CYP(3) PAP 18

Children and Young People Committee

Inquiry into Parenting Action Plan

Response From NSPCC Cymru/Wales

NSPCC Cymru/Wales welcomes the opportunity to respond to the National Assembly for Wales’ Children and Young People Committee’s call for evidence into the Welsh Assembly Government’s Parenting Action Plan.

The NSPCC’s purpose is to end cruelty to children. Our vision is of a society where all children are loved, valued and able to fulfil their potential.

We seek to achieve cultural, social and political change - influencing legislation, policy, practice, attitudes and behaviours for the benefit of children and young people. This is achieved through a combination of service provision, lobbying, campaigning and public education.

General Comments

NSPCC Cymru/Wales welcomes the decision by the Welsh Assembly Government to base all its policies relating to children and young people in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). With regard to the provision of parenting support Article 18 of the UNCRC is the most relevant section, which states:

State Parties shall use their best efforts to ensure recognition of the principle that both parents have common responsibilities for the upbringing and development of the child. Parents or, as the case may be, legal guardians, have the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of the child. The best interests of the child will be their basic concern.

For the purpose of guaranteeing and promoting the rights set forth in the present Convention, State Parties shall render appropriate assistance to parents and legal guardians in the performance of their child rearing responsibilities and shall ensure the development of institutions, facilities and services for the care of children…..

Parenting and family support services should be central to the Welsh Assembly Government’s agenda to eradicate child poverty and to meet the seven Core Aims for children and young people in Wales.  We believe that the publication of the Parenting Action Plan has been an important strategic step in highlighting the importance of provision of parenting support services locally.  

NSPCC Cymru/Wales provides a variety of services which involve direct or indirect work with parents in a variety of settings across Wales, including our NSPCC Welsh Helpline (bilingual service). Reference is made to these services throughout our written evidence though we would be happy to provide more information if required.

NSPCC Cymru/Wales is also a member of the Fforwm Magu Plant Steering Group, hosted by Children in Wales and we responded to the initial consultation on the Parenting Action Plan in June 2005.  

Highlighted within our initial response to the action plan in 2004 were concerns NSPCC Cymru/Wales had around the exclusion of some particularly vulnerable groups of parents in Wales.  These include parents in prison/custody who need more than help with contact issues; Foster carers’ need for parenting support, in addition to financial support; and parents who have experienced abuse previously/or where abuse is present.  We believe that parenting programmes ought to be universally available and accessible to all groups of parents across Wales.  However, we would also advocate for the provision of targeted services where necessary in order to meet the needs of all parents, including those harder to reach who may be most in need.

NSPCC Cymru/Wales believes that parenting and family support services are essential both to support parents in their parenting role and in order to prevent families reaching the point of breakdown and the children within them being put at risk of harm.  All parents should have access to support when they need it.  Families are different so meeting the needs of all families requires a range of different types of services to be in place.  This should include high-quality, non-stigmatising support services.  

We have responded to the questions set as subject headings rather than to each question individually.  

Delivery of the Parenting Action Plan (PAP

Through our membership of Fforwm Magu Plant, NSPCC Cymru/Wales has been disappointed by the apparent slow progress to date in delivering the action plan.  We are particularly concerned at the apparent lack of progress in developing the next phase of the action plan. We would urge the Committee to ensure that the parenting agenda, its role and importance locally, is not lost as a result of this, and that priorities and resources targeted to parenting is ensured.

National Bilingual Helpline for Parents

The PAP details proposals to develop a national bilingual helpline for parents in Wales.  As far as NSPCC Cymru/Wales is aware there has been no progress to date in the establishment of this service.  

NSPCC Cymru/Wales provide a free, bilingual Helpline service based in Bangor, which is available to all who are concerned about the welfare of a child or young person or would like some advice and support. Parents form a significant percentage of the calls received by the Helpline, both highlighting concerns about other children and also seeking advice and support on how to deal with any issues they themselves are facing.  From May 2007 to April 2008, 29% of callers to our Helpline were parents themselves and 68% of these calls were for advice.  This evidence clearly indicates that the Helpline provides parents in Wales with an accessible source of support and advice when needed.  When asked what they would have done had the Helpline service not been available, 33.5% indicated that they did not know.   

