Peaky Parents / Kactus Kids - formerly known as Your Child Freedom Programme (YCFF) and other previous names - Child anxiety programme

[Daaxy]

My son was showing signs of anxiety and I was looking for help for him. I came across an ad on Facebook - Kids Anxiety Disorder Solutions. I watched an hour long webinar and then had a lengthy telephone appointment - this was the point that Peaky Parents was introduced.. The programme comes very close to guaranteeing that your child will be cured within around 8 weeks. it costs either £2500 or £5500 depending on the level of support your child needs. Some aspects of the engagement/sales process with Peaky Parents made me feel uncomfortable - I wanted to do some research on the company before signing up. I came across the link referred to at the start of the thread which has lots of views and information about YCFF, now Peaky Parents.

I would not have come across this information if at the time I had just been researching Peaky Parents. I do not know the reason for the name change.

Radio 4, File on 4, is broadcasting a programme on 21/9/21 at 8pm called Mental Health Profiteers - based on this organisation I believe.

If you are thinking of signing up with Peaky Parents I would suggest you look at the YCFF thread before making a decision.

Concerns expressed about Peaky Parents on the YCFF link include:-

high pressure selling to vulnerable people - specific aim to create a 'marketing machine' to sell this online programme

encouraging vulnerable parents to put themselves under financial pressure to raise funds for the programme

bold statements, approaching a guarantee, that the programme will work, with no evidence to back this up

blaming parents for the programme not succeeding for their child
lack of qualifications held within the organisation

young people giving personal video reviews

lack of professionalism - emotive language designed evoke guilt

criticism of other professional services

no regulation

I know. There’s a bit somewhere about safeguarding certified. Don’t even know what that means. And I know about safeguarding. Same with the clinical trial wording. It’s like Sam has tried to get it right but sort of got subtle bits wrong. Enough that if you have experience of it then you’ll spot the errors. But if you don’t have experience of that world then you might think it sounds official and knowledgable. Same old typos too!

Ugh little it's like wackamole isn't it, the way they keep popping up all over the place. I'm sure someone from there will be along soon to tell us "mum's" we have too much time on our hands and should get off MN and stop scrutinizing them.

I started to watch the Young Minds webinar but couldn’t bear it.

It’s just like wackamole. I looked at the tomwill holdings accounts. Don’t look like they’ve made much money. The opposite in fact. Which is weird coz Martin claimed on the high ticket selling fb group that they were making £90k a month or something.

I wonder whether in saying 'GDPR certified' they are actually trying to get readers to think 'DBS checked'? Until you mentioned it that one had passed me by...

It's so frustrating. If they only advertised themselves as a self help group of people who have been through it, without all the flimflam and high costs it would be fine.

That Tomwill holdings page is wierd. It's just empty language and doesn't actually say anything. It seems to be linked with that company Funding Falcon and I wondered if Tomwill holdings page is just there to give an air of legitimacy to both companies.
fundingfalcon.co.uk/

Funding Falcon appears to be a real company but I did notice they have used the "FSB" logo on their site, which I immediately assumed was 'financial services bureau' but is actually 'federation of small businesses'. Maybe I was on too much of a high alert, after the Young Vibes website, but that seems like another dishonest way to give the air of legitimacy.

Jeezo I know teen (and hi by the way )

Tbh, even the high costs wouldn't be a problem IMO if they were honest and upfront about what they actually are! People could then make an informed choice about whether they spend their money on this or not.

Do you remember when they had that fake NHS logo on one of their websites? So wouldn’t surprise me if some of it was fake on this too

And the other thing, it would all be fine if they were honest!! But there have been so many dishonest things that have happened. Which show they clearly don’t have integrity as people. And that is always one of my main criteria in thinking about who to get support from.

Ugh snakes, yes I do remember that. it's so disheartening to see them continuing with the same dodgy practices.

It really is disheartening! And in the meantime, there are parents and kids out there trying to get support for anxiety and not getting any.

I feel like I've given them the benefit of the doubt so many times. I naturally default to seeing the good in people, and err on the side of thinking that people in general have good intentions but these people have shown themselves time and again to be dishonest and manipulative.

100%

Me too. But I don’t now. It’s just a money making thing. I feel like there needs to be a Tv documentary about it now. Would help get the word out.

