“Health Coaching helps people gain and use the knowledge, skills, tools and confidence to become active participants in their care so that they can reach their self-identified health and wellbeing goals.” NHS England
Parent coaching
Parents know their child best and are the ‘experts’ in their family life.
We will work with you to develop ways to support your child in learning the skills they want to do or need to do.
Parent coaching groups
If you are invited to one of our parent coaching groups, please complete the following workbook before attending the group. It is really important that you complete the correct workbook before attending each session of the group. Please contact occupational therapy on 0203 989 1954 if you any have difficulties completing the workbook.
The workbooks can be found here:
Frequently asked questions about parent groups
If you have difficulties opening the workbook or logging into the group, please call the Occupational Therapy department on 020 3049 8181 for support.
This is an interactive group which involves discussions between the Occupational Therapist (OT) and families to help problem solve and come up with strategies to support each of the family’s one specific goal. In the first session, we will use videos and a case study to teach you a model which will help to facilitate these discussions. We will then work together to problem solve each family’s goal to identify strategies to support the child’s development.
This can vary depending on the group but usually between 3-8 families
Once the group is scheduled, our occupational therapy team will contact and notify you of the dates and times. The groups are generally scheduled for 1.5 to 2 hours between 9:30am-3pm, Monday-Friday. If these times are unsuitable for you please let us know as soon as possible by calling therapy admin on 020 3049 8181.
There are 3 sessions in total with an opportunity for an opt-in session following the group.
Groups are run once a week for 3 straight weeks. The groups usually take place at the same time, on the same day. For example, one group might run on:
- Session 1: Monday 7 January at 10am
- Session 2: Monday 14 January at 10am
- Session 3: Monday 21 January at 10am.
If you are unable to attend sessions that take place at the same time, on the same day for 3 weeks (for example due to working varied shift patterns, childcare, etc), please let us know as soon as possible by calling therapy admin on 020 3049 8181.
We usually aim to run the group between 1-1.5 hours.
Yes you do. If you are unable to attend a session, please let us know as soon as possible by calling therapy admin on 020 3049 8181. If you do not attend the session and/or we do not hear from you, you will be discharged from the service.
Please contact the therapy admin team at 020 3049 8181 to inform us you can’t attend. You will then be offered an alternative group up to 3 times. If after 3 times you are still unable to attend the sessions, please contact our team to discuss.
Yes! We encourage other carers that support your child’s identified goal to join our discussions.
The workbook is a tool to help prepare you for the group discussions as well as to assist you to generate strategies to support your child and their goal. You don’t have to complete it but you will get the most out of the group if you do. We highly encourage everyone to at least take a look at the workbook.
The workbook is a tool to help prepare you for group discussions so you can get the most out of your sessions. You do not need to submit this to the OT team, instead have your notes ready to help support discussions during the group. If you do wish to complete the workbook, you can either write directly into the word document on your laptop/tablet, or you can keep your notes to one side using a notebook and pen. When the session starts, you can refer back to your own notes during the discussion.
You should be able to access the workbook with most devices but if you have do have trouble accessing them, try opening with another device such as your tablet, phone, or personal computer. If you continue to have difficulties opening it, please contact the therapy admin team on 020 3049 8181 for further guidance.
Please test that you can access the Microsoft Teams link with plenty of time before the first session. If you have trouble opening the Microsoft Teams link on your device, try deleting and re-installing the app again. This time ensure that you do not log in to any Microsoft Teams account, please sign in as a 'guest'. You can then attempt to press the link again. If you are still having trouble, please let us know as soon as possible by calling therapy admin on 020 3049 8181.