Completed in 2008
EVALUATION OF THE PARENTING EARLY INTERVENTION PATHFINDER
DIRECTORS: GEOFF LINDSAY, SARAH STEWART-BROWN, HILTON DAVIS, STEVE STRAND, RAY EVANS
WITH: SUSAN BAND, MAIRI-ANN CULLEN, STEPHEN CULLEN and CHRIS HASLUCK.
As part of its Respect Action Plan the government, through the DCSF, funded 18 LAs to implement parenting programmes. The 3 programmes (Triple P, Incredible Years and Strengthening Families Strengthening Communities) were selected by the DCSF on the basis of a prior literature review as they had good evidence of effectiveness. Our study examined the roll-out of these programmes on a large scale across the 18 LAs, with 2 unfunded LAs as comparisons. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were being used. Interviews were held with LA lead officers, group facilitators and parents over 3 phases of the study which took place between September 2006 – March 2008. Parents completed standardised instruments at the start and end of their programmes. An economic analysis was also undertaken.
Our research indicated that there had been a successful roll out of these three programmes. Over 400 parenting groups were run by the 18 LAs which attracted over 3500 parents who completed 338 courses. Overall completion rate was 73%. There were substantial improvements on all measures pre- and post- the parenting groups.
The government is building on this pathfinder and has committed grant to support further roll out across most of England over 2008-2011. CEDAR will be evaluating this next stage titled the Parenting Early Intervention Programme.
There have been three reports for this project the 1st Interim Report was published by CEDAR; the 2nd Interim Report and final report were published by DCSF.
In addition to CEDAR (Professor Geoff Lindsay, Dr Steve Strand, Dr Ray Evans, Susan Band, Mairi-Ann Cullen and Dr Stephen Cullen) the team included Professor Hilton Davis (Kings College, London (Institute of Psychiatry) and the South London & Maudsley NHS Trust); Professor Sarah Stewart-Brown from Warwick Medical School and Chris Hasluck from Warwick’s Institute of Employment Research.
