All Together – Wiltshire Family Hubs

This seven week programme, written by parents and professionals, is for parents/carers of children aged between 3 and 11 years with a disability or additional needs, particularly those who have learning, developmental and behavioural issues.

Sessions provide an opportunity for parents and carers to support and encourage each other, helping by sharing feelings and experiences, and come up with solutions to problems on the basis of what works – not what’s meant to work!  Discussions are based around real-life scenarios, and each session includes space to plan any changes which parents/carers wish to make in their parenting and from week two, an opportunity to discuss how that’s working.

We will:

• look at life living with a child who has additional needs, helping them reach their potential
• consider how to boost self-esteem through play and learning
• respond with good listening
• how our parenting style affects our children’s responses
• explore how we can talk to children about their condition, other people’s reactions to them and recognising and coping with feelings.
• look at the many reasons behind behaviour, the vital subject of setting boundaries, why children need them and why they can be hard to set.
• Look at the value of routines, praise, and consistency.

Home and school are often big issues and we look at how the school might support a child’s learning, how parents/carers can play a part in this and where to look for further support.  Finally, there’s a chance to recognise the impact on the wider family and to review what the course has meant to those attending.

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Time Out for Parents – Children with Additional Needs

This programme has been designed to support parents/carers with teenagers who have a disability or additional needs. There is help and advice on parenting in those teenage years to build strong relationships to enjoy family life, while also dealing with experiences relevant to parenting a teen with additional needs.

Bringing parents/carers hope as they chart their way through the challenges of the teenage years and the changes in the parent-child relationship. The six sessions are designed to help parents/carers stay connected with their teenager through understanding the teenage world and by developing good communication skills, while also coping with the additional challenges that come when parenting a teen with additional needs.

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Time Out for Parents – Teens with Additional Needs

Help and advice on parenting in those teenage years to build strong relationships to enjoy family life.

Bringing parents/carers hope as they chart their way through the challenges of the teenage years and the changes in the parent-child relationship.  The six sessions are designed to help parents/carers stay connected with their teenager through understanding the teenage world and by developing good communication skills.

Sharing ideas with other parents and carers is an important part of the course, there is engaging video content, and discussions are started from real life situations.  Each session includes space to plan any changes which parent/carers wish to make in their parenting and, from week two, there are opportunities to discuss how these things are working at home.

The first three sessions look at laying good foundations in relationships with teenagers: understanding the pressures they face, connecting with them, meeting their emotional needs and improving how we communicate with them.

Then we come to some of the harder topics: how parenting style effects teenagers, negotiation, setting boundaries and dealing with some of the big issues like drugs, sex and the internet.

Finally, we look at building good family memories.

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Time Out for Parents – Teens

Five workshops focussing on the importance of dads and helping them build an even better relationship with their children.

Whether dads are parenting as a couple, a single parent or an away dad, this course aims to help all dad’s share their feelings and experiences and come up with solutions to any parenting problems based on what works for them.

We look at how dads can improve their understanding of how to meet a child’s needs, including learning and development.  We will explore other key aspects including building self-esteem and positive communication, setting and maintaining boundaries, and managing behaviours which challenge.

There’s also time to think about how the role of the dad might change as their child grows and ways to build a healthy relationship with the wider family.

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Time Out for Parents – Dads

For parents/carers with children from 5 to 11 years, we will look at how to support children as they find out how the world works, learn how to manage their feelings, and find out what they’re good at.

Sharing ideas with other parents and carers is an important part of the course, and discussions are started from real life situations.  Each session includes space to plan any changes which parents/carers wish to make in their parenting and, from week two, they will have an opportunity to discuss how they are getting on with trying these at home.

This course helps parents/carers to support their child’s emotional wellbeing through understanding their temperament, meeting their needs and communicating well.  We explore how our parenting approach influences family relationships and consider a toolkit of strategies to allow parents to decide what best suits their family situation.  We discuss helping children make good choices and understand friendships both in the real and online worlds.

Finally, we look at how to deal well with conflict and the importance of enjoying family time together.

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Time Out for Parents – Primary Years

The six sessions are designed to help you negotiate the early years with confidence and build strong family relationships for the future.

Sharing ideas with other parents and carers is a key element. Discussions are based around real-life scenarios. Each session includes space to plan any changes you want to make in your parenting and, from week two, an opportunity to discuss how that’s working.

The course begins by looking at what happens when we become a parent – the surprises, disappointments and joys. We consider how to develop children’s emotional security, and build the bond between parent and child through recognising their feelings, responding appropriately, listening well, and being positive in what we say.

Play is important for a child’s development, and we look at ways in which we can support and encourage their growth and learning. We also consider different parenting styles, what our own particular parenting style is, and how that affects our interactions with our child.

