CYP(3) PAP 4a

Children and Young People Committee

Inquiry into Parenting Action Plan

Response From Children’s Services Group (ADEW/ADSS)

• The Children’s Services Group (ADEW/ADSS) is a strategic joint working group of the Association of Directors of Education in Wales (ADEW) and the Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS).  The group aims to support and promote the development of children’s services in Wales and work collaboratively with others.  The Children’s Services Group (ADEW/ADSS) is jointly chaired by Vernon Morgan on behalf of ADEW and Sally Ellis on behalf of ADSS.  

• The Group are pleased to be able to submit written evidence to the Children and Young People’s Committee Inquiry into the Parenting Action Plan on behalf of both ADEW and ADSS.  

• The Parenting Action Plan: Supporting mothers, fathers and carers with raising children in Wales has been welcomed by ADEW and ADSS.  Local authorities in Wales understand that parents and carers have a valuable role to play in securing children and young people’s well-being, health, and educational attainment.  To this end every local authority strives to meet the varying needs of parents and carers and ensure that they are able to access services which provide information and support.  Local authorities understand that there is not one generic family model and as such need to be responsive at a local level to need.  Parents and carers can include young parents; single parents; step-parents; grandparents; parents in prison; working parents etc.  As a result there are a number of initiatives at a local level which support parents including Children’s Information Services (now Family Information Services); Flying Start; Community Focused Schools; Childcare Strategy and Integrated Children’s Centres.

• The Parenting Action Plan sets out 10 action points for driving forward the parenting agenda in Wales.  The plan has had the effect of raising awareness of parenting and the need for services.  However, the success of the identified action points has been limited with many some not being completed of only partially completed.  

• It is of particular disappointment that the action to develop a bilingual helpline in Wales has not been completed.  Whilst Parentline does take calls from Wales it is very important for Welsh parents and carers to be able to use the language of their choice.  Some local authorities have established their own bilingual telephone support line to ensure that parents can access services when they need to.  Telephone help lines can be of vital support for parents of older children, who may find it more difficult to access services, or those parents who live in rural areas.  

• ADEW and ADSS do not feel that a renewed Parenting Action Plan in Wales is necessary.  However, there is a need for the Welsh Assembly Government to carry out an assessment of the plan and the extent to which the action points have been met.  There may also be a need to determine whether extra resources should be directed at ensuring implementation of outstanding action points in Wales.  The children and young people partnerships, via the children and young people plans (CYPP) are well placed to pull together the policies that relate to parenting and to ensure that local authorities can respond to need and deliver parenting support and services.

• During the time frame of the Parenting Action Plan local authorities have continued to support parents through services and the provision of information.  The services offered by the children’s information service/family information service (CIS/FIS) are vital in raising awareness of services and support that families can access in the local area.  CIS/FIS also have a number of publications and materials for parents which can help to support them in their vital role of parenting.  CIS/FIS services in a number of local authority areas are currently piloting satellite points in secondary schools and integrated children’s centres to ensure that more parents are able to access the service.  However many CIS/FIS are under resourced and unable to extend their services beyond their statutory duties, as enhanced by the Childcare Act 2006, and to provide vital outreach services to inform parents and carers of the numerous services available to them.

• The Childcare Act 2006 stated that the information provided by the CIS/FIS should be accessible to all parents and carers of children and young people aged 0-19, who might otherwise find it difficult to access the support they need, including linking to partner organisations to increase take up from disadvantaged and low income families.  The Childcare Act 2006 guidance specifies that this should include those who may be socially excluded, including those from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities, those where English is not their first language, parents of children with a disability, refuges, asylum seekers, families with disabled or mentally ill parents and gypsy traveller families.  The CIS/FIS services across Wales are working hard to meet these extended duties.   However, resources for these services are limited and as such some CIS/FIS are struggling to ensure that all parents, including fathers and carers, have the support and information that they need.

• Many services are available in a local authority area for parents and carers, which offer vital support and information.  These services have not necessarily been implemented as a result of the Parenting Action Plan but do link closely with the aims of the plan in ensuring greater support.  As such it is important that the Parenting Action Plan is not viewed in isolation.  These services include those provided through Flying Start, Integrated Children’s Centres, Family Learning, Language and Play, On Track, Cymorth, and Community Focused Schools as well as numerous projects run in each local authority area.

• The youth service, via the Youth Work Curriculum Statement for Wales delivers a number of projects which are educative, empowering, expressive and participative and include relevant life skills such as parenting, budgeting, cookery, nutrition, financial literacy etc which are often accredited.  Many youth services run young mums and young mums and dad’s projects, educating and supporting young parents in a variety of flexible learning settings. Adult Community Learning (ACL), also offer similar non-formal and informal programmes of support and guidance in community settings.

• Children, young people and parents are now more involved in service planning and delivery through increased participation.  The children and young people’s partnerships have a duty, under the Children Act 2004, to produce the children and young people’s plans (CYPP).  The CYPP will be one of the four statutory plans for local authorities in Wales and the statutory driver for all services for children, young people and families.  The Shared Planning for Better Outcomes: Planning Guidance and Regulations for Local Authorities and their Partners on Children and Young People’s Plans 2007 sets out the key importance of participation of children, young people and families in the needs assessment and strategy development and delivery.  The guidance also states that local parent groups should be consulted on the final CYPPs in each local authority area.   

• ADEW and ADSS recognise the value of ensuring that children, young people and parents are actively engaged in service planning, development and delivery.  However there are considerable resource implications in ensuring participation at a local level.  Parent participation uses time, staff resources, travel allowances, childcare provision, venue hire etc.  Consideration of these extra resources should be made to ensure that local authorities are best placed to ensure effective and meaningful participation.

• ADEW, ADSS and local authority partners offer a number of services for parents and carers.  However there are still some barriers which local authorities have to overcome in planning and delivery of these services. One of the biggest barriers is the lack of awareness of support services available and how to access them.  The CIS/FIS service has a large role to play in this but unfortunately they are not promoted nationally and they do not have the resources to undertake this.  Although locally the CIS/FIS are active in promoting their service and signposting to available support.  Other barriers include transport, childcare provision, stigmatisation, fear of social service intervention and geographical location.  Many of these barriers are overcome at a local level by ensuring that there is a wide variety of support services available both for parents and carers to attend and to access through a number of formats.   

• Currently services for parents of teenagers are harder to access and local authorities are continuing to ensure that services are available where needed.   The recently published National Behaviour and Attendance Review (NBAR) Report: An Independent Review conducted on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government, chaired by Professor Ken Reid identifies the vital role parents play in preventing behaviour and attendance problems.  

• Flexibility at a local level is important to ensure that Children and Young People’s Partnerships planning local services are able to ensure that services, support and information meets the needs of parents in the area.  A range of services is important and to this end the Parenting Action Plan should not be viewed in isolation.  It is important however that services are sustainable and that there are resources in place to ensure that programmes can be run at a local level.  Many accredited parenting programmes require trainers to deliver training courses for deliverers of the service locally and this can be costly in terms of staff resources, venue costs and the need to meet childcare needs.

• Sustainability of services is important and in the development of parenting programmes this can be increasingly difficult.  Costs can be a significant barrier in rolling out programmes in Wales.  Flying Start will financially support programmes which have been evaluated and subjected to randomised control trails.  In many cases there are large costs and resource implications in engaging with trainers of accredited programmes needed to train a cohort of staff.  These training events also drain staff time resources, venue costs, etc.  A more sustainable option would be to begin to train local trainers who could ensure that programme delivery fits within a local framework.

• Many services at a local level meet the needs of parents and carers and are delivered under a number of policies including Flying Start, Cymorth, and Integrated Children’s Centres etc.  The following are examples of innovative practice at a local level:

• Family Links Parent Nurturing Programme: Offers a 10 week structured course for parents with children aged 2 -13 years.  The course focuses on developing emotional literacy.  The programme is run under the banner of Flying Start and is currently undergoing the process of a randomised control trail in order to qualify for financial support.  The Family Links Parent Nurturing Programme is currently run in Cardiff, Newport and Torfaen.

• CIS/FIS information points are being piloted across Wales to improve access to services and information.  Merthyr Tydfil has also piloted an Outreach Information Officer in 2008/09 in order to reach parents who would otherwise not access the CIS/FIS service.

• Ceredigion have bought together all elements of parental participation through the use of community development techniques to support Flying Start, Family Centre Network developments and the Parenting Network.

• Conwy have won an Excellence Wales award for preventative services which included a parent support team in social services which provides support to the most vulnerable families based on mentoring and practical support; DARRT which assists parents to improve parenting by managing their addictions and provides 24 hour support if needed; and the Tigers group, a parenting programme for parents of adolescents which engages well with fathers as well as mothers.   Conwy also run a Caring Dads schemes for domestic abuse cases and Butterflies which offers the same support for mothers.  

• All interventions are important, there is no one way of supporting parents and carers in Wales.  Innovative developments at a local level have been bought about by flexible working allowing local authorities to use resources to meet the needs of the most vulnerable families.  A wide range of policies and services for children, young people and families and the strategic view of the CYPP enable local authorities to focus resources and deliver appropriate services, support and information.  

• The National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services in Wales (NSF) is coordinated by the Children and Young People’s Partnerships in each local authority area.  The Parenting Standard in the framework asks local authorities, Local Health Boards and NHS Trusts to work together to ensure that parents and carers have access to a range of services to help them nurture the physical, social and emotional growth of children and young people in their care.  There are 3 key actions in the framework which the above organisations are asked to report on annually and give a self assessment score between a 1 (poor score) and 6 (high score).  From these scores and information entered a picture of the services over the last two years is illustrated in the table below showing improvement on the previous year (see appendix).  Actions from the NSF are now, where appropriate, being integrated into CYPPs and processes as well as into organisations key plans and strategies.

• The children and young people’s partnerships are well placed to ensure that parenting and preventative interventions are key services for children, young people and families through the CYPP.  Bringing together the key services under the CYPP will provide a strategic vision for parenting and allow local authorities to respond to local need.  It is important that resources are focused on developing and evolving services that are currently being rolled out across Wales and which are having a positive impact on family life to ensure sustainable services.  

• ADEW and ADSS agree that continued emphasis on parenting is vital to ensure that children and young people have the best start to life.  The needs of children, young people, parents and communities can not be easily disaggregated and as such policy and service development in this area should be joined up.  Future work on parenting should ensure that the current policies in place to meet the needs of children, young people and parents are viewed together and that resources are focused on ensuring greater implementation of frontline services.  The children and young people partnerships, via the children and young people plans (CYPP) are well placed to pull together the policies that relate to parenting and to ensure that local authorities can respond to need and deliver parenting support and services without the need for a renewed Parenting Action Plan.

Appendix A: National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services in Wales (NSF)