We are a world-renowned centre of excellence and innovation, dedicated to improving outcomes for families.
Our Centre
We are based at the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Directorate, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London and have close ties with the Child and Adolescent Health Service Research Unit, King’s College, London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Department of Psychology.
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest NHS foundation trusts in the UK specialising in mental health, with a long-standing reputation for clinical excellence and innovation. Through world-class research, education and training, King’s College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience is at the forefront of global understanding of mental health, its prevention and effective intervention.
Our work covers a wide range of manualised parenting and family assessment, intervention and practice approaches from pregnancy to adolescence
Established in 2001 with funding from Impact on Urban Health (then Guy’s and Thomas’ Charitable Foundation), the breadth of our work has grown substantially.
The Centre’s work now covers a wide range of manualised parenting and family assessment, intervention and practice approaches from pregnancy to adolescence, including the Family Partnership Model, the portfolio of Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities (EPEC) parenting programmes, the Antenatal/Postnatal Promotional Guide System and the Helping Families Programme.
We work directly with parents and carers, both individually and in groups, and with neighbourhoods and communities. Through training, development and dissemination, we partner with a large number of organisations, service providers, teams and practitioners in the UK and globally. Our approaches have been translated and culturally adapted for many different populations, communities and language groups across the world.
Our Values
Children deserve to live in safe, caring environments that enable them to grow and flourish. Parents, carers, families and those who support them have the right to useful, helpful and effective knowledge, expertise and support.
From the everyday demands to the most serious of issues, parents and families are most likely to succeed when their knowledge, experiences and capabilities are combined with the evidence-based knowledge, expertise and experience of those providing help and support.
Our People
Led by Professor Crispin Day, Ms Jo Nicoll and Dr Joanna Gibbons, the Centre is a diverse group of clinicians, practitioners, parents and researchers with backgrounds in mental health, social care and community work. We work across health, social care, non-statutory and charitable sectors in the UK and internationally, sharing our expertise in parenting, child and family development, training and dissemination, and organisational development to deliver improved outcomes for children and their families.
We work everyday with families and the practitioners, teams, services and communities that adopt our approaches to parenting.