A vital topic is boundaries and why they matter. We look at how routines and giving limited choices help reduce battles. There’s a toolkit of strategies for handling difficult behaviour and we see how we can choose one that is right for our child.

As adults we have needs too, and so we think about how to meet those needs and also how we handle conflict within the family.

The final session focuses on ‘belonging’ – the importance to children of feeling part of their family – and we see how we can develop this through shared activities and creating family traditions.

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Time Out for Parents – Early Years

This course takes place over five weeks, with each session lasting 2 hours long.  It addresses specific areas around separation and divorce and for parents/carers who need support around managing the transition of separation and divorce.  Primarily the aim of this course is to help with skills and strategies to approach issues which might otherwise lead to arguments and conflict.  This is available to both parents who are able to attend separate courses.

The course will help you to:

• manage divorce/separation and the impact on the family
• cope with the emotional demands of separation and the impact it has on parenting
• manage conflict and strategies to improve communication relating to the children
• balance the demands of work, family and play/fun.

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Triple P Family Transitions

Being a Parent is an 8 week programme for parents and carers of children aged from 2 to 11 years. You can learn how to better understand your children’s feelings, positive strategies to manage behaviour, effective parent-child communication and much more.  These are fun, informative and interactive sessions which are all about giving you the skills to manage the sometimes stressful job of being a parent.

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Being a Parent

Baby and Us is a 9 week course for parents of babies under 9 months and are run by trained parent facilitators.  The course content includes:

• understand your baby’s cues
• cope with challenges around feeding, sleep and crying
• interact positively with your baby
• manage parental stress.

Request a place here:

Baby and Us

This five week course is for parents and carers of children of any age who are together within a domestic relationship, but where this relationship is becoming, or has become, increasingly stressful and where communicating with each other often ends in conflict.  The course aims to empower individuals to understand their own emotional responses, as well as consider their partner’s emotional response and provide intervention around communicating with each other.  The course is suitable for couples to attend together, and can also be beneficial for one person to complete separately.

The course will help you to:

• know yourself first
• understand healthy relationships, what they are and what they aren’t
• make your own decisions
• understand where conflict begins
• discover effective communication skills and strategies
• how to consider making the tough decisions
• explore looking into your future.

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Within My Reach

Triple P is an online parenting programme for parents/carers of children aged 5 to 12 in primary.  It doesn’t tell you how to be a parent, but is more like a toolbox of ideas where you choose the strategies you need and choose how you want to use them.

Triple P helps you:

• raise happy, confident children
• manage children’s behaviour so everyone in the family enjoys life more
• set rules and routines that everyone respects and follows
• encourage behaviour you like
• take care of yourself as a parent
• feel confident you’re doing the right thing.

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Triple P Positive Parenting (Online)

Related media:

Triple P website: https://www.triplep.uk.net/uken/home/

Triple P Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/triplepparenting/

The digital resources provided by OnePlusOne are designed to help parents reflect on conflict in their relationship with either current or ex-partners, as well as consider the impact on their children.  The resources use videos and animations which incorporate evidence-based techniques to promote behaviour change and can help parents to argue in ways that are helpful rather than harmful.

There are three digital resources available:

Me, You and Baby Too (new and expectant parents)

• to help new and expectant parents adapt to the changes that parenthood can have on their relationship
• to raise awareness of the impact of stress and conflict on their baby
• to support parents to develop skills to manage conflict constructively.

Arguing Better (parents experiencing high levels of stress and couple conflict)

• to raise awareness of parental conflict and its impact on children
• to increase parents’ capacity to cope with stress together
• to support parents to develop skills to manage their conflict more constructively​.

Getting it Right for Children (separated or separating parents)

• to raise parents’ awareness and understanding of how they are putting their child in the middle of their conflict
• to help parents to develop positive communication skills
• to support parents to co-operate and work out solutions together.

Parent resources should be accessed via: https://www.oneplusone.org.uk/parents.  Parents/carers can register their own individual account and access supporting materials through their own login.

To access the practitioner area use: https://www.oneplusone.org.uk/practitioners/access.

Baby Steps is a 9 week course to help prepare for parenthood.

Run by a health professional and family hub worker, this provides a weekly moment with others to think about your baby and the changes that will happen when they are born.  There are 6 sessions (online) before baby is born and 3 sessions (in person) with baby afterwards, and all groups are friendly and relaxed.

We cover:

• what to expect at the birth and how to prepare
• practical tips for looking after your baby and yourself
• what your baby will need and how you will know what to do
• preparing for how your relationships might be affected
• how it might feel to be a new parent and what the birth partner role involves.

If you are interested in this programme then please speak to your midwife to pass your details to the Baby Steps team, who will contact you to tell you more.  Places are limited and are given based on availability and individual circumstances.

If you would like to know more talk to your midwife or contact Meredith Russ, Baby Steps Lead for Wiltshire by email: HCRG.babysteps@nhs.net