Parents' and practitioners' perceptions about Early Intervention for children, from conception to 6 years, within the health and welfare sector.

This study will explore the meaning that parents and practitioners have about Early Intervention. This will include finding a shared understanding, developing a shared definition, and deciding how 'early' Early Intervention is. This is necessary because defining Early Intervention is difficult. Firstly, there are multiple definitions which focus on positive and negative aspects: the positive aspects include children developing skills for the future and the negative aspects include preventing problems from occurring. Secondly, there are different words that are used, including ‘early help' and prevention. Thirdly, there are different views about when families should receive Early Intervention: during pregnancy, after birth or throughout childhood. Fourthly, parents’ views about Early Intervention are rarely sought. Usually, parents are consulted about their experiences once a service has been received (for example, home visiting programmes or parenting programme).

This in-depth study will focus on parents and carers who have children under 7 years old; are experiencing problems (for example, domestic abuse or mental ill-health or substance mis-use); and are working with more than one professional. Professionals will have experience working with families and be employed in a Local Authority, the NHS and voluntary organisations. Parents and practitioners can choose to take part in a focus group or semi-structured interview. Each person may be asked to take part in another focus group or interview in order to provide more information about their experiences. Similarly, the participants will be asked to comment on the understanding the researcher has about their experiences. Each person will be involved in the study for about  three hours: this will comprise three, one-hour sessions. The study will commence from September 2022 until March 2023.