Approximately 10% of pre-school children in Scotland show significantly elevated behavioural difficulties, which place their short and long term mental health and well-being at risk.1 Many effective interventions exist for the majority of these children, but they are not always available or easily accessible.
The Psychology of Parenting Programme, PoPP, led by NHS Education for Scotland (NES), was set up in 2013 with the aim of supporting multi-agency staff in Early Years' Services to deliver improved outcomes for these children and their families. The programme has now been running for over 10 years and achieves excellent outcomes. Key to its success is a strong emphasis on supporting the high-quality implementation of the evidence-based parenting programmes Triple P and Incredible Years, ensuring that the investment in workforce development translates into services that deliver demonstrable outcomes for parents and children. Once the workforce is trained and accredited by Triple P or Incredible Years the PoPP team offers ongoing implementation support to local leads and practitioners to sustain group delivery through additional trainings, arranging the resources for group delivery, data updates and quality assurance support, all designed to enable PoPP sites to consolidate and embed their initial implementation progress into long term practice.
PoPP works collaboratively with Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) across Scotland with the aim of improving the availability of these evidence-based parent-child relationship focused interventions. This work is funded through the Mental Health Directorate at the Scottish Government. PoPP has selected a small number of proven interventions, including Level 4 Group Triple P, to disseminate across the country, delivered through early years services via a range of referral routes.
Groups of up to 12 parents attend sessions over eight weeks delivered by accredited and experienced practitioners from varied professional backgrounds. These sessions include five two-hour group meetings, as well as three individual telephone consultations lasting 15 to 30 minutes and teach parents 17 different strategies for improving their children’s competencies and discouraging unwanted child behaviour.
Recent research evaluated the PoPP national roll out of these parent training interventions in Scotland from 2013 – 2016 for families of children 3 and 4 years old. The evaluation found the programme had delivered positive outcomes, including:1
The success of the programme for 3-4 yr. olds has led to further government funding allowing Group Teen Triple P and parent self-directed Triple P Online to be rolled out as part of this project, extending the reach to a wider number of families across Scotland. A 2023 briefing paper details the impact of Triple P Online (TPOL), reporting that 73% of children in the clinical range at the start of Triple P Online moved out of this high-risk range on completing the intervention.2 So, Triple P Online whilst achieving similar outcomes to face-to-face interventions is completed with less input needed from practitioners thus offering a cost saving. Offering a choice of either an online or face-to-face interventions is important so that parents can access support in whichever way suits them best.3,4
'We think the addition of TPOL is a fantastic way of engaging families that for a variety of reasons were not able to attend face to face groups, this offer gives families choice in how they access supports that work best for them.' Lauren Corlett, Principal Educator - Psychology of Parenting, NES Psychology
Over the last decade PoPP has supported over 7,500 families, illustrating the vital importance of early intervention and demonstrating the importance of dedicating time and resources to ensuring high-quality implementation of evidence-based programmes like Triple P. This is a topic which was also highlighted recently by Foundations, the national What Works Centre for Children & Families in England – something that underlines the need for comprehensive support across the UK.