Hello all,

It’s me

I’ve not posted yet as I know as soon as I do I’ll be drawn back into this (but not for good reason!).

Just a few notes:

• see reviews on Trustpilot for ‘Young vibes’uk.trustpilot.com/review/youngvibes.co.uk
• I am in contact with the person who raised the complaint with the ASA. I believe TW (Tomwill holdings) are in breach of this ruling so I’ll ask them to contact the ASA and alert them to this newest incarnation.
• It looks like the website www.stopadolescentanxiety.com/copy-of-faq-s was aborted and youngvibes used instead as it’s unfinished.
• I’ve asked another contact to report trustpilot of the unauthorised use of reviews from another company name (YCFF/Peaky Patents) which is in breach of their terms.
• TW incorporated another company recently (see link): A tribe of good people. I can’t see a privacy policy on the youngvibes site so am unsure which Ltd company they are operating through. find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/13656574
• Tomwills last submitted accounts only run up to March 2021 therefore won’t include the income they ‘bragged’ about as this only kicked in early that year. I await their latest accounts with interest (sadly not due until Dec-22)

I’m receiving a few PMs from those who are using the latest service but I’ve obtained scant information so far about any improvements.

I’m also keen to understand how the ‘clinical trials’ are being conducted. This does not strike me as meeting any of the right criteria for this. A simple pre/post completion of the GAD7 does not make a clinical trial!

Happy Sunday all

That script!

Regardless of all the other issues, that script is not a support script or en enquiries script it's a sales pitch! An underhanded (you NEED new windows) sales pitch. It's not about helping, it's all about the money and badgering and emotionally blackmailing people until they do part with their money, pressuring them to get into debt and paying more than they can afford.

Sorry the trustpilot link didn’t work so here it is again:

uk.trustpilot.com/review/youngvibes.co.uk

Interesting to note that TW only registered with the ICO on 17-Jul-21!!! I knew they weren’t registered prior to that..!

Hello again (I knew I would get 'sucked back in'!),

Yesterday a freind asked a question on the Young Vibes website chat regarding who their Psychotherapist is. Here is the reply:

Dear , We have several but our main Integrated Child Psychotherapist is Davina Townley. The clinical trials are GAD7. May we ask ask to where your interest lies in these questions? We are keen to work alongside those who are interested in how we recover children. All our families have been through the traditional routes and have found their children worsening from the experience. Really keen to hear in more detail the reason for your enquiry. Many thanks.
Julie Hammond.
Head Client Services

I did a search for this lady but could nto find her practising anywehere and apart from a listing (with no contact details) on UKCP, I drew a blank. Anyone find out anything else?

Hi good

Wow that reply is very spiky and defensive isn't it?

I couldn't find Davina Townley anywhere either. Normally an organisation like this would be going out of its way to let potential customers know about their staff and relevant qualifications. Why are they being so cagey?

The clinical trials thing is just deceitful words to try and make them sound more legitimate. Trials have already been done for the GAD-7 screening tool. (See attached screenshot)

@IdontWanna. Welcome to the shady world of the Robinss and their many companies. Did you listen to the BBC documentary www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000zt9y

It's quite eye opening. Agree with you, they were running their business on a high ticket coaching model, focussed on high pressure sales targeting a vulnerable audience. Whether any of that has changed with this new incarnation remains to be seen.

Fucking he’ll good! That response is worse than expected. Trying to question your friend about them doing due diligence

To be fair, just because clinical trials have been done, doesn't mean that more trials can't be done for using it in a different way.

(Or I suppose maybe they mean they are part of a proper clinical trial of their methods using the GAD-7 screening as the evaluation tool. But if so you'd think they would be more clear, and state which research organisation is overseeing the trial.)

Exactly teen; I’m pretty sure they need to follow certain protocols for it to be considered as a clinical trial.

Then it would need to be written up wouldn’t it?

I wonder if any permission is required to use the GAD7 as measuring tool for research? And it doesn’t seem like an appropriate measure in order to prove the outcome works?

Hmmmm - we could benefit from an academic on this thread who knows about this sort of stuff?! My therapist friend may know as she did primary research for her Masters degree. I’ll ask her .

I have no idea on details of trials. They wouldn't need to put everything on their website though, just be open with participants.