Parents, carers and families

Joint Birth Registration
On 2 June 2008, the DCSF and DWP jointly published the White Paper Joint Birth Registration: Recording Responsibility which proposes changes to the approach to birth registration for unmarried parents to ensure that wherever possible both parents are named on a child's birth certificate. For more information, and to download the White Paper, go to the DCSF website.

Every Parent Matters - March 2007

Parenting Implementation Project (PIP)
The aim of the Parenting Implementation Project (PIP) is to support local authorities to improve the design, commissioning and delivery of parenting support and services.

Parental Involvement in Children's Education 2007 (published 7 May 2008)
This report summarises the findings from a survey of parents and carers of children, in order to examine parental involvement in children's education.

Child Home Safety Video (DCSF YouTube June 2008)

Parents, carers and families are the most important influence on outcomes for children and young people. The Every Child Matters: Change for Children programme aims to ensure that support for parents becomes routine, particularly at key points in a child or young person's life.

The government, in partnership with local areas, is working to make sure parents and families have access to the support that they need, when they need it, so that all children can benefit from confident, positive and resilient parenting, from birth right through to the teenage years. The steps being taken will help to ensure:

• Good quality universal support, in the form of information, advice and signposting to other services, is available to all parents. It is important that support can be accessed in places where, and ways in which, parents and carers feel comfortable, such as early years settings, schools, primary healthcare services, and through childcare information services, telephone helplines and the web.
  
  
• More specialised targeted support is available at the local level to meet the needs of families and communities facing additional difficulties. Types of support offered could include structured parenting education groups, couple support, home visiting and employment or training advice.
  
  
• All schools actively seek to engage parents in children and young people's education, helping parents to understand what they can do at home to work with the school.
  
  
• Children's centres and extended schools develop a coherent set of services both to support parents and to involve them properly at all stages of a child's learning and development.

Support through multi-agency services

The Change for Children programme is increasing the range of multi-agency services available to children and families, from integrated working within children's centres and extended schools through to multi-agency teams and panels supporting clusters of schools. These are important vehicles for delivering better information and support for parents and carers. If these services are designed with the needs of parents and carers in mind, they are more likely to be accessed and used.

Click to read more about helping parents and carers participate in the development and delivery of multi-agency services.

Parenting support guidance

We have published guidance to support local authorities and children's trusts in their development of parenting support. The guidance will be relevant to those involved in the development of Children and Young People's Plans and those responsible for commissioning and delivering services for parents.

The guidance begins with a summary of what we know about the impact of parenting on outcomes for children, and an overview of the policy context. It then sets out the case for a strategic approach in designing and delivering parenting support services, and explores the concept of a continuum of support.

Parenting Support: Guidance for Local Authorities in England (October 2006)

Commissioners' toolkit: online database of parenting programmes

Commissioners of parenting support in local authorities and other similar roles across England can now use an online toolkit to efficiently identify a range of existing parenting programmes that will help them make better decisions about how to support parents and families in their community.

The toolkit, developed with Parenting UK, enables commissioners to search an up-to-date, easily accessible database of proven, effective parenting programmes across England, which can be replicated in their local area.

Parenting programmes are defined broadly as formal interventions designed to support the parent-child relationship, including practitioner training.

Click to go to the toolkit.

Duty to provide information, advice and assistance

Duty to provide information, advice and assistance: Guidance for local authorities (February 2008)

Statutory guidance on local authorities' duty to provide information, advice and assistance to parents and prospective parents

From 1 April 2008, local authorities will have a duty to provide information, advice and assistance to parents and prospective parents of children and young people up to age 20. This duty is being introduced in section 12 of the Childcare Act 2006.

To fulfil this duty, local authorities will need to:

• Provide information on registered and unregistered childcare
  
  
• Run a brokerage service for parents experiencing difficulties in finding suitable childcare
  
  
• Provide information on other services, facilities and publications which might benefit parents
  
  
• Provide parents of disabled children and children with special educational needs with information on the services, facilities and publications that are available to them
  
  
• Facilitate access to information for parents who might otherwise find it difficult to take up the services they need

The information which local authorities must provide is prescribed in Regulations laid before Parliament on 18th December 2007.

Other relevant documents include: The Childcare Act 2006, and The Childcare Act 2006 (Provision of Information to Parents) (England) Regulations 2007.

National Academy for Parenting Practitioners

The government is establishing a National Parenting Academy to ensure professionals working with parents have the skills necessary to deliver high-quality parenting support.

Click for further information about the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners and to get involved in the early planning process.

Research

Children's Services: The Market for Parental and Family Support Services (August 2006)