Community-based parenting programmes: an exploration of the interplay between environmental and organizational factors in a Webster Stratton project

Abstract

This article describes a research study which explored ways in which the inter-professional delivery of six parenting programmes from a community base succeeded in including families in high and low need. The findings suggest that working out-of-agency, with shared therapeutic purpose and from an established theoretical base, facilitated collaboration for the practitioners, although ongoing ownership of the programme by the participating agencies was not engendered by the funding arrangements. The community base promoted opportunities for a more inclusive, participative approach which was experienced as helpful by families with differing levels of need, suggesting that parenting programmes can be both preventive and restorative, at least in the short term. It is suggested that, while the new structures for the inter-agency delivery of Children’s Services proposed in the 2004 Children Act, should promote opportunities for such programmes to be developed within mainstream service provision, and for closer engagement with schools, parenting programmes may not be at the core of the statutory service agenda.