What is EPEC?
High quality parenting
programs are a proven way of intervening early to optimise children’s chances
in life, and Empowering Parents Empowering Communities (EPEC) delivers a
carefully structured program in a uniquely effective way. Parents talk to other
parents as a first choice when seeking information and communication is more
credible when presented by ‘someone like me’.
EPEC is a community-based
program training local parents to run parenting groups (in pairs) through early
years and parenting focused services. Parent Facilitators trained to work in
the EPEC program are employed, supported and supervised by a specially trained
practitioner within a local community organisation.
Developed and tested by the UK
Centre for Parent and Child Support, EPEC encompasses the best of current
theoretical and practical knowledge and provides an alternative model to
practitioner-led parenting interventions. The basic course for all parents with
children aged 2-11 is “Being a Parent”, with 8 x 2.5 hour sessions delivered
according to a structured manual which employs attachment, social learning,
structural, relational and cognitive behavioural theory. Childcare is provided
for children up to age 5. After completing BAP, parents who are interested (about
one fifth in recent trials) can continue to become parent facilitators through a
10-day course. Parent Facilitators’ learning throughout EPEC can be assessed
and accredited against national VET competency units. Parent Facilitators also receive
payment when facilitating.
Peer-led parenting
interventions are uncommon in the Australian context with the vast majority of
parenting focused programs facilitated by practitioners. A UK randomised
control trial found that EPEC significantly reduced children’s behavioural problems
and improved the competencies of parents in a population that was considered to
be disengaged from services. This trial and other UK research has shown
peer-led parenting training groups have a much higher retention rate than
conventional parenting group formats for disengaged parents (Day et al, 2012a;
Hutchings et al, 2007; Scott et al, 2001). Following these promising results,
EPEC was piloted and evaluated in Tasmania between 2011 and 2014. The Tasmanian
evaluation found “parents and parent [peer] facilitators have reported
increases in social, human and identity capital, and communities involved with
EPEC demonstrated increased social capacity around parenting skills” (Winter,
2013 p.38). Parents who completed the Being a Parent Course, the entry level of
EPEC training, reported better listening and more thinking in their dealings
with children, a more optimistic outlook on life, and improved parent-child
relations.
Parents who continued to the
next level of EPEC training, Peer Facilitator Training, reported increased
confidence, optimism, educational and employment pathways, and improved ability
to manage the challenges of daily life (Winter, 2013).
What is unique about EPEC?
EPEC is not
just another parenting program facilitated by professionals. It is an
intervention facilitated by parents that requires practitioners and services to
embrace a culture of practice that includes parents as co-workers,
co-reflectors and co-learners in partnership with professional workers. The
program brings practitioners and parents together as partners in a culture of
shared practice.
EPEC is a model
that challenges traditional hierarchical service constructs and levels the
playing field to enable community members to work alongside practitioners in
the co-delivery of a parenting intervention. The dynamic of local parents
working within the system, alongside practitioners, spans the boundary between
services and families disengaged from the system. The active involvement of Parent
Facilitators in EPEC gives credibility to the system in the eyes of families
that have previously found services difficult to access.
Regular
reflective practice supervision with Parent Facilitators, facilitated by
practitioners, nurtures a respectful culture of shared learning and discovery.
This models and reinforces for parent participants the ongoing nature of
learning for professionals and parents. Through practitioner observations and
reflective practice supervision meetings, Parent Facilitators and the EPEC
practitioners, unfold a more nuanced understanding of their own discoveries in
relation to the impact of parenting behaviours on their children and their
relationship with them.
When EPEC is
provided through a service platform that encourages ongoing social and service
focused interactions with each other (playgroups, other programs), parent
participants and practitioners continue to informally reflect on and practice
key concepts and language that arise from the BAP program. These encounters
serve to keep learning alive and practiced in participants’ parenting.
Governance of EPEC in Australia
Murdoch
Children’s Research Institute (Victoria) is the licensed Australian partner to
CPCS and has responsibility for providing all licencing, implementation support
and training for new EPEC sites in Australia. MCRI works closely with and
reports directly to CPCS in maintaining the quality and fidelity of all
Australian EPEC activity.
When a new EPEC
site is developed the following phases are likely to occur:
PHASE 1 –
Is the site fully informed and ready for EPEC?
- MCRI
supports the potential new EPEC site to consider what is required to
successfully implement an EPEC hub. This will likely occur through a series of
meetings, and might include information sessions, a local EPEC seminar, a site
visit and the completion of a ‘Readiness Assessment for EPEC’ reflective task
and information gathering.
-
Auspicing
organisations must be locally credible services with a history of supporting
families in the focus community and must be able to demonstrate:
-
A practice
culture of partnership and strength-based approaches to working with families
-
A commitment to
community development
-
An ability to
support parents to transition from being service recipients to co-workers in
the delivery of EPEC
-
A capacity to
employ parent facilitators and provide relevant employee supervision and
support for para-professionals.
