CYP(3) PAP 10

Children and Young People Committee

Response From Flintshire County Council on Behalf of the Flintshire Children and Young People’s Partnership

The Flintshire Children and Young People’s Partnership is a multi-agency partnership which has the statutory responsibility to take a lead role in the strategic development of services for children, young people and their families.  The partnership members are nominated from the following service areas:

• Social Services
• Local Education Authority
• Health Trust
• Youth Justice
• Fire
• Police
• Probation
• Local Health Board
• Voluntary Sector

The Flintshire Children and Young People’s Partnership is supported by a number of task groups.  One of the  task groups is known as the Parenting Strategy Group.  This is a multi-agency group which draws its members from services that provide a service directly to adults in a parenting role.  The members of this group represent the following services:

• Midwifery and Health Visitors
• Sure Start
• Flying Start
• Playgroup provision (Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin and Wales Pre-Schools Playgroup Association)
• Childrens Integrated Disability Service
• Schools, Educational Psychology, Community Focussed Schools, Parent Partnership, PSE Coordinator
• Family Information Service
• Children’s Centres
• Children’s Social Services
• Youth Offending service
• Communities First
• Family Learning and Further Education
• Adult, and Childrens and Adolescent Mental Health services
• Voluntary services - Home Start, NCH, Barnardos

The Children and Young People’s Partnership utilise funding from the Cymorth Grant to resource the role of a Parenting Strategy Coordinator to oversee the development and implementation of the Parenting Strategy in Flintshire.

Delivery of the Parenting Action Plan

How effective do you consider the implementation of the Parenting Action Plan to have been?

The Parenting Action Plan set out a positive context for the role of parenting in Wales.  It acknowledged the importance of the parenting role and also the wide diversity of people who undertake the role of parenting.

In addition it made it clear that the Parenting Action Plan is based on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), WAG’S Seven Core Aims for children and also the rights of the parent to be supported in bringing up their children.  (Article 18 UNCRC).

The Parenting Action Plan indicated that services should be working towards offering support to parents in a universal model in order to provide services proactively to prevent problems developing, rather than providing services which react when a problem has already developed.

Given the context set out in the Parenting Action Plan the Flintshire Children and Young People’s Partnership were able to justify the use of Cymorth funding to resource a Parenting Coordinator.  There was a sense that there was a lot of activity and support already being provided directly to parents.  There was also a sense that there were members of the workforce who were skilled in working with parents. However there was a need to identify the current situation in Flintshire.  The WAG Parenting Action Plan acted as a catalyst for this task and it enabled the partnership to reach the current position where we now have a clear local Parenting Strategy and Action Plan.Flintshire has been very progressive in taking this work forward.  

The Flintshire Parenting Strategy has taken into consideration the actions contained within the Welsh Assembly Action Plan, and will continue to progress and monitor the action points.  These are listed within each of the five areas of the local strategy.  However, many of the points have not been completed nationally or only partially completed.  For example:

