What will you learn?

The Children’s Programme 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 partnerships

By the end of the training, you will:

• Understand the core components of the Children’s Programme and be ready to use the programme with parents and children, both in groups and individually.
• Demonstrate key skills in solution-focused group facilitation including engagement, retention and responding constructively to challenges; strengthening inter-agency and community partnerships; and using solution focused video feedback with parents.

The training is interactive with lots of opportunities for participation and group learning.

Read the module training description for more information.

Who is the training for?

Training as a Parents Plus facilitator is open to qualified education, mental health and community professionals who work with families.

Parents Plus programmes are successfully delivered with impressive outcomes in a variety of Primary Care, School, Health, Disability and Mental Health settings.

Attendance at our facilitator training for this programme is compulsory prior to delivering it to families attending your service.

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.

The Parents Children’s Programme package includes a wide range of materials to ensure it’s effective delivery.

• Access to online video clips with 80 real and role-played scenes of family interactions, with comments from professionals, parents and children
• 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*
• A copy of the book ‘Positive Parenting‘ by John Sharry
• Posters to highlight key programme concepts

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.

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.

• 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

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.