PHASE 2 –
A decision has been made to progress with EPEC
- The
new EPEC auspicing organisation enters into a formal Licence and Service Agreement
with MCRI. This agreement outlines:
- specific quality standards necessary
for ongoing use of the EPEC name and materials
- the level and type of support necessary to
implement EPEC in the new site. All Australian based EPEC support is provided by
MCRI
- This
Agreement is normally renewable after two years.
PHASE 3 –
Establishing and implementing the new EPEC site over two years
- A
variety of training events and support processes are put in place by MCRI in
partnership with the auspicing agency in the new EPEC site to ensure
stakeholders involved are properly resourced and trained to deliver EPEC to the
highest possible standards (refer to New EPEC Sites Support document).
-
Ongoing
access to an Australian EPEC learning community of practitioners is facilitated
by MCRI.
-
It
is expected that auspicing organisations will assume responsibility for
sustaining EPEC beyond the initial implementation phase.
PHASE 4 –
Maintaining the EPEC site
- All
EPEC sites are required to maintain formal current agreements with MCRI.
-
Ongoing
basic level of support is necessary and provided through agreement with MCRI.
-
All
EPEC sites are required to participate in annual quality standards review
processes and provide high quality evaluative data (electronically) to the UK
authors of up to five (5) Being a Parent courses per annum. Reports for each
course are generated and forwarded to the EPEC site by CPCS.
-
EPEC
sites can contract MCRI for further practitioner training and support as
required.
Requirements of an EPEC auspicing organisation
To
enable efficient and effective program implementation and development,
auspicing organisations will be required to make the following contributions:
Resourcing
|
Assume responsibility
for the financial and personnel resourcing necessary to implement and
maintain the EPEC program. These costs
vary according to scale.
|
Staffing
|
Staff members who are
appropriately qualified and committed to the implementation and development
of a peer-led parenting intervention. These practitioners will be flexible,
adaptable, and demonstrate a capacity to enable parents to work alongside
them as team members.
Auspicing
organisations are also asked to nominate a representative from management who
can invest time in familiarising themselves with EPEC, support the EPEC
practitioners in the development of the program, and ensure all reporting and
quality assurance measures are achieved.
|
Induction &
training
|
Practitioners who will
manage the EPEC program are required to undertake an initial training /
induction, facilitated by MCRI. This training equips them with the tools and
knowledge to develop the EPEC site, attract parents to the program, and
deliver the preliminary implementation BAP courses.
The same practitioners
receive further training prior to facilitating the first parent facilitator
course.
|
Physical space
|
Access to training
facilities that would be deemed appropriate for the delivery of adult
learning with kitchen, toilets, and an adjoining space in which children can be
provided with adjunct care (whilst parents participate in the program).
|
Supervision
|
Once parents are
trained and employed as EPEC facilitators, the EPEC practitioners provide
ongoing oversight of the program including observation of the BAP sessions and
reflective supervision of the parent facilitators.
|
Insurance
|
All activity that
comprises the EPEC program must be covered by relevant insurance cover.
|
Adjunct Care
|
Parents participating
in or delivering EPEC training should be provided with appropriate, high
quality adjunct care for all children under school entry age. Given the nature of the intervention, it is
not appropriate for babies older than a few months to be present during BAP
sessions.
|
Catering
|
All training delivered
as part of EPEC requires access to appropriate refreshments for the comfort
of participants.
|
EPEC implementation
MCRI
supports auspicing organisations to implement and sustain EPEC in each
site. EPEC employs a tiered strategy which
builds the capacity of auspicing organisations to improve parenting skills and
confidence and empower parents to play a more active role in their local
communities.
Implementing
a new EPEC site involves the following steps:
- MCRI delivers
practitioner training to staff who will coordinate EPEC at the new site (approximately
five days depending on skills and experience of practitioners). The
practitioners must be experienced in working from a strengths-based framework
with families experiencing complex needs and have experience in the
facilitation of adult training. The initial training focuses on familiarising
participants with the content of the ‘Being a Parent’ (BAP) course, strategies
for the facilitation of BAP and setting up an EPEC hub.
-
The group of
trained practitioners will then deliver the first practitioner-led ‘Being a
Parent’ courses to groups of 6-12 parents.
-
MCRI provides
ongoing support and quality review processes throughout the implementation
phase.
-
The EPEC
practitioners will undertake an additional three-day training delivered by MCRI
to enable them to coordinate and facilitate the first parent facilitator
training.
-
Parents who have
participated in the BAP courses can apply to become parent facilitators.
Successful applicants will go on to complete the 60 hour (over 10 days) Peer
Facilitator training, enabling those parents to deliver Being a Parent courses
to other parents in their local communities.
- The EPEC licence
agreement provides for ongoing review and support of progress at the local
level conducted by MCRI in Australia.
Resources
EPEC information sheet (PDF)
EPEC video
Contact
Please
reach out to the Training and Development team via training.ccch@rch.org.au for further
details regarding EPEC. A member of our team would be delighted to talk with
you about how EPEC might be established in your community.