Parents Plus Special Needs Programme Training for Professionals
Addressing the particular needs of parents of adolescents with an intellectual disability
About PPSN
Parents Plus Special Needs programme (PPSN) is a solution-focused, trauma-informed and evidence-based course that builds on parent strengths. It can be delivered over seven sessions to groups of parents or to individual families.
The Special Needs Programme is suitable for parents who are raising an older child or adolescent with a mild, moderate or severe intellectual disability, and who may also have a diagnosis, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or a physical disability.
The PPSN was launched in September 2020. You can view recordings of all the speakers here.
Supporting Parents
By attending our training to become a facilitator for this programme, you will learn how to support parents of an adolescent with special needs to:
- understand and connect with their adolescent
- manage behaviour and emotional concerns
- understand puberty, sexuality and relationships
- reduce their own stress as parents
- support sibling and parent relationships in the family
- build self-esteem and well-being
- advocate for their child needs
- prepare their child for adulthood and future transitions
Making an Impact
Our Special Needs programme is strongly evidence-based and was developed in partnership with 13 Disability teams, and in consultation with 97 parents who participated in focus groups.
In 2019/2020, in a large randomised controlled trial involving 23 services and 277 parents, were randomly assigned to treatment as usual or to attend the Parents Plus Special Needs Programme (PPSN).
Parents attending the Parents Plus Special Needs Programme reported significant improvements in:
- Parenting practices
- Problem behaviours
- Parental satisfaction
- Parental self-efficacy
- Personal goal attainment
The ‘treatment as usual’ group remained the same on all primary outcome measures.
The research was published in the prestigious Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities in 2023
Read the full research paper here
You can learn more about the impact of this programme, and all our other programme here
Train as a Parents Plus Special Needs Programme Facilitator
What will you learn?
The Special Needs facilitator training is practical and solution-focused and will provide you with the essential skills and learning to achieve the best outcomes for the parents and families who attend your service.
The training focuses on:
- Developing an in-depth understanding of this programme
- Delivering the programme via face-to-face and online sessions to groups and individual families
- Providing opportunities to observe and practise the skills to become a solution-focused facilitator
- Building on parents strengths as a basis for ongoing change
- Strengthening inter-agency and community partner
Who is the training for?
The Special Needs Programme facilitator training is suitable for a range of professionals, including:
- Progressing Disability Network Teams
- Multidisciplinary teams within NHS CAMHS
- Family Resource Centres
- TUSLA Child and Family Agency Child Protection Teams
- Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Trust – Learning Disability Teams
- Charities such as Enable Ireland, Brothers of Charity, Sisters of Charity, as Family Carers Ireland and Down Syndrome Ireland
- Regional Parent support networks
- Parent Led Support Groups
Parents Plus programmes must be co-facilitated, therefore, at least two facilitators need to be trained before a programme can be delivered to families in your agency. Facilitators who go on to complete our accreditation process are licensed to run the programme without a co-facilitator.
Tailored Facilitator Training
Tailored for services and agencies, this option allows us to deliver the training directly to your team online or at your chosen location. It includes the same comprehensive content as our scheduled training but can be customised to meet the specific needs of your team.
Prior to training we can work with you to:
- Identify the specific outcomes that you want to achieve within your service or community
- Identify the target families you wish to deliver the Parents Plus programmes to
- Conduct an assessment of family needs and goals
- Match specific Parents Plus programmes for target groups to achieve best outcomes
- Plan training for facilitators in the relevant programmes
- Avail of post-training support to implement your programmes and ensure sustainability
- Follow the Parents Plus quality protocol as you deliver the groups to guarantee the best results
- Support your facilitators through the accreditation process to ensure that your programmes are run consistently in your agency
Both tailored facilitator training and scheduled facilitator training include access to the full suite of Parents Plus resources, ongoing implementation support, and an opportunity to join the Parents Plus Community of Practice.
If you are a manager, service commissioner, or a lead facilitator and you would like to avail of our tailored training or discuss your service needs and programme implementation, please contact our Impact Lead, Vicki Byrne at vicki@parentsplus.ie.
