WHY WE PREFER THESE COURSES
Both my colleague and I have trained to run various different programmes, including Webster Stratton, but we have chosen to use the Family Caring Trust materials because they are both easy-to-run and highly accessible to the parents coming on the courses. We have now been facilitating the 0-6 and 5-15 parenting programmes for eight years and are about to start our 86th group!
As facilitators (with backgrounds in School Nursing and Health Visiting ) we like your programmes and find that they are well received by the parents and that they evaluate very well – we ourselves use the Eyberg Questionnaire pre and post each course and this helps to highlight the changes that occur as a result of attending a programme. Our evaluations show that many parents value the materials and we have numerous parent comments that explain how the course has helped their family.
We often find it frustrating to see programmes like Webster Stratton and Triple P being pushed so much by health authorities, etc .,because they have been extensively evaluated. I just wish that the Family Caring Trust materials, which we rate so highly, could be made available to more people.
Hilary Swan, Community Health Worker Sudbury Suffolk
‘PARENTING TEENAGERS’
I was pleased to see the 0-6s and 5–15s courses are on the Toolkit for Commisssioners, but I was disappointed that ‘Parenting Teenagers’
is not included. Can you tell me why this is? We have just run a Parenting Teens course with excellent feedback and my Training Manager, who led the course with another facilitator, |
said that she found it very good.
Rosie Novis,
Billericay Parents Forum.
Editor: ‘Parenting Teenagers’ is still available, of course, but we decided to remove it from the Commissioner's Toolkit because we did not have the finance to commission a full-scale scientific evaluation such as has been done for the other two parenting courses. However, those who have used it have no doubts about how effective and helpful it is – after all, it teaches the same skills and uses the exact same methodology as the other two courses, so it obviously meets the same high standards. If we had left it on the Toolkit, however, it would have appeared to be less effective than we know it to be because it would have been judged merely on the limited research that has been done on it. It's one of the snags of not being one of the bigger 'wealthy' organisations! Feedback
THAT DINNER GAME
Part of my work as a counsellor is at a secondary school. Young people can find counselling difficult in the initial sessions, so I’ve been using your Family Dinner Game to break the ice and have found it immensely
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helpful. The young people warm to the game, especially as I take part and share with them, and it allows me to find out little things about their lives which they might not normally share. It’s also great fun at times and makes them laugh which is wonderful to see. Thank you for such a great resource.
Chris Lee, Twickenham
PARENTS WERE SHOCKED!
I am leading a Fives to Fifteens programme in Bramhall, the first parenting programme in this area which is great – we have eight parents attending and hopefully I’ll get a few new leaders out of it.
In Session 4 they were a bit shocked to hear the parent on the DVD say (as a ‘helpful listening’ comment!) “It's awful when you feel ugly. I hate it when I feel ugly too.” They considered that was too strong a word to use and might not help the child. What are your thoughts on that?
Clara Donnelly,
Wallasey, Merseyside
Editor: If the parents in your group are reacting to something we have to listen to that, so I’m sorry I’ve used a word which they don’t find helpful – I would not want to retain it in a new edition of the DVD. Thank them for pointing this out and remind them that there is nothing infallible in the programme anyway. The course is to get them to reflect on things and make their own decisions about their children.
AND IN JAPAN…
I could give you many examples of how Japanese families who have been struggling with their parenting are now being transformed by your course.
Midori Nishizawa, Kobe, Japan |