NSPCC Cymru/Wales has also now removed "child protection” from the name of our Helpline in recognition that this may be a barrier for some adults in using the service.  This demonstrates our commitment to providing a non-stigmatising advice and support service to all who need to access such provision.  We anticipate that this may impact on the number of calls we receive and we have therefore put in place the appropriate monitoring systems to examine this. This name change is also part of the ongoing development of all our listening services, including ChildLine, to increase our accessibility and responses to adults, children and young people in need of advice and support.

We believe that good practice from the various sources of advice and support for parents in Wales, such as our Helpline, must be explored and shared.  We believe that resources must be appropriately used and meet the needs of parents and carers themselves.  Consultation and wider participation with children, young people and their parents/carers will help identify the issues they themselves feel ought to be prioritised.  

Welsh population. Alongside this there also needs to be a clear understanding of what is already available and how parents are signposted to existing resources for advice and support. It is important that routes to support and advice are clear and streamlined to prevent any confusion over which service to access. NSPCC Cymru/Wales would recommend that as part of the development of any future action plan the scoping of existing services that provide support and advice to parents are taken into account before new resource is allocated to ensure that work is not being duplicated.

Development and Distribution of Booklets to New Parents

NSPCC Cymru/Wales would like to commend the Welsh Assembly Government on its progress to date in developing and distributing a series of booklets for all new parents in Wales.  We believe the booklets are accessible and deal with the subject matter in a supportive and sensitive way.

Whilst the booklets are a positive step forward in providing parents with support NSPCC Cymru/Wales would also recommend the piloting of other ways of interacting with parents. The issue of literacy levels has been one that has been frequently raised in meetings, and there is a need to ensure that all parents can access advice and support when they need it.

We were pleased to be given the opportunity through Children are Unbeatable! Cymru/Wales to help in the production of the Welsh Assembly Government funded "Help at Hand” booklet.  We believe that the promotion of positive parenting and alternative forms of discipline to physical punishment is vital to help safeguard the welfare and rights of children and young people.

The NSPCC has produced information and practical guides both for parents and professionals on positive discipline and parenting.  These aim to educate parents and the public about why physical punishment is an inappropriate or ineffective form of discipline and offers practical support and advice for alternative methods of discipline.  

Working Group on Grandparents

NSPCC Cymru/Wales would urge the Committee to enquire as to the current status of the Grandparenting Working Group, set up by the Welsh Assembly Government as part of the action plan.  We are unaware of the progress made since its report was put before Ministers in August 2006.  From our service experience, we have established that Grandparents are often the "unsung heroes” in many family set-ups and their support is often unrecognised.  We would ask the Committee to enquire about the recommendations highlighted within the Working Group’s report and the potential need to tailor support and advice to Grandparents of children and young people, who have been placed temporarily or permanently, under their care.

Evidence from our bilingual Helpline indicates that as much as 9% of callers are Grandparents.  This suggests that there is a clear need to provide advice and support services which are accessible and promoted amongst Grandparents throughout Wales.  

Funding and Evaluation of Training Programmes

NSPCC Cymru/Wales commends the Welsh Assembly Government for its commitment to ensuring that programmes are evaluated and demonstrate results and for the work to date in the extension of the scope of the Incredible Years programme.  Parenting and family support is central to the NSPCC’s mission to end cruelty to children.  We run a range of family and parenting support services including parenting programmes, both across Wales and the UK.  Our services aim to work with families and help empower them to develop ways of resolving any problems they may experience.  NSPCC services work with some of the most vulnerable families, including those who have experienced past abuse, neglect or domestic violence.  

As part of our aim to ensure that children and young people are cared for safely by adults, we have adopted a range of evidence-based parenting support programmes to meet the variety of needs presented to us by parents and carers themselves.    

We believe that any further expansion of parenting support should now consider evaluating a range of parenting programmes that are being used by different agencies across Wales.  Progress needs to be continually mapped, as appropriate, by the Welsh Assembly Government and the knowledge and experience of such needs to be shared across Wales. It is vital that new methods of support are able to develop to ensure that innovation is not stifled and that a range of programmes can be used to meet the needs of all family structures and both female and male adult carers. NSPCC Cymru/Wales believes firmly that the needs of parents and carers should govern the service offered and provided rather than structures.

