Parenting interventions to promote child health

Time and again the evidence has shown that there are often missed opportunities for early intervention that may have prevented children from being seriously harmed or dying from abuse. Following an update to the Children Act in 2004 and the publication of the Marmot and Munro reports, the emphasis of safeguarding children has been on early intervention and prevention of harm.This article will focus on three early intervention programmes; Family Nurse Partnership; Triple P and Incredible Years which are all available to parents in the UK. Family Nurse Partnership is an evidence based, preventive, early intervention programme targeted at vulnerable, young, first-time mothers. Triple P is also an evidence based, structured programme, that gives parents simple and practical strategies to help them manage their child's behaviour, prevent problems developing and enabling them to build strong, healthy relationships. The Incredible Years programme has been devised to provide children, parents and teachers coping strategies to manage difficult behaviours. The programmes are also further subdivided into age groups. All three programmes have proven short, medium and long term outcomes for both the child and their families.