AGENDA ITEM 9

BOROUGH OF POOLE

CHILDREN’S SERVICES GOVERNANCE BOARD

11 SEPTEMBER 2006

PARENTING SUPPORT – EARLY INTERVENTION PATHFINDERS (PEIP)

  1. Background

This report is to inform the Governance Board members of this project which will take place from September 2006 to March 2008.

Poole were selected as a high performing authority to bid for funding from the DfES to explore:

  • How best to provide support to parents of children aged 8-13 years of age at risk of negative outcomes.
  • Developing effective practice on parenting that can be applied nationally.

15 Local authorities were selected from the initial expressions of interest with 3 ‘Funded Control’ local authorities to run 1 of 3 Parenting Programmes:-

  • Webster Stratton
  • Triple P
  • Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities.

Poole have been selected to become a ‘Funded Control’ to run the Webster-Stratton Programme (our first choice) alongside:-

Southwark

Manchester

Derbyshire

Telford & Wrekin

Leeds

  1. Details of the Project

The details are in the papers prepared for the bid, which are available on request.

The DfES recognise that parents have a significant effect on their children’s well-being and thus outcomes.

All parents need support with their parenting role at some point during their children’s lives.

There is believed to be a gap in the provision of support for parents of 8-13 year olds at risk of drifting into anti-social behaviour. The support should be readily accessible, relevant and effective and involve a whole family approach. Pathfinders will trial the 3 programmes and provide more information on which of these are more effective in intervening early and working with parents before more serious problems develop.

Key Features are:-

  • Funding is available from September 2006 to March 2008 with no continuation.
  • Funding requested is:-

06/07 - £190,602

07/08 - £250,832

  • Main aims and objectives are to increase skills of workers through training in order to build the capacity for the future, in the areas of assessment, partnership work with parents and specific training in the Webster Stratton model.
  • The project will be supported by a Project Manager working with a Multi-Agency Steering Group and Reference/Partnership Group under Poole’s Joint Commissioning model.

The Project Team to carry out the work will be the Project Manager (part-time), Senior Lead Professional (full-time) and Adult and Child Group Workers. The Project will be evaluated independently and with the DfES.

The Programme will aim to run a total of 8 x 12 week groups over the period of the Project, reaching about 96 parents.

Jan Sayers

Policy Planning and Performance Manager

The Incredible Years Parenting programme by Carolyn Webster-Stratton

This course was developed by Carolyn Webster-Stratton, Consultant Psychologist, University of Seattle and has been used for over 15 years in America, Sweden and this country.

This course is based on well established behavioural/social learning principles that describe how behaviours are learned and how they can be changed. At the core of this approach is the idea that people change as a result of the interactions they have on a daily basis with one another. Therefore when children misbehave and families become disrupted it is necessary to change the parents’ behaviour as well as the child’s. The approach does not focus on the child as the problem or infer that the parent is inept. The emphasis is placed on helping parents understand their children’s behaviour, helping their interactions with their children become more positive and changing parent’s responses to specific child behaviours.

The programme has been extensively researched using 9 randomised control trials in several countries over the last 15 years. Notable exponents of the programme in this country are Stephen Scott, Consultant Psychiatrist, Fellow of Kings College Medical School and Maudsley Hospital, London and Dr Judy Hutchings, Consultant Psychologist, Bangor University .

Data from research shows that parents who have completed the 12 week course are able to significantly reduce their children’s behaviour problems and increase pro social behaviours. Parents report that they feel more confident and comfortable about their parenting skills. Follow up at one and three years has shown that more that two thirds have continued to maintain the improvements.

Recent research of the Poole Programme has shown that the majority of parents maintained improvement from courses completed from just 3 months ago to 2 years ago.

The courses have been proved to be a highly effective and cost effective method for improving parent child relationships and children’s conduct problems. (see research by Stephen Scot on costings)

The course can be used preventatively or with parents of children with a wide variety of conduct problems such as violence to people or property, defiance and negative attitudes. It can also be use as a preventative measure for parents at risk of abusing because of their own childhood abuse or lack of parenting or those who have been reported of abuse (as long as other parent issues have been addressed). It works with all socio-economic and educational levels.

Its success lies in delivering the programme with fidelity using the model without dilution or ‘corruption and course leaders being appropriately trained and supervised.

The philosophy is to work collaboratively with parents, acknowledging the skills they have and modelling to them the nurture and respect we wish them to learn towards their children.

More details of the research and programmes can be found at the website ‘theincredibleyears.com’

Linda Bennett, Poole Parenting Programme adapted from Webster-Stratton research and manual

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