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:

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.