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 for families with complex concerns.

Resilience Triple P is a targeted family intervention aimed at children between 6 – 12 years designed to address known modifiable risk and protective factors for children bullied at school. The programme is delivered in groups or to individual families in primary schools, outpatient / health centres and community centres. The programme consists of an initial interview (1-hour per family), four parent sessions (2 ½-hours each), and four child sessions (2 ½-hours each, attended by the child, parents and siblings aged 6-16 years).   Children learn play and friendship skills, everyday body language, how to interpret and respond to negative peer behaviour and how to resolve conflicts. Parents learn facilitative parenting strategies to promote a warm parent children relationship, support children’s friendships, address problem behaviour, coach effective responses to bullying and conflict and communicate with school staff.

Resilience Triple P is well operationalised, each practitioner 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 and children receive a 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 are 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 children and parents, while maintaining adherence to the overall principles and content of the programmes. Appropriate adaptions are covered during training.

Training in Triple P programmes have been delivered in30 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 has 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 Automated 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 children, 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 two 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 4 ½ days of practitioner time.

To complete Resilience Triple P Training, practitioners must have completed a Level 4 Group, Standard, Group Stepping Stones, or Standard Stepping Stones Triple P Training 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. Resilience Triple P aims to address known modifiable risk and protective factors for children bullied at school, and aims to improve child mental health, well-being and school achievement and employment.

• Is working with families to improve the mental health and well-being of children who have been the subject of bullying from peers at school a priority for your organisation?

Triple P takes a minimal sufficiency approach, offering families just the amount of support parents require 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

Resilience Triple P has been developed as an intervention strategy within a preventative framework for parents of children aged 6-12 years. The programme focuses on risk and protective factors for children being bullied by peers at school, including the prevention and handling of difficult behaviour of peers, and for parents how to support their child and seek assistance from schools when required.

• Is taking an intervention and prevention approach to families with a child subjected to bullying by peers at school a priority for your organisation?

Existing Initiatives

• Is the delivery of targeted interventions for children affected by bullying at school and their parents a priority for your organisation?
• Does your service already provide early intervention programmes aiming to reduce the risk of bullying by peers?

Workforce

Resilience 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 (eight 2½-hour sessions plus a 1-hour initial interview with each family), that practitioners have time for questionnaire scoring and feedback (2 hours), session preparation and supervision (8hours), and case notes and report writing (2 hours). These time estimates are based on a group delivery with four families participating, times will vary for individual delivery or changes in group size (groups can be delivered with up to eight families). Practitioners require time to attend training and accreditation which is estimated to take 4 ½ days, and must have previously completed a Level 4 Group, Standard, Group Stepping Stones, or Standard Stepping Stones Triple P Training Course.

• Do you have appropriate staff available to train?
• Do you have staff able to commit time to training and delivery of the intervention?

Technology Support

To implement Resilience 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 a programme like this?
• Do you have access to facilities to host Resilience 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, 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

Resilience Triple P is aimed at families with a child between the ages of 6-12 years, who have or are being subjected to bullying by peers.

Evidence of its effectiveness includes children aged 6-12 years attending a regular elementary school in Australia who have been subjected to chronic bullying.

• Is this comparable to the population you serve?

Desired Outcome

Resilience Triple P is an intervention that aims to improve children’s mental health and well-being, as well as school achievement and employment outcomes.

Research has identified that parents and children participating in Resilience Triple P had benefited from improvements in reducing levels of: child victimisation; distress; negative thoughts, feelings and depression; and reactive aggression. The programme also improved sibling relationships and improved enjoyment of school and friendedness for children, in addition to improved facilitative parenting for parents.

• Is improving children’s mental health and well-being and school achievement and employment a desired outcome for your organisation?