CYP(3) PAP 21
Children and Young People Committee
Inquiry into Parenting Action Plan
Response from Cardiff Children and young People's Partnership
The following is a commentary produced by the Family Support Strategy group on behalf of the Partnership. It reflects on the position in Cardiff with input from practitioners in parenting support.
The Family Support Strategy view;
We have found it difficult to comment on the progress of the Parenting Action plan in isolation from other developments led by the Welsh Assembly Government. Therefore our response is a more general one, pointing out what has been helpful and what remains to be done, in order for us to provide adequate parenting support.
Targeted support under Cymorth
The main enabler of service development has been funding, made available initially through Surestart and then through Cymorth and Flying Start. This has made it possible to meet some of the many parent support needs which had already been identified. Some examples of good practice are given later.
However, in a city as large and diverse as Cardiff, with a growing and changing population, there remain significant areas for development. These are identified in our Family Support Strategy (attached) and include:
Those with significant parenting needs living outside Cymorth areas, and more specifically, outside Surestart/Flying start areas (sometimes next door to a family receiving services, but not able to receive a service). Whilst we realise that Flying Start needs to have boundaries in order to be evaluated,this geographical inequity is a major issue for professionals trying to support families.
Cardiff has a population of over 70,000 children and young people under 18, almost 40% of whom in the southern arc of the City live in relative poverty. We feel that many would benefit from an extension of the models of service which have already shown promise in Surestart areas but it is difficult to identify the resources for this.
Parents with significant needs in their own right (language support needs, mental health, learning disabilities, asylum seekers suffering from trauma; people involved in substance misuse or domestic abuse).
Families of children with behaviours related to Autistic Spectrum condition or ADHD, needing specialised parenting support. Whilst there is some provision it is not yet adequate.
Families with older children and teenagers. Much of the innovation funded by WAG has been in the early years for legitimate reasons, but there are many families in need of support at other times in their lives, particularly at transitions.
Teenage parents needing more support than currently available.
Fathers (they being included more often but progress is slow.)
Grandparents bringing up grandchildren, who have significant issues re emotional and financial support.
Preventive programmes (e.g. Strengthening Families) which we would like to make universally available. Again, it is difficult to identify sufficient funding for this.
Integrated centres
Cardiff currently has one Integrated centre which provides an excellent range of early years services. Outreach is provided from there. There are plans for other centres when funding becomes available. Consultation with parents tells us that they like the notion of "one stop shops”, across the age ranges, but there continue to be challenges, as outlined above.
Information and advice services
Children’s Information services are beginning to broaden their role and we welcome this. Touch-screen information points have potential but would be very expensive to install and maintain in a large city. Providing information which is accessible to people who don’t speak English or Welsh is a major issue in a city as diverse as Cardiff.
We are very disappointed at the lack of progress on the bilingual parenting help-line for Wales. In Cardiff, we would welcome a help-line which offers advice and information in other major languages as well.
The Bibliotherapy service, funded through Health, could also be extended to a directory of approved web-based information, something we are starting to look at locally.
Parentsnet could broaden its content and appeal.
The Assembly Government’s leaflets for parents have been well received and should continue to be produced at regular intervals.
Promoting Positive Parenting
CFOG has been important in sustaining organisations which have developed expertise in work with children and families eg NCH, Barnardos, Tros Gynnal.
The Parenting Development Project, Fforwm Magu Plant, Fatherhood Wales and CAU have provided very useful forums for information sharing, consultation, networking and lobbying. We would also see them as a valuable resource for the Welsh Assembly Government, given the combined wealth of experience of members.
Grandparents - a network is being developed in Cardiff for grandparents who have had to assume care of grandchildren. There are major issues around financial support for these grandparents, which may be something which the Assembly Government could investigate.
Parent training programmes
We have been disappointed that funding for training facilitators has been concentrated on one specific set of parenting programmes (i.e. Webster Stratton) when several Local Authorities in Wales had already developed integrated systems of parenting programmes based on other models. Whilst we see a place for the Incredible Years programme, we feel that there needs to be a range of programmes to meet a range of needs.
We are very grateful that funding has been made available through WAG for a randomised controlled trial of the Parent Nurturing Programme.
There are still some significant gaps in evidenced programmes eg for parents of adolescents on the fringes of anti-social/criminal behaviour.
We would like to see more support for the introduction of National Occupational Standards for work with parents and more all-Wales work on quality standards, not related to specific programmes, but related to the skills of facilitating groups and supporting parents who may have complex needs.
