Nursery World - The collaborative approach instils confidence

* Health visitor Eilir Jones has been running Incredible Years parenting groups in Caernarfon for the past five years as part of Sure Start. In Wales Sure Start has now been taken over by Cymorth, which is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government. IY programmes also gain funding from the Gwynedd Safe Communities Fund. Ms Jones says, 'We take a maximum of 12 parents on each programme. We have had some courses where 11 parents have completed the programme and others where only five have completed. This term we are running our eleventh and twelfth programmes.

Ms Jones says, 'We take a maximum of 12 parents on each programme. We have had some courses where 11 parents have completed the programme and others where only five have completed. This term we are running our eleventh and twelfth programmes.

'The programme is a collaborative one. The two leaders do not set themselves up as experts but work together with the parents to draw out information and experience which will help other parents. Each session covers a specific topic and we build up on the previous week's session.

'The first three weeks concentrate on play, the following three on praise and rewards. Short video clips are shown of parents interacting with their children, demonstrating some of the 'parenting tools' discussed during the session. We then move on to setting limits and giving instructions, and finally in the last three weeks to deal with unwanted behaviour and how to problem solve with children.

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