Scheduled Facilitator Training
The next available facilitator training for this programme starts on 10th September 2025 and consists of three online workshops delivered via Zoom. Participants are also invited to complete a short assignment between workshops. The Training schedule is summarised below and further details can be viewed here:
| 10th Sept | 9.15am-1.15pm Goals, Background, Evidence-base, Course Content |
| 11th Sept | 9.15am-1.15pm Groupwork and Session Delivery Practice |
| 15th Sept | 9.15am-1.15pm Facilitation Skills, Session Planning and Delivery. |
| 16th Sept | 9.15am-1.15pm Individual Sessions, Managing Challenges, Setting up Groups |
Five modules
Parents Plus offer a small number of part-sponsored places on the training when accessing finance is difficult.
Programme Materials
Our Special Needs Programme materials include:
- A comprehensive facilitator’s manual, with detailed guides to plan and deliver each session, including how to structure group discussion and exercises.
- Two colourful parent books, containing all the programme handouts and worksheets for participants.*
When running subsequent courses, trained facilitators can purchase additional parent books at cost price. Trained facilitators are also licensed to copy worksheets and handouts from the parent books, as an alternative.
The Parents Plus Support Package
Research shows that families achieve the best outcomes when facilitators and their managers are supported pre and post-training to deliver programmes. We provide a comprehensive package of pre and post-training supports to our facilitators and managers in order to ensure a sustainable and effective delivery of the programmes within their agency.
After training, practitioners join our Community of Practice, where they receive ongoing mentoring and support with programme implementation and delivery as well as access to additional resources. We believe that continued support is key to successful programme delivery and achieving positive outcomes for children, young people, and families. The Parents Plus Community of Practice is highly-valued by practitioners once they train.
Read on to learn about the supports that we offer and our accreditation process.
What supports do Parents Plus offer?
Parents Plus provide a comprehensive package of supports to our facilitators, including:
- Implementation support to get groups off the ground, including planning workshops and coaching for managers.
- Individual and group supervision sessions with an experienced Parents Plus Trainer.
- Advanced training workshops on specific topics.
- Extra resources to facilitate delivery, e.g. fliers, posters, certificates, practice articles, parenting articles, supplementary handouts.
- Support to promote your Parents Plus courses in your community.
- Advice and guidance on evaluating and monitoring outcomes in your agency to ensure your groups are effective.
- Access to two individual supervision sessions free of charge in the first year post-training.
Sponsorship for further supervision is available on application.
How do I become an accredited facilitator?
For facilitators who want to take their practice to a higher level, Parents Plus also has an established accreditation process which supports you to refine your facilitation skills and professional practice and reach a high standard of delivery.
Representing a major CPD achievement, accreditation allows you to deliver our programmes independently and to work towards becoming a Parents Plus supervisor. You can read more about our accreditation process in the resources section.
The Parents Plus Quality Protocol is the basis of becoming an Accredited Facilitator. We recommend that facilitators continue to follow the Quality Protocol post-training and post accreditation to ensure fidelity to the principles.
Who Will Benefit from Parents Plus Facilitator Training?
The Parents Plus Early Years Programme facilitator training is suitable for a range of professionals.
- NHS and HSE Primary Care Teams (e.g., Psychologists, Public Health Nurses)
- Family Resource Centres
- UK Family Hubs
- UK Family Support Workers
- Family Practitioners
- Early Years Educators
- Parenting Leads/Teams
- Early Help Hub Teams/Coordinators
- Family Hubs Teams/Managers
- Parenting Support Teams/Team Managers
- Teachers/Educators
- Early Intervention Coordinators
- TUSLA Parenting Support Champions Project
- Social Care Workers
- Speech and Language Therapists
- Occupational Therapists
- TUSLA Child and Family Agency Child Protection Teams
- Progressing Disability Teams
- Area Based Childhood Programme (ABC)
- HSE Sláintecare Healthy Communities
- GP Services
- Children and Young People’s Services Committees
- Family-focused Charities (e.g., Barnardos, Focus Ireland)
- Regional Parent Support Networks
- County Childcare Committees
- Family Liaison Officers
- Preschool Teachers
Contact Us
Parents Plus are here to support you every step of the way in your implementation process.
We provide coaching to managers and project leads, and can facilitate planning workshops for large multi-agency community roll outs.
If you are a manager, service commissioner, or a lead facilitator and you would like to avail of our tailored training or discuss your service needs and programme implementation, please contact our Impact Lead, Vicki Byrne at vicki@parentsplus.ie.
