What are the Incredible Years Programmes?

Professor Carolyn Webster-Stratton, University of Washington, Seattle, developed and researched the Incredible Years Parent, Child and Teacher programmes over the last 30 years and they are now recognised as among the best evidence-based programmes in the world for prevention and treatment of conduct disorder and violence in children and young people. They have been delivered and researched in many countries and our mission, with the support of the Welsh Assembly Government, is to promote their use in Wales whilst at the same time developing evidence of their effectiveness in Wales and establishing the support needed for staff in everyday services to get good outcomes.

The Incredible Years Wales Centre grew out of a project started by Professor Judy Hutchings, with colleagues from theNHS and the University of Wales, Bangor, in 1995. Its aim was to develop and promote evidence-based interventions for children with conduct disorders and their families. Project staff had completed a number of funded research projects, all associated with children who have behaviour management problems.

The project built international links over the years with Professor Robert Wahler at Tennessee, Dr. Jerry Patterson at Oregon and Professor Webster-Stratton at Seattle. It has brought many eminent visitors to Bangor. Professor. Hutchings speaks regularly throughout Britain and overseas about her work. She recently served on the Committee set up to identify evidence-based strategies to help young children at risk of becoming violent offenders and contributed to "Support from the Start" published by the Department for Education and Skills. She also served as an expert witness to NICE and has advised the Welsh Assembly and Westminster Governments. She has hosted many research and specialist placements for local students and for students from America, Canada and France. The project has produced a large number of research reports and published journal articles. To see our list of publications please click here

Since 2001 the Centre has focused on disseminating and researching the evidence-based Incredible Years Parent, Child and Teacher Classroom Management programmes. The Incredible Years Wales Centre was established in 2003. In March 2011 the Centre was renamed The Centre for Evidence Based Early Intervention (CEBEI) as a natural extension of work conducted by the Incredible Years Centre over the last eight years. The Centre maintains an active programme of training events throughout Wales with opportunities to train in all the Incredible Years programmes. It also holds an annual conference in South Wales and an Update Day in North Wales.  Professor Hutchings is authorised by Professor Carolyn Webster-Stratton to train people to deliver all the Parenting programmes, the Therapeutic and Classroom Dinosaur School programmes and the Teacher Classroom Management programme. Dr. Sue Evans is also authorised to deliver the Incredible Years Parent, Teacher and Classroom Dina programmes and Bridget Roberts the Parenting programmes.

Please visit our reseach web site for up to date information on our current and recent research activity at:-

http://incredible-years-wales-research.bangor.ac.uk

Background to the development of the Incredible Years Parent Child and Teacher programmes in Wales

The programmes have been developed by Professor Webster-Stratton at the University of Washington over the last 30+ years. There is extensive research with long-term (10 year) follow-up particularly for the Parent programmes, which were developed first, but also for the Child and Teacher programmes. The evidence demonstrates the effectiveness of the programmes, both as early intervention, preventive, programmes and as treatment programmes for children with conduct disorder. The main IY website has hundreds of articles attesting to the effectiveness of the programmes from across the world including Canada, Norway, England, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand. All of our Welsh published work is also available on that website. www.incredibleyears.com

The IY Parent programme was identified by NICE as a treatment for conduct disorder and for early onset ADHD and the Department of Education included it in the evidence-based programmes that it disseminated across England.

Local work in Wales using the IY programmes

The work in Wales started in 2000 with delivery of the Parenting programme in what was then the North West Wales NHS CAMHS service. Its use quickly spread to early intervention Sure Start services and the Child and Teacher programmes were soon introduced. Within a couple of years we developed in-house training and consultation for the programmes in Wales and since that time have undertaken an extensive range of research evaluations of the programmes, establishing a strong evidence base for them.

We have had research partners in services across Wales and the strength of our research is that, whilst the researchers have been based at Bangor University the programmes have been delivered in regular service settings in health, education and social care services across Wales. Our research has evaluated the effectiveness of the programmes in real world service settings. Our results have been published in high impact journals including the British Medical Journal, the British Journal of Psychiatry and Education and Child Psychology as well as professional and policy journals such as the Journal of Children’s Services, the British Journal of Nursing, Agenda (the Institute of Welsh Affairs journal) and the Psychologist.

IY research at Bangor University commenced in 2002 working with local Sure Start services and focused on how to engage and retain high-risk families in interventions and prevent and treat childhood conduct disorder. Through this work the research team developed strong links with local statutory, voluntary and private organisations. Voluntary agencies include Barnardo’s, GISDA, Home Start, Action for Children and local voluntary groups, statutory agencies include education, health and social care services from Authorities across Wales, mainly in convergence areas. The university team has partnered with specialist CAMHS services, early intervention services, schools and looked after children’s services across Wales.

The interventions have produced identifiable economic benefits for participants (both parents and children) and services, in terms of reduced cost of services for child behaviour problems and also significant improvements in parental mental health. Economic evaluation of the programmes has been undertaken by the Centre for Health Economics & Medicines Evaluation(CHEME) at Bangor University with whom there is ongoing collaboration in evaluating the cost effectiveness of the programmes delivered.

Evidence of the effectiveness of the IY programmes in Wales led to their inclusion in the Parenting Action Plan for Wales and, since 2006, Professor Hutchings has trained staff across Wales to deliver the Parent programmes. Since 2008, based on research outcomes for the Child and Teacher programmes, WAG funded training has also included the Child and Teacher programmes.

Judy Hutchings

2011