SCIE media releases 2006
NICE and SCIE issue guidance to help parents and carers who have children with conduct disorders
26 July 2006
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) today issue joint guidance on how parent training/education programmes can help in the management of children with conduct disorders.
The guidance recommends group-based parent training/education programmes in the management of conduct disorders in children under 12 years old, or in children with a developmental age of under 12. Individual-based parent training/education programmes are recommended only where the family's needs are too complex for group-based programmes, or where there are particular problems in engaging with the parents. The main goals of parent training/education programmes are to enable parents, or the main carer, to improve their relationship with the child and to improve the child's behaviour.
Children with conduct disorders exhibit persistent and repetitive antisocial, aggressive and defiant behaviour, which may include destroying property, theft, deceitfulness or serious rule breaking. This behaviour is more serious than ordinary childhood mischief or teenage rebelliousness and needs to be diagnosed by a specialist. Children with conduct disorders are also more likely to experience a range of related health and social problems in adulthood.
Andrea Sutcliffe, NICE Executive Lead for this guidance, said:
"NICE is delighted to produce this guidance in collaboration with SCIE, to help parents and carers who have children with conduct disorders.
"Many children with conduct disorders will have problems that persist into adolescence and adulthood, resulting in future health and social problems for the child, their families and society. Effectively addressing the situation in childhood benefits not only the families involved, but also creates cost savings for a range of public services, including health, social care and education.
"This guidance recognises the importance of partnership working across health, social care and other sectors to ensure that parents and carers get the support they need."
Head of Knowledge Services at SCIE, Amanda Edwards, said:
"This guidance creates an important chance to highlight that there is effective support for parents and carers who have children with conduct disorders. This is a significant issue. Alongside potential future health problems, data shows around 40% of children with conduct disorders become young offenders later in life and that almost all young offenders have a past history of conduct disorders during childhood.
"SCIE welcomes this opportunity to work with NICE. Ensuring that knowledge and guidance is in place to support staff working in health and social care is vital and will help to ensure that this type of support is available for families."
- Click here to access the guidance on how parent training/education programmes can help in the management of children with conduct disorders.
For more information contact
SCIE: Annie Goss on 020 7089 7117 or 07739 458 192 or annie.goss@scie.org.uk
NICE: Dr Tonya Gillis on 020 7067 5937 or tonya.gillis@nice.org.uk
About SCIE
SCIE and NICE agreed a formal partnership in 2003. Both organisations work to share knowledge, issue joint guidance where appropriate and support the dissemination of each others work.
About NICE
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is the independent organisation responsible for providing national guidance on promoting good health and preventing and treating ill health.
NICE produces guidance in three areas of health:
- public health - guidance on the promotion of good health and the prevention of ill health for those working in the NHS, local authorities and the wider public and voluntary sector
- health technologies - guidance on the use of new and existing medicines, treatments and procedures within the NHS
- clinical practice - guidance on the appropriate treatment and care of people with specific diseases and conditions within the NHS.
About the guidance
The guidance is available at www.nice.org.uk.
The estimated prevalence of conduct disorders is 6.9% for boys and 2.8% for girls aged between 5 and 10 years old. In children aged between 11 and 16 years old the figures rise slightly to 8.1% in boys and 5.1% in girls. Conduct disorders need to be diagnosed by a specialist in the area of behaviour disorders.
Around half of children with conduct disorders will be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorders as adults, and others will receive diagnoses including substance misuse, schizophrenia and depressive disorders. Children with conduct disorders are also at a high risk of experiencing future disadvantage through poor school achievement, long term unemployment, juvenile delinquency and crime.
The programmes are run by healthcare or social care professionals, or sometimes by suitably trained staff from voluntary agencies, in a hospital, community or home setting, either in a group or individually. Some of the features that the guidance recommends all group-based and individual programmes should include are that they:
- be based on principles of social learning theory (an approach to learning that includes learning from observing other people)
- include ways of improving family relationships
- include role play during sessions and homework between sessions so that parents can apply what they have learnt to their own family's situation
- be given by people who are suitably trained, skilled and supervised
In addition, there should be good independent evidence that programmes work well, and programme providers should ensure there is support to help parents take part if they would find it difficult to do so otherwise.
The NHS will have 2 years to fund this work instead of the usual 3 months which normally applies to NICE appraisal guidance.
