In this forum, we include questions that have been suggested and answered by Parents Plus facilitators, supervisors and trainers. If you would like to suggest a topic for discussion please submit it here

Does behaviour management work with teenagers with intellectual disability?

  Question: “As a professional working in a disability service, I am concerned as to how some parents with a teenager with a intellectual disability apply  behaviour management principles, many of whom have attended a Parent Plus Programme. One such example is where a parent of a teen with intellectual disabilities who is non verbal […]

Can parents be charged to attend a Parents Plus Group?

Facilitator Best Practice Question:  “Can parents be charged to attend a Parents Plus Group? We work in a small community service and have expenses when we run the Parents Plus Groups such as venue hire, and refreshments. Do you recommend that we charge parents a small fee to cover these?” Answer: “One of the strengths of […]

I think it's best if the courses can be offered to parents for free or for a very small nominal cost if at all possible in the service.

Should parents whose children are not currently living with them attend a Parents Plus group?

Facilitator Best Practice Question: “Should parents whose children are not currently living them attend a parents plus group? For example, we often get parents whose children are in care referred to our Parents Plus Children’s Programme and also parents (usually fathers) to our Parenting When Separated group who don’t currently have access to their children. […]

Hi Angela, the criteria for attendance at a PP group is the parent having a meaningful client-centred goal that the group could help them with. I would explore with the parent, what they are hoping from attending? How do they think the group could help them in their circumstances? These are the questions that should be explored in the screening via the PWS quality questionnaires. Once the parent articulates at least 1 goal, that the course can help them with, then they can attend. In this instance the parent may want to understand what her child might be going through or to think how they can have indirect contact with child ( via cards, being available to them when they are older) or a personal goal about their own learning. You would need to warn them that they are likely to be in a minority in the group (likely only person) not having access with child and explore whether this would be a problem or whether there are better means to achieve their goals

I have a parent on parenting when separated course who has no access to her child but wants it and who does not want contact with her ex partner. Can we still offer her something worthwhile on this course?

How best to handle the Review of the Week section when running a Parents Plus Group?

Facilitator Best Practice Question: “When running our Parents Plus group, we often find the Review of the Week goes on for much longer than planned. Generally the reason is that we gets loads of specific issues raised by the parents such as getting children to bed on time, mealtime battles etc and we want to […]