CYP(3) PAP 02
Children and Young People Committee
Inquiry into Parenting Action Plan
Responces from Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council - Family Support Partnership Report
Background and Context
Merthyr Tydfil has a variety of established Family Support Services, which have been strategically developed since 2003 mainly through Cymorth funding. There has been significant growth and investment within the private, public and voluntary sector services in recent years. Sure Start Services, the Integrated Children’s Centre and the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership have all been instrumental in the delivery of the Early Years Family Support services. A decision was taken by the Children and Young People’s Partnership to invest the increased Cymorth allocation in 2006 to family support services. This enabled the existing Surestart provision, which was targeted at the lower end of the Merthyr Tydfil valley, to be rolled out into a Borough wide Family Support Programme.
The Family Support Partnership strives to create a holistic approach to supporting families in Merthyr Tydfil. The partnership aims to develop and sustain a multi agency, integrated family support service aimed at enabling families to improve their life chances and opportunities.
The Family Support Partnership will take its strategic lead from the Children and Young People’s Plan and will consider the contribution made by partnership towards the identified priorities and relevant National Service Framework key actions.
The Welsh Assembly Government Parenting Action Plan seeks to ensure that a more coherent approach is taken in the development of parenting support services in Wales, so that parents and carers are better informed and better supported. The post of Parenting
Co-ordinator in Merthyr Tydfil has been established to promote positive parenting and develop services in partnership with appropriate agencies to meet local needs.
Delivery of the Parenting Action Plan
The Family Support Partnership has consulted its members regarding the inquiry questions and the following is a summary of the comments received:
Summary of Welsh Assembly Government points and Merthyr Tydfil’s response
WAG: We will develop a national bilingual helpline for parents in Wales. We are exploring the various options for delivering this service, and a final decision on the way forward will be taken by the end of 2005.
Merthyr Tydfil: The National bilingual helpline for parents in Wales has not been developed by WAG. There is a need to progress this, combined with a family friendly marketing event which will be closely linked to the work of our existing Children’s Information Service.
WAG: The Assembly Government will develop and distribute a series of booklets for all new parents in Wales, supplementing the existing Pregnancy Book and Birth to Five books.
Merthyr Tydfil: Three booklets have been produced by Children in Wales on behalf of WAG:
From Breakfast to Bedtime;
Over the Top Behaviour in the Under 10’s;
Help at Hand.
Merthyr Tydfil’s Children’s Information Service has distributed these booklets to partner agencies and parents.
Information on CIS is also included in Registrar and Book Start packs.
It was felt that these booklets are aimed at new parents, but booklets for parents with teenagers would be a beneficial resource.
WAG: We will set up a Working Group in the autumn 2005 to consider the Beth Johnson Foundation report on grandparents in Wales and propose an outline Programme for Action for the Assembly Government, statutory authorities and the voluntary sector, including the sharing of good practice and approaches. Subsequent actions will be built into the third year of the Parenting Action Plan (2007-08), linked with Phase Two of the Strategy for Older People.
Merthyr Tydfil: A WAG working group was established to consider the Grandparents in Wales report. The group included a representative of the CIS. Recommendations were taken forward to CIS in Wales:-
Recommendation 7: Work-life balance booklets have been produced and distributed to CIS.
Recommendation 12: CIS now records enquiries received by grandparents. Merthyr CIS has appointed an outreach worker. Grandparents will be targeted as part of this outreach work.
In Merthyr Tydfil, all of the Parenting programmes and groups are open to grandparents and its marketing positively encourages grandparents.
The Family Support Service has purchased Parentline Plus information that is directed at grandparents.
WAG: In 2006-07, we will be funding a training programme at University College, Bangor, to extend the scope of the Incredible Years programmes, supporting the development of parenting programmes across Wales. We will also commission SCIE (Social Care Institute for Excellence) to produce information on other evidence-based programmes used in Wales that can inform decisions on future investment.
Merthyr Tydfil: Since November 2006, sixteen multi agency staff in Merthyr Tydfil have received training in Incredible Years programmes. This is as a result of WAG funding the University College, Bangor to host this training. The staff attending training are from the Third Sector, the Local Authority and Health.
WAG: We will be strengthening parental participation within the planning process from summer 2006. Framework Partnerships will be required to make sure that parents and carers participate effectively in service planning, such as through local Parent Networks.
Merthyr Tydfil: Parents are involved in developing the programme of activities delivered by the Parenting Co-ordinator in Merthyr Tydfil. Parent volunteers have assisted in administration and delivery of the programmes. One parent volunteer is now employed to deliver programmes to other parents.
The participation of children, young people and their families has been identified as a priority within Merthyr Tydfil’s draft Children and Young People’s Plan, namely;
"Increasing children’s, young people’s and their parents’ influence over the services they receive and over services which are designed for them.”
The focus of this priority will be to review the participation strategy and the
participation promise and toolkit in the light of the latest Welsh Assembly Government guidance on participation. We will then work to have the strategy adopted and implemented systematically in every agency delivering services to children and young people in Merthyr Tydfil, building on existing good practice.
WAG: We will commission work early in 2006 to produce a practice guide for Partnerships on parental participation and empowerment.
Merthyr Tydfil: The parent participation document assists with creating an action plan to involve parents. Merthyr Tydfil will be developing the parent support group into a more formal network during this financial year.
WAG: Framework Partnerships will be required to consider in their planning the needs of parents and carers and how agencies will work together to meet these, including the relevant key actions set out in the National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services
Merthyr Tydfil: One of the identified priorities (priority 7), of Merthyr Tydfil’s Draft Children and Young People’s Plan 2008-2011 is:
"Increasing children’s, young people and their parents’ influence over the services they receive and over services which are designed for them.”
