Who are our Facilitators?

All Parent Network Scotland's courses are delivered by specially trained parent facilitators. Our facilitator's are parents or carers who have initially completed our core course, Parenting Matters, and gained something useful from the experience. Those who have shown potential as facilitators or expressed an interest are then either offered further development opportunities or invited to apply for facilitator assessment. Not everyone is accepted first time round - the work we do is too important for compromise. However, everyone is given constructive feedback and offered opportunities for further development and training where appropriate.

We are looking for exceptional people, those who have shown existing ability or strong potential in listening skills, group working, facilitating and supporting others through personal change. In addition, we expect all our facilitators to display an empathetic, non-judgemental approach towards parents coupled with the ability to appropriately challenge and maintain personal and group boundaries in what can sometimes be demanding circumstances. Facilitators are expected to develop professional relationships across multiple agencies and disciplines, keep appropriate records, participate in monitoring and evaluation of courses and undertake appropriate support and supervision. Perhaps above anything else, we expect our facilitators to be reflective practitioners, solid professional and passionate about the work we do.

If it sounds like we are asking for the world, you are right! We recognise that we ask a lot of our facilitators, but rightly so. Many of the parents we work with are in a difficult place: exhausted, frustrated, angry, and sometimes hopeless. Others are less 'wrung out', but beginning to worry they are failing their children; scared, confused and struggling to find a way forward. It takes exceptional people to support these parents through embarrassment, suspicion and defensiveness towards relaxing, trusting the group and opening up to new ideas. For some parents, the route to accessing a parenting course has been painful, frightening, even humiliating. It takes someone special to support these parents in engaging and moving forward within the group setting. So, yes, we do expect a lot of our facilitators - but we believe it's what these parents deserve.

All our facilitators will have completed our core course Parenting Matters as well as an intensive 12 day facilitation training programme. All facilitators complete a Facilitator Assessment prior to approval and are required to maintain a high level of professional practice. This entails keeping appropriate records, participating in monitoring and evaluation and undertaking ongoing professional development and training. All facilitators receive ongoing observation, supervision and support from a dedicated Facilitator Supervisor, to ensure all courses maintain excellent standards

They then work on a freelance basis, delivering contracted, private and licenced courses throughout Scotland to parents from all walks of life.

Our facilitators are based throughout Scotland from Inverness to the Borders and represent a broad cross-section of the parents who attend our courses. While many currently work within the public and private sectors, an equal number are parents from out with these sectors who wish to support other parents in making positive changes in their family relationships.

We believe that...

• The 'perfect parent' simply doesn't exist, but that all of us can make simple changes to encourage positive experiences for both our children and ourselves.
• Every parent deserves respect, empathy and support to make positive changes in their family relationships. We accept that life is a journey upon which we learn and grow as individuals and as parents. Part of this development can mean accepting difficult experiences or recognising that we would wish to do certain things differently in the future. We believe the point of power is always in the present and that all of us have the ability to change.
• Parents learn best in supportive, friendly and non-threatening environments. By delivering our courses through parent facilitators as opposed to 'experts' or 'teachers', we have found that the courses are more acceptable to those parent who might otherwise struggle in an authoritative or more prescriptive environment. Facilitator's personal experiences of the core Parenting Matters course and of parenting (and being parented) themselves gives them invaluable insight into both the 'group experience' and the realities of parenting. Where we offer courses focusing on specific issues such as supporting children through change and loss, teenagers or ADHD, facilitators are typically matched in accordance with personal experience.
• That parents are the experts in raising their own children. In helping parents recognise and value their existing skills, we believe parent are best prepared to make sustainable change. We do not blame, we do not 'tell people what to do' and we do not try to show parents one 'correct' way to parent. What we do is offer new strategies and options which help parents explore fresh alternatives to existing parenting patterns. We believe this is the most effective way for parents to explore issues and make sustainable changes that are meaning full to them.
• That we are all doing the best we can... but that sometimes, our best isn't safe enough for either ourselves as parents or for our children. We believe in responding to those experiences honestly, responsibly and with sensitivity.

To register your interest in our Facilitator Training, please complete our Contact Us form and tick the "Facilitator Training" box.