Parent Network Scotland
Boys playing in leaves

Agencies

How can you work with us?

We recognise we can best improve family relationships in Scotland by working collaboratively with voluntary, statutory and professional agencies. We bring knowledge, skills, proven courses, information resources and expertise in parenting issues to our partnerships, along with a willingness to share and learn from other organisations.

We are open to working in partnership with your organisation by:

  • Delivering parenting courses to individual parents, client groups or organisations, designed to 'plug the gaps' in existing provision.
  • Providing information and resources to assist parents and organisations.
  • Delivering training for parent facilitators and supporting them to deliver courses and other services to parents.
  • Collaborating on the development of national and local policies relating to education and family life.
  • Supporting local parent participation in relevant forums and groups.
  • Providing quality assurance, monitoring, evaluation and feedback.

What do you need to do to run a course with us?

We are happy to discuss specially adapting our courses to suit your organisations individual needs. We can combine or modify courses to focus upon specific issues or deal with certain issues. Equally, we are able to adapt group sizes and course delivery to suit the needs of individual participants. If you wish to host one of our courses, either for parents or professionals, please contact Jackie Tolland, our Development Manager. If you wish to discuss adapting a course, please describe your requirements in the additional information section of the proposal. Alternatively, you are welcome to contact our Development Manager to discuss your options.

Once you have registered your interest, we will contact you to discuss your requirements in detail. Our contracts clearly set out what we can expect from each other to help ensure the course is a success. This helps us both to ensure that the parents we work with gain maximum benefit from the course they will be attending.

We are keen to discuss your ideas as to how we might work in partnership together, so please get in touch.

Agencies we have worked with:

Testimonials


One-Plus, Glasgow

UMOJA Saturday Group benefited from two excellent Parent Network courses in 2005. After painstaking liaison and preparation, Mary McConnell organised tutors for Supporting Children through Change and Loss, and Coping with Teenage Issues. The participants presented particular challenges, but Steph Mayo and Jackie Tolland worked effectively and patiently to include and involve everyone. The group has been meeting weekly for five years, but none of the activities or programmes had ever engaged them in quite the same way as the Parent Network sessions. The families came earlier and in greater numbers to fully join in each and every activity. The tutors put considerable thought into working with language, cultural and ability distinctions, and the results were brilliant! UMOJA Saturday Group is unfunded and could never have paid for the course delivery without the generous support of Parent Network. Very powerful work was done with a group of extremely destitute and isolated mothers and children. We have used some of the art work and designs Steph inspired for a new project "UMOJA Little Book of Food" and the banner we made with Jackie debuted at the St Andrew's Day Rally with twenty women and children walking beside it. The photographers crowded around and snapped countless photographs of the banner and families, so Parent Network will probably see the evidence of their outstanding contribution in magazines in future. We are all great fans of Parent Network and feel hugely empowered as parents by the work we did on the two relevant and well organised courses. We would like to thank the organisation, the development officer and the tutors for all their efforts on our behalf.
Vicky Grandon

CyBil Project, Tranent

Parent Network Scotland organised a course for parents with children who have been diagnosed with Autism and ADHD. The group of parents meet on a fortnightly basis to offer each other support as well as have speakers on a regular basis. Through evaluation of the group I learned that the course was well planned and the content was aimed at the participants. The course material was in the form of handouts that were very informative. The facilitator used various press cuttings to promote discussion and this successfully encouraged participation by all members of the group. The content of the materials used in the course were appropriate to the needs of the group and they included information on ADHD, Autism in young children as well as teenagers. The facilitator expanded this to include emotions and how younger age groups differ from teenagers as she explained that teenagers could have very mixed emotions. The group also commented that the facilitator made clever use of their feedback on their children's week and how they believed that this was well thought out and planned.
The overall comments on the delivery of this course were that it was excellent. The facilitator gave the group some useful ideas to use at home that would become apparent in the long term. They found this course highly informative and would certainly participate again in the future if anything were to be offered.
Thank you for the training, it has been very successful.
Jan Anderson

South Side Community Centre

We have been very impressed with the high level of professionalism and skill brought to our adult education programme by tutors provided through our connections with Parent Network Scotland. We have organised several classes aimed at assisting parents and carers to grow more confident in dealing with the complex issues of parenthood in modern society. The feedback from those who have attended the courses have been very positive with each attendee feeling better equipped to improve their relationships with their youngsters.
The courses were always well organised, designed around the group's needs and were supported with helpful handouts. We viewed them as being excellent value for money and I look forward to having another course in the Centre in the very near future.
Keith Smith

Covey

Parent Network Scotland were very flexible in their approach when delivering courses for us. We ran courses in 2003 and 2004 and then continued with a support group for 6 months till the end of 2004.
The material was very relevant because of the flexibility and Patrick, who delivered the course and facilitated the group, quickly established a rapport with all.
The parents really did benefit saying that they were calmer and felt more able to deal with the challenges. The immediate results that I observed in terms of parent confidence were remarkable.
I would rate Parent Network Scotland and their service high in listening and adapting to the clients and participants needs and high in the delivery and usefulness of the material.
Rhoda Reid

Key Services

Courses for Professionals

For more information, contact:
Jackie Tolland, Development Manager.

Find out more About Us

Emergency Support

If you are in a crisis and in need of immediate support you can contact:
Parentline Scotland: 0808 800 2222
The Samaritans: 08457 90 90 90
See our links page for useful contacts.

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