Progression on the achievement of this priority will be monitored by the Children and Young People’s Partnership and via the Welsh Assembly Governments’ electronic self assessment tool (SAAT) with a particular focus on key actions 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3.
In addition to those key actions which are directly relevant to priority outcome 7, specifically 2.48 and 2.49, progress on the development of these actions will be driven forward and monitored by the Children and Young People’s Partnership considering evidence from the SAAT on an annual basis.
The NSF process in Merthyr Tydfil is supported by a NSF multi agency Moderators groups, which is a sub group of the Children and Young People’s Partnership.
WAG: We will invite Local Education Authorities and Children’s Information Services to pilot CIS satellites in primary and secondary schools, in community-focused schools and in the new integrated centres.
Merthyr Tydfil: The Children’s Information Service is an integral part of the Integrated Children’s Centre. Four information kiosks are to be installed during June 2008 which will link to CIS. As part of this project, all schools in Merthyr Tydfil will be linked to the kiosks via a computer suite. CIS information is included in twelve Youth Information Points throughout Merthyr Tydfil. The CIS outreach worker links closely with schools to ensure they are aware of the CIS and can signpost parents accordingly.
WAG: We will continue to work with Local Education Authorities, Estyn and school governing bodies to promote parental participation in schools.
Merthyr Tydfil: In Merthyr Tydfil, the Parenting Co-ordinator works closely with:
School nurses
Pupil Referral Unit
School Headteachers
Community Pathways’ tutors
Community Focussed Schools Co-ordinator
Flying Start childcare settings
WAG: We will undertake further development of Parentsnet to ensure its suitability for all parents, including those who are less well educated or who are not so well informed.
Merthyr Tydfil: The Parentsnet Website is currently unavailable. CIS would signpost the service if it were available.
Initial engagement of parents is always difficult. Parents are usually reluctant to receive or ask for help and support in case they are perceived as being 'bad parents’. We have overcome this issue with low-key home visits, encouragement to engage in parent taster sessions, etc. Mainly, once a parent has engaged and feels relaxed with one service, s/he is more open to being offered another service.
The Childcare Sufficiency Assessment in Merthyr Tydfil in 2008 highlights lack of information as one of the key barriers to accessing services. The CIS has a robust marketing strategy and an outreach worker to increase the profile of the service.
Waiting lists in Merthyr Tydfil for parents accessing voluntary agencies are increasing. Demand has increased particularly in Flying Start areas for Family Support Services. Parenting services are offered by a variety of agencies who offer individual support in home based situations e.g. Health Visitors, Barnardo’s family support workers, Social Workers, Home Start volunteers. This is in addition to the rolling-programme of parenting courses available in the community.
Continued work on parenting
Merthyr Tydfil’s Family Support Partnership is introducing the Pacific Institute’s STEPS to Excellence programme in September 2008, as a direct result of requests from parents for more self-esteem and confidence building courses following the completion of parenting programmes.
There is a gap in availability for resources aimed at parents of Key Stage 2 children, parents of children with disabilities and parents who have disabilities within parenting programmes.
Merthyr Tydfil is developing a Home School Links Project facilitated by the Life Chances Manager funded by Cymorth. She will work with four cluster secondary schools, in collaboration with outside agencies, to reduce the barriers for students to engage in education. Working with parents will be an element of this project.
A national campaign is needed to highlight the work of the Children’s Information Service. The Childcare Act 2006 places new duties on CIS to provide information to parents and carers of children and young people from 0 - 19 years. CIS has worked closely with the Young People’s Information service in order to make links, etc., resulting in the establishment of a joint information steering group.
There are no relationship counselling services available in Merthyr Tydfil, offering parents support and advice with relationship issues.
What has worked, and what hasn’t?
A substantial increase of Cymorth funding in 2006 was targeted at family support provision in Merthyr Tydfil. Subsequently parenting programmes have grown dramatically over the past 18 months. Attendance is high and sustained. This is due to us offering a complete package of support i.e. accessible high quality venues, childcare, transport, refreshments etc, reducing all possible barriers. The Parenting Co-ordinator works hard to ensure that engagement barriers are overcome by good marketing, partner agency support, non stigmatising groups and volunteer parents assisting as support. However, the best publicity has been via word of mouth rather than through leaflets.
Merthyr Tydfil has invested in Parentline Plus as an engagement tool for parents. We offer a rolling programme of taster sessions, Parentline Plus training on various topics plus the structured Webster Stratton Incredible Years Programme.
"Parents supporting parents” has also been successful in Merthyr Tydfil. We actively encourage programme participants to volunteer and this provides an additional layer of support.
Multi-agency team work in providing support to parents, facilitation of groups, etc., has been essential in order to maintain a smooth parenting programme that can benefit all parents. Rather than targeting a particular service, it has been effective to offer parenting programmes to generic groups. This removes the stigma from specific client group courses.
Genesis Wales has been an excellent example of how parents have been supported in Merthyr Tydfil. Engagement of hard to reach parents has been excellent through this programme and has helped move parents, mostly women, into further training, volunteer and employment opportunities. This approach has worked as the services have been non-threatening and flexible to the needs of individuals. Genesis Wales has offered parents one to one advice and support often in their homes as a first step. The balance of advice, guidance and support, informal training opportunities and childcare has been a success.
Further evidence available to the committee, regarding Merthyr Tydfil programmes.
Evaluation of Parenting Programmes 2007-8
Childcare Sufficiency Assessment 2008
Genesis Annual Report 2007-8
Children’s Information Service Annual Report 2007-8
Family Support Strategy and Draft Strategic Plan 2008-11
Draft Children and Young People’s Plan 2008
Cymorth Plans 2005-07
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council
