Incredible Years Toddler Basic

We knew that children in the Better Start Bradford area often experienced poor outcomes regarding their social, emotional and physical development.

There is evidence to suggest that the parent-infant relationship is associated with the ability of a child to regulate their own behaviour. In addition, the quality of the parent-infant relationship is key to the cognitive development of the child, especially in language development which in turn can also mediate against aggressive behaviours in young children.

The project aimed for parents/carers to experience an improvement in:

• Children’s social and emotional development
• Understanding and confidence in using positive parenting strategies
• Parental mood or depression levels

• Satisfaction with programme content and delivery was high, with 95% of parents/carers reporting that their bond with their child had improved or greatly improved. 84% reported that it helped them deal with personal or family problems not relating to their child. 74% reported they were confident or very confident in their ability to manage future behaviour problems.
• The ongoing effectiveness evaluation hopes to be able to move the project up the Early Intervention Foundation evidence ladder from level 2+ to level 4.
• Six facilitators are now accredited group leaders. This is unique nationally across Incredible Years teams!
• The most effective form of recruiting parents/carers was through face-to-face contact with a facilitator. This contact started to build a trusted relationship with the parents which led to positive engagement when contacting them to set up the home visits and join the programme.
• Home visits before and after the programme by those who deliver the programme to collect questionnaire information have helped with relationships, worries or anxieties over attending and have helped with the amount of data collected. Some assessment tool questions have needed additional explanation.
• Childcare and transport provision enabled parents to access groups and have a space to reflect, learn and focus on their parenting skills. Timings have been built around parent school/nursery drop-offs and pickups.
• A Start for Life contract enabled the project to deliver Incredible Years Pre-School Basic Programme district-wide.

*This section includes information from both the evaluation report/s and project