Triple P and the University of Warwick secure £1.6m funding to support families of teenagers 

Triple P UK and the University of Warwick have secured £1.6m of funding from the Youth Endowment Fund to deliver a programme supporting families and caregivers of teenagers, with the aim of building supportive home environments. 

The funding comes from the Supportive Home Grant, a partnership between the YEF and Comic Relief, which recognises the positive role parents and the home environment can play in helping young people experience positive mental health and keeping young people safe. 

The programme will work with 275 families across six Local Authorities - Birmingham, Cambridgeshire, Gloucestershire, the London Borough of Merton, Peterborough, and Wirral. 

The evaluation seeks to build on the existing evidence for the Teen Triple P programme, and launches this Spring. The programme will aim to help parents and families of teenagers reduce family conflict and build a supportive family home in and around the edge-of-care (e.g. at risk of going into care). A Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) evaluation design will be used to robustly test the outcomes achieved from Teen Triple P.

120 practitioners will work with parents and other caregivers to enhance their skills to support teenagers’ emotional regulation, which supports the way we manage and respond to stress or overwhelming situations. Parents will also learn how to support teenagers to make good decisions, minimise risk taking behaviour, and develop better communication skills. 

Research conducted by Triple P has demonstrated that three in four parents believe there is a stigma around asking for help in how to raise their children. Whether through Teen Triple P or the additional courses available from birth, Triple P are looking to make parenting programmes the ‘norm’. They are looking to the new Family Hubs to play a major role in combating stigma and encouraging an open dialogue around parenting support.

Matt Buttery, CEO of Triple P UK, said: 

“It is great to see the YEF and Comic Relief recognising the crucial role families play in supporting a teenager’s development through the allocation of this funding. We are all so excited to be part of this project to strengthen supportive home environments and to further trial Teen Triple P. 

Triple P is dedicated to putting positive parenting solutions into the hands of parents and carers, and this is an opportunity to take this work further, and make a difference to families for whom extra support is so important.”

Jon Yates, Executive Director of the Youth Endowment Fund, said: 

“Every child deserves a life free from violence. If we’re going to achieve our mission and make that a reality, we need to make sure every child grows up in the supportive home they deserve. 

The investment that we’re making with Comic Relief in Triple P gives us a unique opportunity to learn how we can best support children on the edge of care. We’re proud to invest in a project that, together, will help us build an understanding of how we can support some of the most vulnerable children, who have often experienced adversity very early in their lives, so that they get the services and support they need to keep safe from involvement in violence.”

Professor Kylie Gray and Dr Paul Thompson are joint leads of the research evaluation from the University of Warwick, Professor Gray said: “We are excited to be partnering with Triple P and the YEF on a project to help parents and teenagers build supportive family home environments. We are extremely grateful for the support from the YEF and Comic Relief to be able to conduct this work." Dr Thompson added: "This support enables us to run an RCT evaluation of the Teen Triple P programme from the University of Warwick. Importantly, this will provide high quality evidence to inform local authorities’ support for vulnerable teenagers and their families across the UK, which will make important and real differences for families.”

Cover photo from Canva