1. Evaluation of a Community based 12 week Basic Incredible Years: 2 year follow up Deborah Roberts Specialist Behaviour Practitioner (5 – 11 years) January 2012

2. Why the evaluation took place Working in Sure Start (England) evaluation was part of the culture Local criticism that parents did not hold on to their strategies Coalition government – a need for financial accountability and value for money Pure curiosity

3. Aim of Evaluation To evaluate the effectiveness of a community based 12 week Basic Incredible Years Parenting Programme, 2 years post completion To share information and add to the evidence about the suitability of Incredible Years Programmes as a community intervention for mild to moderate behaviour difficulties in children up to 12.

4. How I went about it Registered with the audit department of BCUHB Sent out letters to previous participants informing them of our intention Original questionnaires used (General Health Questionnaire and Eyberg Behaviour Checklist) Structured / semi-structured questionnaire to gather data on events over the previous 2 years Piloted on handful of participants Carried out by the support worker in post, in the participants home

5. Quantitative Results (or the number crunching exercise) First step was to digest ‘ SPSS for Dummies ’ As majority of data did not show normal distribution – most were skewed to the left – the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed rank test was performed

6. Interesting data 12 groups were targeted Sample of 57 out of original 90 participants (63%) Age range 0 – 12 years, mean average age 5.7 years (5.6 yrs boys, 5.9 yrs girls) Total boys 31 (54%) and girls 26 (46%) Average sessions attended 9.1 Age breakdown 0-4yrs 24 5-7yrs 15 8-12yrs 18

7. Source of referrals Self22 Sure Start14 CAMHS 9 School Nurses6 Social Services2 Community Paed1 School1 Family member1 Voluntary org1

8. General Health Questionnaire

9. Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory – Intensity Score

10. Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory – Problem Score

11. ECBI Intensity Above the clinical cut-off Pre group28 (50%) Post group 6 (11%) 2 years18 (31%) Of these 18 children, 12 had a ‘ significant life event ’ in the past 2 years, 7 of which had gone on to be diagnosed with ADHD Of these 18, 5 had shown no significant change post group Of these 5 whose scores hadn ’ t changed post-group, only 2 were above the clinical cut-off

12. Significant Life Events Reported ADHD Diagnosis7 Learning Disability2 Waiting for CAMHS assessment2 Family relationship problems2 Referred to CAMHS but DNA1 Seen by CAMHS but NAD1 ASD Diagnosis1

13. Qualitative data (or what they fed back) Participants comments themed: Behaviour had remained better24 Group was supportive10 Enjoyed the group 9 Information and home practice 8 Group leaders supportive6 Understood what to do/confident4 Still struggling4 Currently under assessment4 Diagnosis was important3 Problems with another child3 Crèche facilities useful2 Having further support1

14. Participants comments Improved behaviour “ Things have been OK since doing the course. If I have a problem now, I go back to sticker charts ” “ I found the group really useful, descriptive commenting was brilliant. The behaviour has been good since the group. Only 1 problem occurred when a little brother came along ” “ It gave a good foundation on how to deal with issues. I still remember the principles, information got from the group was really good. I can see the benefits of structure, but not always able to keep this in place.. ”

15. Group Experience “ I think this sort of parenting course is invaluable to all mums and dads, whatever age their children. I also love the interaction with other parents, you do not feel alone with a problem. Keep the course going!!! ” Nothing bad. Good group, leaders were helpful and explanations were really good. Meeting other people and discussing issues, realising that I wasn ’ t the only person struggling ”

16. What strategies were they predominately using? Prompt card and asked for examples Rewards27 Praise26 Consequences16 Ignoring15 Play14 Time out14 Limit Setting6 Controlling Upsetting Thoughts3 Problem Solving3

17. Summary of outcomes at 2 years General Health Questionnaire - 79% remained below the clinical cut-off Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory - 69% below above the clinical cut-off for both intensity of the behaviour and problem score.

18. What has happened since ‘ Top-up ’ sessions have been offered due to expressed need, but little success ‘ Advanced IY ’ offered as a result and huge demand. Two groups run and waiting list! New Support worker recruited Oct 2011 after post frozen for 12 months Sure Start project ended, Behaviour Practitioner (0- 4s) moved to Flying Start to run in-house – since retired Run the new up-dated Basic Referral source shifted to CAMHS and School Nurses Maintained our universal approach to all parents in Conwy county Findings been accepted for publication