Parents Plus FAQ: Answering Your Most Common Queries

Welcome to our Parents Plus community!

With an influx of new followers and enthusiastic participants, we’ve noticed an increase in queries and curiosities about our programmes and supports.

To ensure that everyone feels well-informed, connected to our mission and understands how we can support their service delivery we’ve decided to compile a FAQ list, addressing some of the most frequent questions we’ve encountered.

Whether you’ve just joined us or have been a long-standing supporter, this guide aims to provide clarity and deepen your understanding of Parents Plus.

Who or what is Parents Plus? Parents Plus is a charity that develops evidence-based parenting and mental health programme training for professionals working across the community, education, disability, mental health and youth sectors. Our mission is to improve the well-being of children and families by empowering professionals to deliver our suite of evidence-based programmes in their services and at their point of need. Learn more about us at https://www.parentsplus.ie/about/

Who can benefit from Parents Plus programmes? Parents Plus programmes are designed for professionals who work with children and families across Community, Mental Health, Disability and Education. These range from early years’ programmes for parents of young children to adolescent programmes targeting the unique challenges faced by parents of teenagers. We have developed eight flagship programmes, in partnership with services supporting families and parents and children. Learn more at –https://www.parentsplus.ie/parents-plus-programmes/

How are Parents Plus programmes developed? Parents Plus programmes are evidence-based, which means they are developed in collaboration with families, backed by research, and have been found to be effective in clinical trials. They draw from positive psychology, solution-focused therapy, and social learning theory. Currently over 26 studies conducted in clinical, community and disability settings attest to their effectiveness. Read more about our evidence and research by visiting – https://www.parentsplus.ie/parentsplus-research/

What are the training opportunities available? If you want to develop your professional skills and improve outcomes for children, adolescents, and families then Parents Plus offers professional training courses for those who wish to deliver our programmes in their communities or settings. The training is comprehensive and equips professionals with the necessary skills to facilitate the programmes effectively. You can learn more about the training on offer and ongoing support at – https://www.parentsplus.ie/parents-plus-programmes/

What support does Parents Plus offer Professionals?

At Parents Plus, we deeply understand the crucial role that professionals play in the seamless and impactful delivery of our programmes. Our extensive experience in evaluating and monitoring the outcomes of our programmes has granted us insights into the tangible benefits they offer families and communities. Here’s a comprehensive overview of the support services and tools we provide to professionals:

1. Evaluation and Monitoring:

• We emphasize the integration of evaluations into local deliveries of our programmes. The benefits include ensuring lasting outcomes, adapting to local community needs, showcasing positive results, recruiting new parents for future groups, fostering collaboration with parents and community networks, and empowering parents to be a pillar of support for one another.
• We offer templates that are tried and tested, enabling you to monitor and evaluate your groups effectively.

2. Quality Protocol and Accreditation:

• Our evidence-based quality protocol is designed to reinforce the effective delivery of Parents Plus Programmes after training.
• The Quality Protocol is an integral part of our facilitator training. It emphasizes establishing client-centred goals, adhering to the core principles of the programmes, obtaining session-by-session client feedback, and incorporating a weekly reflective space in supervision.
• Checklists are provided to rate practice development and set specific goals for facilitator development.
• We encourage professionals to explore our Parents Plus Quality Protocol and our Facilitator Accreditation process in the Programme Resources section (Note: Access requires trained facilitator login).

3. Exclusive Resources:

• As a trained Parents Plus Facilitator, you gain unrestricted access to a plethora of resources, including promotional materials, expert articles, programme presentations, a Q&A forum, newsletters, extra handouts, printable certificates, and insightful parenting articles and links.

4. Marketing Support:

• We recognize that reaching out to parents and referrers can be challenging due to constraints in time and resources. Hence, we provide tailored marketing support:Issuing press releases to local media outlets.Promoting upcoming groups on our digital platforms.Offering PowerPoint presentations for referrers.Supplying custom posters and fliers for recruitment purposes.

Our core belief is in empowering professionals to profoundly impact families. We are steadfast in our commitment to providing professionals with the support, resources, and tools they need to deliver our programmes effectively and make a lasting difference in the communities they serve.

Do Parents Plus offer programmes to parents? Our mission is to empower professionals to support families and we do this by providing evidence-based programmes to those working in the community, education health and disability services. So although we don’t regularly offer programmes to parents we do however provide some resources for them and updates on courses for parents that are available through our partners. You can find out more on our website at – https://www.parentsplus.ie/parents/

At Parents Plus, our team works tirelessly with various services spanning Community, Mental Health, Disability, and Education.

Our primary objective is to enhance their capacity and skills to not only deliver our interventions but to also evaluate them effectively, ensuring they are tailored to the needs of local communities.

For professionals eager to elevate their impact and enrich their communities, we offer a beacon of support and expertise.

If you’re interested in onsite training, supervision for your teams, or tailored assistance in rolling out and evaluating our proven programmes for maximum community impact, please don’t hesitate. Reach out to our Impact Lead, Vicki Byrne, at vicki@parentsplus.ie.

Let’s foster meaningful change together.

Do you want to develop your professional skills and improve outcomes for children, adolescents, and families? 

Look no further than the Parents Plus suite of trainings, offered this Autumn. From the early years to adult, and also supporting complex needs, each programme will equip you with the evidence based skills, practical strategies, and ongoing support, to improve outcomes for the families and children you work with. Download or view our brochure below.