A group of young mothers have become the first to receive awards from an NHS programme.

The Family Nurse Partnership (FNP), run by teams at Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust (BEH), sees nurses visiting the homes of first time mums aged 20 or under in Enfield, and taking them through a course to help them take care of  their child, and eventually get back into work.

A celebration, where the young mothers were presented with certificates for completing the course, was held on Tuesday, June 14 at The Parish Centre, Enfield.

Maxine Cull, project supervisor, said: “It has been wonderful to watch the amazing journey of these young women as they have grown and transformed from pregnancy through to motherhood as they achieved their goals.

“We cover so many areas of their lives and their children’s - from getting them to think about their health during their pregnancy to their future aspirations for education, training and employment and helping and supporting them to be the best parent that they can be.

“They are all graduating with skills which they can continue to develop in the future with their children and families. Today we can really see the difference it has made – these mothers are confident with their child.”

One of the mothers, 19-year-old Dinika Palmer, said she is now much more confident in looking after her two-year-old son Kaiden.

She said: “My family nurse Nikki has been amazing. She’s been there through it all, when my son was first crawling, walking, talking, his first words. I could text her, call her, email her anytime I needed.

“When I had Kaiden he was premature and she helped me find ways to deal with him eating. She also helped me get back into work, she introduced me to recruitment experts who helped me with my CV and land a job.

“In terms of my house, she gave me a list of different estate agents in the area and she called them every day, now I have been in my two-bed house for two years. I had him while I lived in a bedsit and that was really tough, but it’s so much better now.

“Nikki was there from the very beginning, she even helped me speak to my mum when I found out I was pregnant.”

To find out more about the service visit BEH’s website.