Chief Executive of Triple P UK, Matt Buttery, today praised the announcement by the Prime Minister which brings Government policy into line with clinical best practice recommendations.

NICE guidelines recommend that evidence-based parenting interventions be used as the first step of care to improve the health and wellbeing of British families.

Mr Buttery said almost 100 independent evaluations of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program around the world showed that the Triple P suite of programs delivered benefits to parents and children alike. These were important benefits that could help influence a child’s development and were also highly likely to influence their lifelong interactions with the community.

“NICE guidelines routinely recommend programs such as Triple P as the first step of care for children with behavior problems and ADHD,’’ Mr Buttery said.

“However, Mr Cameron has touched on an extremely important point: In order for any parenting scheme to work, all families need access to support, not just those families the government has identified as needing to participate. Many families are crying out for this kind of help but very few parents are able to access parenting programmes.’’

Mr Buttery said that when the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program was made available in Ireland free of charge for all families of children aged up to eight, an independent evaluation of the delivery of the program found it led to lasting change – not just among parents and children, but also across the community.

“The availability of the suite of Triple P programmes across the community meant that parents could decide what level of program suited their needs. Often, after attending a 90-minute seminar, families most in need would then nominate themselves for further help in a more intensive, eight-hour group program.

“In Ireland, the numbers of children with seriously elevated behavioral problems reduced by 37.5 per cent. This was compared to a non-Triple P area where these problems rose by 8.6 per cent.’’

Parents across the population also reported they were less stressed and distressed.

The Triple P – Positive Parenting Program is one of the world’s most extensively evaluated parenting programmes. To date, more than 218 evaluations have been conducted, with 45 per cent of these conducted independently of programme developers. A total of 95 per cent of these evaluations (96 per cent of independent evaluations) show positive outcomes across a range of outcomes for parents and children.

Read  the independent evaluation of Triple P in Ireland at the Atlantic Philanthropies website or at theMidlands Area Parenting Partnership website.