Professor Stephen Scott, Director, National Academy of Parenting Research
Title: Ensuring evidence based parenting programmes work: what’s new, where
next?
Abstract: This talk will discuss the transition from good individual clinical practice
to nationwide dissemination of effective practice. Issues include:
i) the upfront cost of programmes versus the long-term cost of not treating cases
ii) should all children be targeted, or those with worse problems
iii) persuading local commissioners and training practitioners in approaches that
work
iv) developing practitioner skills
v) encouraging high attendance by parents
vi) planning what to do with treatment failures.
These issues will be discussed in the context of the work of the National Academy for
Parenting Research, the Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies Initiative, and
the new Parenting Classes initiative in England.
References:
1. Scott, S., (2010) National dissemination of effective parenting programmes to
improve child outcomes. British Journal of Psychiatry 196, 1-3
2. Scott, S., Sylva, K., Doolan, M., Price, J., Jacobs, B., Crook, C. & Landau, S.
(2010) Randomized controlled trial of parent groups for child anti-social behaviour
targeting multiple risk factors: the SPOKES project. Journal of Child Psychology and
Psychiatry 51, 48-57
3. Scott, S., O’Connor, T., Futh A, Price, J., Matias, C. & Doolan, M. (2010) Impact
of a parenting programme in a high-risk, multi-ethnic community: The PALS trial
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 51, 1331-1341
4. Scott, S. & Dadds, M. (2009) When parent training doesn’t work: Theory-driven
clinical strategies. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 50, 1441-1450
Professor Stephen Scott is Professor of Child Health and
Behaviour at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London,
and Director of the National Academy for Parenting Research. He
works as a Consultant Child Psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital,
where he heads the National Anti-social Behaviour Clinic and the
National Adoption and Fostering Clinic. He chairs the NICE
guideline development group on Conduct Disorder.
Clinically he sees parents and children experiencing difficulties
using a range of proven approaches, from intensive one-to-one work, to group work
and prevention in schools. He has been involved in five controlled trial evaluations of
parenting programmes, including the Parent-Child Game, the Incredible Years
programme, the SPOKES literacy programme, Fostering Changes, and Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care, of which he is the National Director.
He is also interested in prevention of social exclusion through widespread
dissemination of parenting programmes. With Robert Goodman he is the author of the
introductory text Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and with Sir Michael Rutter FRS
and others, he is an editor and an author of the text Rutter’s Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry.