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Early intervention and prevention: Call for effective local practice
The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) and C4EO (Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People’s Services) are looking for examples of effective local practice for early intervention and prevention with a particular focus on children, young people and families presenting the greatest challenge. The evidence collected is intended for use by directors of children’s services and those commissioning children’s services in the development of future provision. Details of effective services and initiatives which you are aware of or have developed would be gratefully received.
For more informations, see this letter calling for examples of effective local practice. Submission forms can be downloaded from the C4EO website.
Support for all: The families and relationships Green Paper
The Green Paper, published on 20 January 2010, sets out how the Government can support all families; help to prevent and resolve marriage and relationship breakdown; support and recognise dads and grandparents; improve flexible working for families; and give more targeted support to families in need.
Support for all: The families and relationships Green Paper is available from the ECM online publications website. Further information is available from the DCSF e-consultations website.
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.
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.
Parenting support guidance
We have published Parenting Support: Guidance for Local Authorities in England (October 2006) 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.
Commissioning toolkit
The Commissioning Toolkit of Parenting Programmes is a searchable online database which contains comprehensive descriptions of parenting programmes available. It presents information about programmes - their aims, content, target groups and practitioner requirements - and also rates them according to quality and effectiveness, allowing commissioners to make informed choices about how suitable a particular programme may be in meeting the needs of specific parents. The Toolkit is a key element of the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners' aim to transform the quality and size of the parenting workforce across England by increasing the number and range of good quality parenting programmes available for commission. More information on the toolkit is available from the Commissioning Toolkit site. Since 1 April 2008, there has been a statutory duty on local authorities to provide mothers, fathers and carers with a range of high quality information, advice and assistance to support their children up to their 20th birthday. This duty is set out under section 12 of the Childcare Act 2006. LAs normally deliver this function through their local Families Information Service (FIS) or a locally badged equivalent. Visit the National Association of Family Information Services website directly, or the FIS page on this website. Statutory guidance -Duty to provide information, advice and assistance: Guidance for local authorities (February 2008) - is available, and describes the range of information that must be provided. To fulfil this duty, local authorities will need to: Duty to provide information, advice and assistance
- 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 which were laid before Parliament on 18 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 National Academy for Parenting Practitioners (NAPP) was established in November 2007 to train and support the practitioners that parents turn to for advice, training and information around parenting skills so that they can make sure their work is based on research evidence of what really works. Further information is available on the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners page. Every Parent Matters - March 2007 Real meals cookbook (December 2009)Related information and guidance
Parenting Implementation Project (PIP)
The aim of the 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)
Firework safety
Information on government campaigns and resources promoting firework safety.
A cookbook produced by the DCSF, with recipes provided by the British Nutrition Foundation, available from the Online Publications for Schools website.
Associated documents
Duty to provide information, advice and assistance: Guidance for LAs (February 2008)
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Last updated on 09/02/2010
