Focus on parenting

Focusing on some of the parental difficulties likely to lead to the neglect of children and young people, these courses are suitable for multi-agency audiences of professionals who work with children and their parents or carers.

Focus on parenting capacity (1 day) can be a used as a stand-alone introductory course. It can support practitioners in assessing parental difficulties such as domestic abuse, mental health problems and parental substance misuse under the family and environmental factors domain. These are problems likely to affect the parent’s functioning, and practitioners need to establish to what extent these difficulties may have an impact on the parent’s ability to care for the child, depending on the child’s age, developmental needs and any special needs.

Parental difficulties and child neglect (1 day) similarly considers the range of parental problems that can lead to children and young people being neglected, but with a greater focus on interventions and measuring outcomes.

Neglect and parental substance misuse (1 day) focuses on the ways in which parental drug and alcohol misuse may affect the ability of parents/carers to meet the needs of children and young people.

Neglect and attachment (1 day) explores the main components of attachment theory, which was first developed by Bowlby (1979)* and has since been further developed by others. The course supports practitioners in considering the importance of multiple attachments as well as their meaning in different family and community structures and/or culturally and ethnically diverse family structures within which children experience adult behaviour.

* Bowlby, J. (1979) The Making and Breaking of Affectional Bonds. London: Routledge.