Core Components

The Triple P – Positive Parenting Program® is a parenting and family support system designed to prevent and treat behaviour and emotional problems in children and teenagers. The system takes a minimal sufficiency approach, offering families just the amount of support they require. It also takes a self-regulatory approach that encourages practitioners, parents and children to promote independent problem solving.

The Triple P System has five levels of intervention, each increasing in intensity and directed towards a different level of family need or dysfunction. The levels range from level 1 which takes a universal approach, to level 5 interventions which include programmes which offer intensive family support or families with complex concerns.

Group Teen Triple P is a level 4 intensive intervention. Programmes at this level offer intensive targeted support to parents of children who are identified as having moderate/severe behaviour difficulties. Programmes at this level can also be offered at a universal level targeting a specific population, for example low-income areas.

Group Teen Triple P is aimed at families with children aged 12-16 years where parents have concerns about their teenager’s behavioural problems or simply wish to prevent behavioural problems from developing.

Practitioners offer five (2-hour) group sessions with up to 12 participants, followed by three individual (15-30 minute) telephone consultations. During these sessions, parents learn practical strategies to manage their child’s problematic behaviour, plan around risk-taking and risky situations, and look at ways to maintain changes and problem solving for the future.

Group Teen Triple P is well operationalised, each facilitator receives a facilitator’s manual that provides comprehensive guidance around what should be covered in each session. It also gives clear guidance about which strategies are recommended across the different ages. Parents receive a Teen Triple P Group Workbook, which describes the information and strategies presented during the sessions and includes homework tasks.

Fidelity

Triple P – Positive Parenting Program® has three main fidelity checks / quality assurance strategies across all the programmes:

• Accreditation of practitioners undertaken as part of a provider training course. Intended to establish a baseline of competence for all practitioners.
• Session Checklists re provided for every session in the programme manual.
• Peer Support Networks – Triple P has a Peer Assisted Supervision and Support (PASS) model which is a self-regulatory framework for practitioners where they can support each other’s skills development. The PASS model is covered in the training days.

Modifiable Components

Triple P practitioners can tailor the intervention to meet the needs of individual parents, while maintaining adherence to the overall principles and content of the programme., Appropriate adaptions are covered during training.

Training in Triple P has been delivered in 30 countries and written and audio-visual materials have been translated from English, dubbed or subtitled into 21 languages, with videoclips and workbooks including images of diverse ethnicities. Practitioners can tailor the intervention, so it is culturally acceptable, such as using culturally familiar terminology and examples.

Triple P consultants can offer support to implementing services to consider appropriate adaptions.

Triple P – Positive Parenting Program® was developed in Queensland, Australia. Training and implementation have been delivered across 30 countries. Within the United Kingdom, training and implementation support can be accessed from Triple P UK.

Support for Organisation / Practice

Implementation Support

Triple P UK has structured implementation supports available to sites. All implementation supports are flexible and tailored to the site’s requirements and are available for all programmes in the Triple P system. Triple P have developed a framework for implementation, it has five phases and are all described in detail in the Triple P Implementation Framework (TPIF). Triple P UK also has Implementation Consultants (IC) available to support new sites work through the phases of implementation.  The five phases of implementation are detailed below:

• Engagement – ICs share information about the Triple P system and work with key contacts to establish if there is a potential fit.
• Commitment and Contracting – ICs work with the organisation to help establish more detailed plans and goals, choose suitable Triple P programme variants, set up implementation support and communications strategies, and together agree on mutual commitments.
• Implementation Planning – ICs help support development of detailed plans for service delivery, communications, training and accreditation, and evaluation for the organisation’s outcomes, based on their readiness and capacity.
• Training and Accreditation – ICs work with key contacts to ensure there are enough trained practitioners to offer the planned Triple P services. This includes ensuring practitioners are prepared for training, have a high-quality experience of training, and have time after training to work on their skills and prepare for and complete their accreditation.
• Implementation and Maintenance – The goal of this phase is to ensure that Triple P is effectively delivered, that there is an active evaluation process from which feedback is provided to practitioners and leadership, that practitioners are getting the most out of Triple P peer support networks, and strategies are in place to support sustainable, effective delivery.

After training, practitioners can access the Triple P Provider Network which has resources such as questionnaires and monitoring forms, further information for learning and development of competencies and access to the Automatic Scoring and Reporting Application (ASRA). Using the ASRA tool, sites can score questionnaires, analyse and compare individual cases and outcomes, enabling reporting and evaluation of the programme’s effectiveness. Additional implementation support options are available from Triple P UK at an additional cost.

Licence Requirements

No licence is required.

Start-up Costs

Costs can be provided directly from Triple P UK for training groups of staff from 12–20 practitioners or individual open enrolment training.

Costs that need to be considered are the training course, programme resources for working with parents, and any additional implementation support required. Certain locations will require additional costs of trainer travel and accommodation.

Building Staff Competency

Qualifications Required

Triple P UK recommends that for all programmes, practitioners have a post-high school qualification in health, education, early childhood education, or social services. However, para-professionals who actively work with families may also be suitable for training.

