Parenting Support (including Family Learning)

Parents have the biggest single influence on their children's lives and are their child's prime educator. Good parenting in the home makes an enormous difference to children's outcomes. Services in extended schools can support parents in this role. Schools which work in partnership with parents to support their children's development can expect significant, consistent and lasting benefits.

Parenting support can be provided in a number of ways:

Information sessions at key transition points
Most schools provide information to parents at transition points. These could be extended to include other school-based issues such as health, behaviour, sex, drugs, alcohol etc. These sessions are often effectively delivered by a third party that is used to working with parents.

Parenting groups
These are groups which use structured programmes, usually over a period of a few weeks, which cover a specific topic. However schools often run more informal sessions for parents to encourage participation and build confidence before undertaking a more structured approach.

Specialised support
This is individual or small group support for parents who might need it e.g. parents whose children have problems with attendance or behaviour at school. This targetted support may be part of a parenting contract.
Information
Schools should provide information on the range of advice and support for parents through national helplines and websites and through the local family support service.

Family Learning
Parents learn new skills alongside their children and find out how they can help their child with school work. Many schools have found that family learninf sessions have helped to improve standards at the school.

The New Kent Children’s Trust Strategy for Supporting Parents

KCC’s Extended Services team has been commissioned by the Kent Children’s Trust to produce the Kent Children's Trust Strategy for Supporting Parents, through extensive consultation with parents and partners. 

This new strategy will make sure that all services that work with children, families, parents and carers work in partnership to help parents be the best that they can and want to be. At the same time we want to make sure that all our services offer good quality support to parents when they need it and in places that parents can get to.

In addition to the strategy, KCC has developed a Kent Children’s Trust Charter for Parents, which has been developed in consultation with parents and carers across Kent. This charter will outline parents' rights and what support and treatment they should expect from services in Kent. It will also describe what parents see as their commitments to their children.

• The Parents' Summary
• The Parents' Charter
• Strategy for Supporting Parents - Thinking Family

Key Guidelines

• Schools can provide support directly or signpost parents to provision offered by other schools or by voluntary, community, private or LA partners.
• Provision should be, where possible, tailored to the needs of parents who would benefit from it.
• Even where demand is not initially evident schools should be working to ensure that fathers and mothers are engaged and feel able to ask for help if they need it.
• Schools should be taking active steps to reach out to the most excluded parents to encourage them to take up parenting support - an offer of informal activities is a good way to engage them initially.

Case Studies

For case studies of schools who are currently providing services relating to Parenting Support, please open the following link: Schools Core Offers: Online Case Studies Resource

Linked documents & Resources

• Parent Information Booklets
  These useful booklets contain a wide range of information and suggest helpful websites that parents can access on themes such as bullying, healthy eating, internet safety, child development, sex and relationships (secondary only) etc.  Two booklets have been produced by the extended schools team in partnership with the Family and Parenting Institute and the national TIS programme. The first booklet is for parents of children starting primary school and the second is for parents of children moving to seconday school.
  
  Primary Booklet
  

             Secondary booklet

• Every Parent Matters
  This document sets out what the government is doing to promote the development of services for parents and their involvement in shaping services for themselves. There is an associated document aimed at parents  'Every Parent Matters - Helping you to help your child '  DCSF publication PPMRP/22949
• http://www.tda.gov.uk/remodelling/extendedschools/coreoffer/parentingsupport.aspx
  Link to TDA website - gives useful advice about access and signposting and links to other websites
• Involving Parents: Raising Achievement
  This DCSF publication gives practical advice for developing home-school links and a related policy.
• Parents and Carers Magazine
  This document gives advice to parents of year 9 students to help them make their subject choices. There is a similar document for parents of year 11 students.
• Parenting Support
  This document, published by DCSF in 2006 gives more information about Parenting Support and lists some useful sources of further information with regard to; engaging with fathers, organisations with expertise in supporting parents, information for parents, supporting behaviour and attendance.
• http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/information/websites/
  This document, published by DCSF in 2006 gives more information about Parenting Support and lists some useful sources of further information with regard to; engaging with fathers, organisations with expertise in supporting parents, information for parents, supporting behaviour and attendance.
• http://www.parentscentre.gov.uk
  Parents website - information for parents with external links to useful websites