• Bilingual helpline for parents in Wales:  Within Flintshire we have worked with Parentline Plus to promote the service as a universal service available to all parents. This line is proving a positive service to parents and we are receiving call data. However, the bilingual helpline for parents in Wales is still under dispute, with development of the helpline on hold.  
• Booklets for parents:  Three booklets have been sponsored.  Whilst these are proving useful, there are issues still to be addressed regarding communication and distribution, to ensure a more joined up approach, promotion and making the best use of the resource.  Flintshire has requested a copy of the pdf files for each of these booklets so they can be made available to all parents in this format.  We have not undertaken any consultation with parents to identify if they have been useful.
• Grandparents in Wales:  A report with recommendations has been produced.  We are not aware of its contents and who it would be distributed to.  We are currently liaising with the Grandparents Association and will promote their website and literature to be accessed by grandparents.
• Incredible Years Training:  The Incredible Years training has been delivered and Flintshire have used the full allocation of places.  Many of the practitioners who received the training have benefited for their one to one work with parents.  About 60% have delivered a programme, with only about 10% saying they may be in a position to deliver a further programme.  However, this requires further sustainable support to be successful to implement group work.  We have received further resources for delivery of all Incredible Years programmes, however to do this we do need to build a further infrastructure and support has not been made available to support this.
• Evidence Based Programmes: An initial meeting with SCIE was held but has not been progressed.  Communities that Care were commissioned to review parenting programmes in connection with Flying Start.  The Social Justice Division have funded and evaluated two programmes independently of the parenting action plan, Caring Dads and Strengthening Families. Locally we are in discussion with the Domestic Abuse project which has taken ownership of the Caring Dads programme to ensure integration within the menu of programmes offered to parents within the Parenting Strategy.  There has also been confusion over the Family Links Nurturing Programme around funding for delivery and support the work undertaken to evaluate the Family Links programme.  Locally we have reviewed all evidence based programmes, undertaking a literature review, also referencing other non randomised control trialled parenting programmes to meet the needs of parents identified during the parent consultation.  We are currently developing this work to produce a toolkit of evaluations for all parent interventions, and how we plan to keep this document up to date.  The document has been shared with other local authorities through the Children in Wales Parenting Coordinators Network.
• Parent Participation Guide:  We welcome the practice guide, and have circulated widely.  We have also made reference to it within the Participation Guide for Families, to be attached to the Children and Young People’s Plan.  Although we welcome the guide there is still much work to be done around parent participation.
• CIS Satellites:  Some work has been undertaken across Wales.  An evaluation of the work would be useful, at present there are no plans for an evaluation.  This is included within our Parenting Strategy, and we are working towards information provision through Parent Information Points, and would like to see the introduction and funding of Parent Support Advisors to further enhance this work.  Some of the Community Focussed Schools monies will be used, but this can only fund a small pilot.
• Parental Participation in Schools:  The Welsh Assembly has still not identified a lead to take this forward.  If taken forward, with consultation with parents, schools and Estyn research shows that this could make a big difference.  We have included actions to develop this locally within the Promoting Positive Parenting and the Education section of the Parenting Strategy (see attached)
• Parentsnet:  The Parentsnet website was discontinued.  As a parent it is difficult to get any of the booklets or other resources produced by the Assembly as these are not available on the website.  We are developing Parent Information Points and one of the sections will be education, however, we do need effective communication channels nationally and locally to achieve this.

Has the amount of support available to parents increased?

The Welsh Assembly Government has provided resources to support parents through a range of grants made to local partnerships such as:

• Cymorth
• Flying Start
• Genesis
• Community Focussed Schools

In the main this has increased provision to targeted groups of parents in targeted areas of social deprivation.  

National initiatives such as the Welsh Assembly Government publications which are given directly to all parents:

• The Pregnancy Book
• Birth to Five
• Breakfast to Bedtime
• Over the Top Behaviour in the Under Tens, has increased the information available to parents

In Flintshire there is some evidence to indicate that there has been a small redirection of resources to provide more preventative services as opposed to only providing reactive services.  This has happened in the Children’s Services Family Support Team, the Health Visiting Service and the Educational Psychology Service where staff members who are trained to deliver the Incredible Years Programme have been delivering the programme in positive examples of multi-agency working.  The commitment from the host services equates to approximately one full-time equivalent over three quarters of the year.However, each of these services expresses the feeling that this is only sustainable in the short term , and we need to develop a longer term strategy.

There are still significant gaps in service provision, these are particularly noticeable in relation to parents of older children (teenagers), young parents (mums and dads), parents substance misusing, parents who are disabled, fathers, parent or partner in prison.  Very few services are unfortunately available to parents as a universal service.

Is support accessible for all parents?

The Parenting Action Plan indicates that those in a parenting role have a diverse range of needs and they are  parenting in a diverse range of circumstances.  The work undertaken in Flintshire indicates that there are services which are not accessible to parents.

The following groups of parents have particular needs:

• Parents living in rural areas
• Parents who are travellers
• Parents who are migrants
• Parents who have a disability
• Parents who work full-time
• Parents who do not  have access to transport
• Parents who have limited literacy skills
• Parents who are welsh speaking
• Parents who are fearful about being stigmatised

The development in the role of the Children’s Information Service to become a Family Information Service could contribute to addressing access to information about services.  However the Welsh Assembly Government needs to ensure that they continue to fund the Parentline Plus telephone line and website.  The also need to fund a welsh language line to enable welsh speaking parents to access support.  Any developments at a national level in Wales should be considered in the context of developments in England and Scotland.  The Parentsnet website is no longer available even though this was promoted in the Parenting Action Plan.

