with information, especially on social media, but the huge uptake of the training means that families can go to the professionals around them and receive trusted advice.
Overall, it was a really positive experience working with The Lullaby Trust, and has strengthened multi-agency commitment to safer sleep for babies and their families in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
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Bereavement training
Our training packages cover bereavement communication, how to support anyone affected by the death of a baby or young child, as well as understanding grief in a cultural context.
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At The Lullaby Trust, there are a number of ways you can volunteer to help keep babies safe and support grieving families. Every hour you can give will be gratefully received.
You can help to fund our training courses
Donate today and your kindness will empower families with trusted and life-saving baby safety advice, as well as providing a supportive space for anyone who has experienced the the sudden or unexpected death of a baby or infant.