Key Principles: Working with families
Key principles help to ensure that accessible, acceptable parenting interventions can be effectively implemented. They are drawn from quantitative and qualitative research, evaluations of implementation, and common features of effective parenting interventions.
What?
- Parent carers value parenting support that is offered in a variety of formats and that considers their personal circumstances and preferences
- Support delivered online, in-person, or through home visits offers flexibility
- However, online support sometimes presents technological obstacles that cause disruption, and some prefer support offered at separate physical locations outside of the home
- Having clearly structured sessions with practical strategies can make it easier for parent carers to engage and apply learning.
Why?
- Practice that adapts delivery location/setting to overcome barriers enables parents to participate more easily in their support
- Flexibility makes support more inclusive and less disruptive to family life.
To translate this into practice:
- Make support accessible by offering flexible options to fit with families’ needs and routines
- Support practitioners to feel confident in working with parent carers and their families by adapting delivery location and using alternate tools as appropriate to need
- Work with parent carers to set clear, achievable goals before delivering support, so expectations are shared and progressed alongside practitioners.
What?
- Many disabled children are supported by a wider network of caregivers, including extended family and support workers
- Parent carers believe that parenting support works best when it includes information that is shared with this broader caregiving network
- Fathers and male carers are often underrepresented and should be actively encouraged to participate in parenting support.
Why?
- Consistency across caregivers supports the child or young person by ensuring parenting strategies and tools are utilised by all those who support them
- Parent carers report that the effects of parenting support can have an impact beyond themselves
- When other caregivers understand and support the parenting approach, it lightens the caring responsibilities of the primary parent carer
- Whole-family engagement, including siblings and partners, contributes to overall improved family dynamics and improved sibling relationships.
Translate this into practice by:
- Making support manageable for families by keeping it proportionate and realistic alongside their everyday responsibilities
- Including the whole family, by actively involving fathers, extended family, and other caregivers to provide more consistent support.
What?
- Caring responsibilities can often prevent caregivers from attending to their own needs
- Parenting support can be one of the few spaces where they are encouraged to reflect on their own wellbeing and parenting approach
- Parent carers of disabled children need support in their own right, both as parent carers and as individuals, for their child to thrive.
Why?
- When parent carers feel supported, they are better able to support their child’s development
- Parent carers report that improvements to their confidence, resilience, and patience, as well as opportunities to reflect on caregiving, often lead to better outcomes for the whole family
- Encouraging parental self-efficacy helps parents feel more in control and resilient in the face of ongoing challenges.
Translate this into practice by:
- Offering kind and sensitive support so that parent carers feel reassured, understood, and not judged
- Encourage self-care by making space for parent carers to look after their own wellbeing as part of the support offer.