Is support getting through to the parents who need it most

As indicated in point 2.1d the Parenting Action Plan has been a catalyst to start work and to analyse the needs of parents and to listen to parents about their needs.  In Flintshire there is some evidence to indicate that we are reaching the parents who need it most through feedback gathered by the following projects:

• Sure Start
• Flying Start
• Genesis
• Children’s Centres
• Community Parents
• Childcare Grants
• Homestart
• Youth Justice Service
• Children’s Integrated Disability Service
• Early Intervention Service

Do parents receive more information and is positive parenting effectively promoted

There is more information given to parents however; this raises a number of questions.

• Are we giving appropriate information?
• Is it being delivered in an appropriate way?
• Is it being given at the most appropriate time?
• How do we know if it is making any difference to parents and their children?

Locally, parents who have accessed information have been involved in the evaluation of the type of information provided and also given an indication about other information they feel would be helpful.However there is still a feeling that services need to reach out to the families who are not currently accessing information about their child’s entitlements such as early years education.   

Information is provided through Children’s Information Services but not all parents are aware of the services offered, the national renaming will assist the promotion of this service.

Positive parenting is promoted through Health Visitors, Sure Start, Flying Start and Youth Offending initiatives.  We still need to do more work to ensure a consistent message from all services, to all parents.

Do parents participate more in planning services and in schools?

The Welsh Assembly Government has produced a Practice Guide for the Involvement of Parents.  This has been useful to bring to the attention of services examples of good practice.  The active involvement of parents has increased in some service areas however; this still tends to be dependent on frontline practitioners rather than organisational policies and procedures.  The fact that the single Children and Young People’s Plan must have a Participation Strategy creates an opportunity to strengthen participation opportunities for parents as well as children. The  implementation of the Flintshire Strategy  will involve training for service providers about how they can engage with parents in a positive way. The Parenting Strategy includes opportunities for parent participation, for example membership of the Parenting Strategy Group, involvement in task and finish groups.  One of the groups will be producing guidance to schools on best practice which encourages parents’ involvement.  At the moment schools have no guidance about involving parents except for statutory duty contained in various guidance and legislation.  

Are you aware of barriers experienced by parents in accessing support services and information sources?  What are the key reasons for these barriers

One of the barriers that exists is a lack of awareness of the support services which are available and how to access such services.  One of the reasons for this is that the Children’s Information Service has a limited capacity to promote their service locally.  In addition it is also a challenge to ensure that workers who are in direct contact with parents are equipped with up to date information about support services.  The new statutory duty set out in the Children Act 2006 Section 27 requires local authorities to provide information to families with children / young people up to the age of nineteen.In Flintshire we are currently exploring how we can use information kiosks for this purpose.

A further barrier to accessing services can be the parents’ perception of the service.  Parents with the greatest need may find it difficult to accept or access services because of their perception of the service.  It is necessary to provide non-threatening, non-judgemental and informal provision at the first point of contact in order to get parents through the door, e.g. drop in sessions for parents and children together.  This informal provision then becomes a gateway to more formal provision such as parenting education e.g.the Webster Stratton Incredible Years Programmes.

The Welsh Assembly Government would like to see the development of services for parents on school sites.  The Community Focussed Schools grant has provided some opportunity to develop services for parents within the vicinity of schools; however the delivery of services to parents via school settings needs the support of the Headteacher and Governing Body and also appropriate space for work with adults.  Flying Start and Children’s Integrated Centres have created such space however, in Flintshire there are only four such centres compared to seventy six primary school sites.

A further barrier is the limited resources to provide childcare for the delivery of parenting programmes which is expensive to provide and the timings of delivery for example, evenings.  This can also relate to other services when service hours do not fit with the times working parents are available to access the services.

There are still barriers to fathers to access services, with an overtly female focus amongst staff and service users.  We need to understand this further, and begin to work towards breaking actual and perceived barriers.

Can you provide any examples of innovative practice in ensuring that services and information is accessible and barriers can be overcome

The Children and Young People’s Partnership have taken the opportunity to develop a multi-agency sub-group to lead on the development of the Parenting Strategy for Flintshire.  This group has had a strong influence on the development of the Children and Young People’s Plan and has resulted in support for parenting becoming integral to the Seven Core Aims of the plan.

