Definition: Parenting programmes

A parenting intervention is defined for the purposes of this Practice Guide as a structured set of activities or services with set eligibility requirements, aimed at improving how parents and caregivers approach and ‘do’ their role, specifically their parenting knowledge, attitudes, skills, behaviours and practices (based on World Health Organization, 2022). Parenting programmes cover advice, guidance and training to support parents’ capacity to meet their child’s developmental needs, including on child health and physical development, children’s social and emotional needs, effective child discipline, and methods for supporting children’s play and learning

Most evidence-based parenting programmes are grounded in relationship perspectives and social learning theory. Within the context of children’s social care, parenting support also encompasses family work aimed at stopping abusive and neglectful parenting behaviours, as well as strengthening parent-child relationships, and supporting parents to engage with their child in positive ways. The parenting component may be combined with other content (e.g., parent relationship or life skills), types of support, types of therapy (e.g., cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)), forms of family-based therapy (e.g., multisystemic therapies), or child-focused interventions.

Family support programmes with parenting as an aspect are included in scope, such as home visiting programmes in which parents are seen in their own home and provided with information, support and/or training regarding child health, development, and care. Although interventions with a flexible structure are included, completely unstructured interventions are not included, for instance home visits not offered in a structured format, or therapies that do not have a structured approach. Parenting interventions of all durations are included, including one-off sessions.

This guide does not cover interventions such as specialist mental health support for parents experiencing mental health problems, nor specialist support to parents on needs such as substance misuse. Parenting interventions should be part of a wider system of support nationally and locally for the multiple and complex needs that families face.

Definition: Parents experiencing adversity

We define parents experiencing adversity as synonymous with those who face multiple and complex needs. Our definition of the families in scope for the systematic reviews was broad. Studies included in our reviews met the following criteria in terms of the parents they included:

1. Parents of a child or children with a mean age of up to 10 years (including the prenatal period).
2. Parents were either:
   • referred by agencies to receive an intervention based on their levels of maltreatment (treated)
   • were offered an intervention based on scoring highly on child maltreatment instruments
     (targeted indicated)
   • offered an intervention due to experiencing selected risk factors for maltreatment
     (targeted selected). These risk factors may apply to the individual, the family, or be interpersonal in nature, as set out in point 3 below.
3. With selective studies, parents experienced one or multiple risk factors below, which are associated with an increased risk of child maltreatment:
   • Parental substance abuse
   • Parental incarceration
   • Parental mental health
   • Parental intellectual disability
   • Current or past experience of intimate partner violence
   • Parental childhood experience of maltreatment or other adverse childhood experiences
   • Children with severe child socio-emotional and conduct problems
   • Highly deprived socio-economic status
   • Teenage / adolescent parenthood
   • Traveller, refugee, asylum seeking or undocumented migrant status.