We also believe that the involvement of children and young people in the design and delivery of parenting programmes may prove fruitful in allowing professionals to consider issues not necessarily identified by adults.  Children and young people, in their capacity as family members and ultimately those which parenting programmes will directly effect, have a right to be involved in all aspects.  

NSPCC Cymru/Wales believes that there is often a gender distinction in take-up of services.  A view shared by Fforwm Magu Plant/Parenting Forum in Wales, we believe that fathers often feel that services are aimed at mothers not fathers and that services are overly feminised.  NSPCC Cymru/Wales provides a Domestic Violence Prevention Service across South Wales.  The service, based in Cardiff, works with children and young people who are at risk from the direct and indirect effects of domestic violence in order to reduce the impact that their experiences have upon them.  However, the service also works with the mothers of children affected by domestic abuse and men who present a risk to children.  This aims to highlight the approach of seeing the family as a whole and working with all members, as appropriate.  Currently, the Domestic Violence Prevention Service is piloting an innovative groupwork programme 'Caring Dads’ in several areas across Wales.  Since 2007, this programme has received funding from the Welsh Assembly Government in order to pilot and evaluate the service in a range of locations across Wales.  We would be happy to inform the Committee of further developments here, as appropriate.  

Parental Participation in Planning, Development of Guidance and Key NSF Actions

NSPCC Cymru/Wales recognises that the Welsh Assembly Government has produced of a practice guide for Children and young People Partnerships (CYPPs) around parental participation and empowerment.  As we have previously highlighted, we believe the participation of parents, carers, children and young people in the design and delivery of parenting programmes and wider issues, will help services to meet local need and empower those accessing such support.  We would ask the Committee to enquire as to how far this guide has been used across Wales and whether such monitoring processes have been put in place locally to determine best practice and the impact of the views of parents, carers and children and young people in planning processes.

We would also like to highlight to the Committee the action points detailed within the National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services in Wales (NSF) around parenting.  According to the standard on parenting, parents and carers should have access to a range of services to help them to nurture the physical, social and emotional growth of children and young people in their care.  Key actions include a responsibility on agencies to develop joint working arrangements to deliver parenting education through CYPP Plans; and the availability of parenting support programmes.  We believe there should be more clarity on progress here to date and would urge the Committee to consider the delivery of the actions relating to parenting within the NSF in its inquiry.    

Children’s Information Service Satellites

NSPCC Cymru/Wales, as a member of the Fforwm Magu Plant/Parenting Forum for Wales, is aware of the current developments around the piloting of Children Information Services satellites in primary and secondary schools across Wales.  Progress is said to be slow and patchy across Wales.  There needs to be a greater collaborative approach between the Welsh Assembly Government and its statutory partners to ensure that all parents and carers are aware of the information held by these services and know how to access it.  

Parental Participation in Schools

NSPCC Cymru/Wales is unaware of any progress being made around the participation of parents within the school setting.  Our service experience here informs us that parental involvement is varied across schools in Wales.  We believe that the Welsh Assembly Government, having prioritised this as one of their main action points, should be clearer about roles and responsibilities here and provide sufficient help and resource to schools as necessary to develop this practice.

In February 2008 NSPCC Cymru/Wales ran an anti-bullying campaign in Wrexham, which was aimed to raise awareness of the effective solutions to prevent and deal with bullying, with a particular focus on cyberbullying. Alongside this goal the campaign aimed to promote a partnership approach whereby teachers, parents and children and young people work together to prevent bullying.  We would like to take this opportunity to not only raise awareness of our success in engaging parents in the planning and organisation of our campaign, and our significant campaign outcomes in Wrexham but to also highlight that many of the parents we spoke to had not been engaged in this type of work before. This clearly demonstrates that more work needs to be undertaken to actively engage parents.

Part of the campaigns legacy in Wrexham has been to develop a 'Top tips for Parents on bullying’ booklet which could be used as an example of good practice across Wales.  We would be happy to provide the Committee with further information about the campaign and/or the booklet as appropriate.