The Children’s Information Service is taking the lead as the single point of contact for information about support for parents in Flintshire.  Web-based Parent Information Points are being developed.  One point will be portable so that it can be taken to settings where parents gather e.g. health centres, shopping centres, schools, leisure centres.  The CIS also distribute Easter and Summer Fun Booklets which incorporate  information about activities for children and information to support parents such as top tips, parenting programmes, access to Parentline Plus.  In addition the next development will be to utilise a text messaging alert system which will bring information about parenting directly to the attention of parents.

2.8c There are a number of multi-agency projects that provide support to parents.  They are all grant funded by E.S.F. or W.A.G. funding.  They are innovative and creative in engaging parents.  The projects are:

• Sure Start
• Flying Start
• Genesis
• Community Parents
• Early Intervention Service

Each project works together to provide a wide range of information and support in a seamless way.  Parents enter the door of one project but sometimes access the support of all of these projects.

2.8d A book prescription scheme is available to parents and practitioners, which makes parenting books, and audio available to all parents, this includes books researched by parents for parents.  We have also sourced some general books for the library.

Continued Work on Parenting
What do you consider to be the key parenting issues still to be addressed by the Welsh Assembly Government

At a national level the Welsh Assembly Government have invested significant resources in the training of staff to deliver the Webster Stratton Incredible Years Programme.  They are now investing in additional training and research relating to the Infant and Toddler Programmes.  This  investment  in training could be wasted if action isn’t taken to resource the delivery of parenting programmes at a local level. Childcare and venue costs is highlighted as a key issue, along with constraints within individual services and the time commitment necessary to prepare and deliver a programme, and adequately support the parents.

Nationally and locally work needs to be undertaken to develop a framework for continuing professional development and the implementation of the National Occupational Standards.

Lessons need to be learned from other areas of Great Britain The National Parenting Academy could provide an opportunity for Wales to link into, rather than Wales having to establish a separate but similar provision. .  It is often confusing to know what relates to England and what relates to Wales.  The majority of Parenting Support resources such as Parenting UK, the Family and Parenting Institute reflect developments in England.  There are limited resources in Wales, other than the funding of two posts within Children in Wales.  

Parenting Strategy for Wales with sufficient resources and a mechanism for measuring impact and ensuring that policy follow through to implementation.  A truly joined up approach.

What has worked and what hasn’t

Are you aware of any examples of good practice in supporting parents

The projects / services which work effectively in engaging with parents offer very flexible, informal provision and outreach on a one to one basis in the family home.  This provision creates the opportunity to develop a positive working relationship and an understanding of individual needs.  Once this has been achieved the parents can be introduced to opportunities, in familiar surroundings, which they feel able to get involved in.  These opportunities can be wide ranging, such as becoming a volunteer, attending basic skills courses, confidence building courses, parenting courses, access to information about relevant services.  The services which provide these opportunities are:

• Sure Start
• Flying Start
• Genesis
• Children’s Integrated Disability Service
• Homestart
• Children’s Integrated Centres
• Children’s Information Service
• Community Focussed Schools
• Health Visiting Services

Parents can be supported effectively through programs for parents who develop their own self esteem and inner confidence such as Steps (Steps to Excellence for Personal Success).

Can you identify any areas of the Parenting Action Plan which you consider to have been successfully implemented and any that have not?

The Parentline Plus helpline and website has provided parents in Wales with access to information and advice when they need it.  However this service is not available for welsh speaking parents.

The Welsh Assembly Government are providing booklets directly to parents however, there is no evidence to indicate whether this investment is making any difference to parents confidence in raising their children.

Conclusion

The Parenting Action Plan has acted as a catalyst to begin the work          `on supporting parents both at a national and a local level however this has brought to our attention that there are many gaps in provision which still need to be addressed.The national Parenting Action Plan needs to be revised to reflect the current situation and to set out the WAG vision for the development of support for parenting across Wales.

5.2 In Flintshire we have acted progressively to the vision and in partnership with the Welsh Assembly Government we feel we have made a positive start to developing services to meet the needs of parents. The next phase of meeting the challenge will require us to identify how this work can be embedded and how resources can be utilised to ensure it is sustained for the long term.