Parental support and training
Parent and baby
Loving, consistent and safe parenting is essential to children and young people’s wellbeing and development. We seek to improve the outcomes for – and protection of – families where parents are affected by mental health problems.
Our clinical work
Our clinical teams bridge the gaps that so often occur between CAMHS, adult mental health and children’s services by providing early intervention and support alongside existing services. By working in close partnership with social care, mental health and other practitioners involved in case management and support we can ensure families receive well-coordinated, synchronised and effective care. We also offer specialist parenting assessment and intervention for parents with mental health difficulties and complex psychosocial needs.
Our research
The core of our research is to improve understanding of the mechanisms underpinning effective parenting and parenting support. Our teams research, develop and help to share several internationally recognised evidence-based and specialist parenting programmes and clinical tools from pregnancy to adolescence. Our research also focuses on how to provide the best support for children and families living in socially disadvantaged and excluded communities, as well as for parents with mental health difficulties.
We develop, test and disseminate evidence-based interventions and clinical programmes that begin during pregnancy and continue through infancy, childhood and adolescence. These provide targeted parenting intervention and support at early life stages for children at risk of developing mental health and developmental difficulties, together with more specialist interventions for specific populations such as children whose parents are affected by other mental health problems, and parents in conflict.
Find out more
Read more about our research and key publications here.
Our partnership work
Our close connections provide us with the best opportunities to translate our academic achievements into practice, while making sure the latest challenges of clinical practice are addressed through our research. Our work therefore moves swiftly from development to pilot testing in clinical settings and is able to reach local children and families. We are also able to disseminate our evidence-based programmes rapidly at scale.
Our future vision for children and young people
We hope that our novel and innovative interventions will continue to transform access to and delivery of effective, evidence-based parenting intervention for children and young people.
