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 Project, PoPP, led by NHS Education for Scotland (NES), was set up in 2013 with the aim to help multi-agency Early Years' Services deliver improved outcomes for these children and their families. The programme has now been running for over 10 years and achieves excellent outcomes. It does this by placing 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.
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. The evaluation found the programme had delivered positive outcomes, including:i
The success of the programme has led to further government funding allowing parent self-directed Triple P Online and Teen Triple P 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 Moreover, cost savings could also be increased through a focus on online delivery – such as through TPOL– which requires considerably less practitioner resource than face-to-face implementation, while achieving similarly positive results. Indeed, trials have demonstrated TPOL delivers comparable effectiveness to in-person interventions, whilst being up 6 times cheaper to deliver.3,4
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.