We would like to see some national work on evaluation of parenting programmes, so that there is consistency, validity and ease of use.
We will be doing some local work on this but it would have been helpful to do this as part of an all-Wales development.
Raising the Profile of Parenting
The Parenting Action Plan has demonstrated on paper that WAG wants Partnerships to prioritise support for parents. Cardiff has responded to this. However, this has not been followed through in a co-ordinated way within the Assembly. For example mainstream budgets are being squeezed and the performance indicators to which some statutory agencies work may not include anything related to parenting support (e.g. NHS indicators) .The value of preventive work, in particular, is difficult to evidence and has to compete for funding with urgent child welfare/ child protection work.
We feel that many areas of Wales will be experiencing similar patterns of provision/shortfalls in provision; because of the way funding has been targeted.
Parent participation
The PAP has been a driver for more parent participation in Cardiff, and the setting up of a parent network. The participation guidance has been used by the Parent Network. A local parent participation charter is being developed.
Parenting Support in Cardiff - responding to local needs
Cardiff Children and Young People’s partnership has incorporated its own "parenting action plan” into a broader family support strategy. A multi-agency task group was set up and since 2006 this has been chaired by an operational manager from Children’s Services. It is a sub-group of the Children and Young People’s Partnership Core group on Nurturing Families and Communities.
A draft strategy was produced, which influenced the commissioning of three posts in 2006: a Parenting Programmes Co-ordinator, a Parent network co-ordinator and Family Support Strategy development officer, to take forward identified areas of work. It also supported a new project working with families of young children, living in temporary accommodation. All staff were in post by 2007.
In developing the final version of the strategy, it was decided that more extensive local needs analysis and consultation should be undertaken. The FSS development officer co-ordinated this work through the summer of 2007 and the final strategy was informed by the views of children and young people, parents and carers, professionals and community groups, and an audit of children coming to the attention of social care agencies. The strategy was launched in February 2008, and the implementation plan is being overseen by the Task Group.
The Parent network co-ordinators undertook part of the consultation with parents to inform the family support strategy. Over 400 parents were consulted face to face. As a result, two parents have been representing the network on the Family Support Task group, making a valuable contribution. This has led to parent involvement in other consultations, such as the Play Strategy and Autism strategy.
We are currently working on a framework for parenting programmes which will cover geography, age range and type of need. We want to ensure that there are both preventive and remedial programmes available and that there is coverage across Cardiff. We aim to maximise use of existing resources by encouraging multi-agency provision. We will also be developing peer support and more "wrap around” support for vulnerable parents. However, we will not achieve our vision without some new or redistributed resources.
Examples of good practice in parenting support in Cardiff
Comprehensive parenting programmes have been set up in Surestart areas and are now being complemented by Flying Start. There is growing experience in catering for parents who are asylum seekers, refugees or economic migrants, and who may not have much English. There is expertise within Surestart/Flying Start, Home-start and Barnardos Neville St project , which manages services for BME families and an interpreter service.
Parents Plus is an effective, home-based support service for more vulnerable parents in Surestart/Flying Start areas.
There is multi-agency delivery of the Strengthening Families programme, which is funded through the Community Safety partnership and managed through the Alcohol and Drug team. There is a wide range of agencies cooperating to deliver the programme, including schools, and its aim is to help parents to show "love and limits”. The programme helps children and young people to resist drug and alcohol use. The ultimate aim would be to make this available to all children at transition to secondary school.
This service also manages Option 2, which offers intensive intervention for substance misusing families who are at risk of children coming into local authority care.
A grandparents’ forum has been initiated by the CADT, in partnership with the Parent Network, to support grandparents who have care of children.
Children’s Services and Barnardos manage a Family Support and Intervention Service which works with families who have complex needs and who already have involvement with Children’s Services. This team offers a range of interventions to try to prevent children becoming Looked After.
Under the Family Support strategy, play and health services have been made available to families living in temporary accommodation, helping them to cope with their levels of stress and giving children a better experience.
NCH Cymru offers home and school based interventions to support parenting, working mainly in the East of the City.
A major benefit of the Family Support Strategy is the co-ordination of agencies and promotion of multi-agency work.
Parents from Parent Network and other agencies are involved in developing a parent participation charter and guidelines fro professionals.
A directory of family support services has been developed and 2000 copies distributed to agencies and public buildings. The Children’s Information service will keep it updated.