Development of Parentsnet

NSPCC Cymru/Wales would like to voice our disappointment that the commitment by the Welsh Assembly Government within the action plan to develop Parentsnet in Wales has not materialised.  We would urge the Committee to seek clarification as to the reasons behind this and to give some assurances that this important resource is still a priority and development will be seen as soon as it is possible.

In saying this we would like to take this opportunity to highlight the issue of parents and carers unable to access the internet.  In such circumstances, a facility like Parentsnet would not be a viable source of information.  These parents could be the hardest to reach who need the most support.  Again we would highlight the need to look at a range of advice options and for the Welsh Assembly Government to explore what information and advice services are already available in Wales to ensure that parents and carers are properly signposted.  

Equal Protection

NSPCC Cymru/Wales welcomes the stance taken by the National Assembly for Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government in supporting children and young people’s right to have equal protection from physical punishment. This progressive stance has been widely acknowledged outside of Wales. We further welcome the financial support the Welsh Assembly Government has provided to the Children Are Unbeatable/S’dim Curo Plant campaign in Wales and the development of the positive parenting leaflets, which have now been distributed.

Obviously NSPCC Cymru/Wales are disappointed that the support for equal protection in Wales has not led to the removal of the defence of reasonable punishment and we would urge the Welsh Assembly Government and the Committee as a whole to continue to put pressure on the Westminster Government to remove this clause of the Children Act 2004. NSPCC responded to the Westminster Government review of Section 58 of the Children Act 2004 and our response can be downloaded from:.

 http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/policyandpublicaffairs/Consultations/2007/s58_wdf49990.pdf

We would further urge the Welsh Assembly Government to continue to explore ways in which is can reduce the use of physical punishment, help support professionals who are promoting the message of positive parenting and ensure that children and young people receive their right to equal protection. NSPCC Cymru/Wales would also draw the committee’s attention to the written evidence from CAU Cymru, which outlines the progress made in Wales and also the views of the steering group.

Other Areas for Consideration

From our service experience, NSPCC Cymru/Wales would like to highlight the lack of service provision and support for parents who live in rural areas of Wales.  Part of our Family Support Service, based in North Wales, offers individual work with children, young people and families who are experiencing or who have experienced domestic abuse.  The 'Butterflies’ programme works within communities and endeavours to be an accessible service within the context of Welsh rurality.  We would like to take this opportunity to highlight to the Committee the apparent lack of accessible services for parents living in such rural settings.  Lack of efficient transport and outreach work has meant that service provision identified within the action plan may not have reached those most in need of such support.  We would urge the Committee to seek clarification on whether a process of continual mapping of services is in place and what the Welsh Assembly Government is doing to reduce such barriers for parents.

NSPCC Cymru/Wales conducted research in 2004 that fed into our initial consultation response to the Parenting Action Plan in 2005. This revealed that stigma and fear were the two biggest barriers to accessing parent support.  We found that parents may not want to be associated with the misconception that the family are attending parental support programmes because of breakdown rather than because they are seeking healthy and natural support.  Also, some families were fearful that they might become involved in the child protection process if they access parental support.  We believe that the action plan has done little to break such barriers for parents who feel they would benefit from support.  We urge the Committee to examine what has been undertaken to tackle these specific barriers to parental support.

Parenting support services must recognise the multiple needs of parents and their families and work with a multi-agency approach to offer appropriate support.  This could ensure that parents receive the support they need for all issues, not only parenting.  This approach should empower families to deal with future issues as they appear.

NSPCC Cymru/Wales was disappointed with the limited resources attached to the action plan throughout its lifetime.  We would urge the Committee to seek reassurances that future parenting initiatives from the Welsh Assembly Government are sufficiently resourced and a mechanism to measure their impact and ensure that policy follows through to practice must be set up.  

Conclusion

Approach to the delivery of parenting support in Wales. Whilst the action plan has raised the profile of parenting services and the valuable role that they can play in improving the lives of children and young people, we are disappointed at the apparent slow progress in fully delivering many of the action points within the plan. We would urge the committee to ensure that any future action plan or strategy has sustainable funding and that delivery of any future action points are closely monitored.