Parents attending our programmes, all based on the Nurturing Programme, may lack confidence in their parenting, feel socially isolated, and experience stress or anxiety. Some simply want to gain new ideas and meet other parents, while others are attending because of more significant concerns about their parenting capacity. Most parents are consciously or unconsciously repeating the parenting approaches that they experienced themselves.
Our programmes provide an opportunity for parents to become more self-aware and to think about the relationship they want with their baby, child or teenager. The nurturing approach supports parents with their own emotional health and helps to repair the impact of damaging early relationships.
Our programmes are used widely in local authorities and councils across the UK. The following illustrates an example from the work we have been doing with a local authority team in Manchester.
The local authority team we work with in Manchester collects follow-up data 3 months after parents have completed the 10-week Nurturing Programme, in addition to our usual pre- and post-measures. This has allowed us to assess whether there is a longer term impact for parents after finishing the group. We evaluated data from five groups held between May and July 2019 and found statistically significant improvements both at the end of the group, and at the 3 month follow-up, supporting the long-term outcomes articulated in our Theory of Change.
The results were the following:
Before the group, 35% of parents had a mental wellbeing score above the British norm. After the group, this increased to 67% of parents.
At the 3 month follow-up, 55% of parents had a mental wellbeing score above the British norm, showing a continued improvement compared to baseline scores.
Before the group, 68% of children were identified as having clinical levels of behavioural and emotional difficulties. After the group, this decreased to 50% of children.
At the 3 month follow-up, 53% of children were identified as having clinical levels of behavioural and emotional difficulties, showing a sustained improvement compared to baseline scores.