Triple P UK note that professionals who usually undertake the course are those who may be involved in support for the client and are able to provide focused therapeutic interventions, including teachers, school counsellors, nurses, health visitors, family physicians and allied health professionals. Triple P UK suggest that the intervention is carried out by a professional in the course of providing routine care for families.

Training Requirements

Practitioners are required to attend three days of training. This is followed by a one-day pre-accreditation and a half-day accreditation workshop. Prior to the accreditation session, practitioners need to complete a quiz and competency preparation. In total, it is estimated that training and accreditation should take six days of practitioner time.

Training in Group Teen Triple P is available as a standalone course or as an extension to Group Triple P (0-12 years). There are no pre-requisite participation requirements for a standalone course.

Organisations can host agency training at a time and location convenient to them or alternatively individual practitioners can apply for open enrolment training held remotely (video conference) through the UK open enrolment timetable.

Supervision Requirements

No official supervision requirements are detailed by Triple P UK. However, they do have a professional development and peer support model; Peer Assisted Supervision and Support (PASS). This approach brings together Triple P practitioners to support one another to strengthen and refine their Triple P delivery. 

Theory of Change

The Triple P system aims to enhance family protective factors and reduce risk factors associated with severe behavioural and emotional problems later in childhood. Triple P interventions are based on social learning, cognitive behavioural and developmental theory.

Values

Triple P interventions aim to promote positive caring relationships between parents and their children. Group Teen Triple P aims to help parents learn practical strategies to manage inappropriate or risky adolescent behaviour, set specific goals, promote a teenager’s skills development, and teach emotional self-regulation.

• Is working with families with or at risk of developing teenage risky behaviour, antisocial behaviour and substance misuse a priority for your organisation?

Triple P takes a minimal sufficiency approach, offering families just the amount of support parents required to resolve a problem and enable parents to be confident, competent and independent in their parenting. It also takes a self-regulatory approach that encourages practitioners, parents and children to promote independent problem solving.

• Does taking a minimal sufficiency approach to offering support align with your service values?

Priorities

Group Teen Triple P has been developed as an early intensive intervention strategy within a preventative framework for parents of adolescent children aged 12-16 years who have, or are at risk of developing, problematic teenage behaviours.

• Is an early intervention approach which aims to reduce the risk of teenagers developing risky behaviour, antisocial behaviour and substance misuse a priority for your service?

Existing Initiatives

• Does your service already provide early intervention programmes aiming to improve adolescent development and mental health outcomes?
• Are the existing initiatives effective?
• Do existing initiatives fit your current and anticipated future requirements?

Workforce

Group Teen Triple P practitioners require time to attend the training and for group delivery. Triple P UK recommends that for all programmes, practitioners have a post-high school qualification in health, education, early childhood education, or social services. However, para-professionals who actively work with families may also be suitable to deliver the intervention with families.

Triple P UK recommends that in addition to the session time (five sessions of 2-hours and three telephone consultations of 15-30 minutes for each family) that practitioners have time for session preparation and supervision (2 hours), questionnaire scoring and feedback (5 hours), and case notes and report writing (5 hours). These time estimates are based on a group delivery with ten families participating, times will vary for different group sizes.

Practitioners require time to attend training and accreditation which is estimated to take six days.

• Does your organisation have practitioners who are available and interested in learning and delivering this programme?
• Can your organisation support the time commitment required for practitioner training and programme delivery?

Technology Support

To implement Group Teen Triple P, a computer/data projector and screen is required to show the presentation and video clips (available for practitioners to download or access online).

• Do you have access to adequate technology to support practitioners to effectively deliver the technological components of the programme?
• Do you have the technology to support practitioners to download, print and photocopy the materials needed to deliver the programme?

Administrative Support

Administrative support is required to collect evaluation data and feedback, print off materials along with co-ordinating and booking of venues.

• Do your current administrative procedures support your practitioners to implement this programme?
• Do you have access to facilities to host Group Teen Triple P?

Financial Support

Costs can be provided directly from Triple P UK for training groups of staff from 12–20 practitioners. In addition to training, the costs of programme resources and any additional implementation supports need to be taken into consideration.

• Do you have the finances available to support the training and implementation of this programme?

Comparable Population

Group Teen Triple P is an intensive targeted intervention for families with teenagers aged 12-16 years who have or are at risk of developing difficult teenage behaviours. Parents who participate may also include those interested in promoting adolescent skill development and potential, or simply wish to prevent behaviour problem from developing.

Evidence of its effectiveness includes families with adolescents aged between 12-15 years in New Zealand and families with adolescents aged between 12-16 years in Turkey.

• Is this comparable to the population you serve?

Desired Outcome

Group Teen Triple P is a group intervention that aims to reduce problem adolescent behaviour, support parents to manage their child’s problematic behaviour, develop positive parenting strategies, and develop positive relationships with teenagers.  

Research has found the intervention to be effective in decreasing adolescent problem behaviours and parent-adolescent conflict alongside improvements in adolescent adjustment in caring for others.  Parental improvements reported include improved quality of family relationships, family cohesion, parental wellbeing and improved parenting practices.

• Is reducing adolescent problem behaviour, parent-adolescent conflict, improving parenting practices and the quality of family relationships an aim of your service?
• Does your organisation have other initiatives in place that effectively and efficiency address the above outcomes?