Birmingham pledges to help parents meet challenges
Our aim is to give parents skills they need, says
Andy Jenkins, of Birmingham City Council
Parents need help too
Children do not come with a rule book or instruction manual. Yet becoming a parent is likely to be the single greatest challenge any of us will face in our lifetime.
And the cost of getting it wrong can be huge, both for the individuals concerned and wider society in general.
It can often seem that there is an assumption that parenting is something that everyone has the skills and ability to do automatically. Yet there is ample evidence to suggest otherwise.
Most parents, it must be said, do a fantastic job and are committed to achieving the best for their children. But we live in an increasingly complex world and there is growing acceptance that all parents at some time or other need additional support.
It can come from family, friends, the local community – or professional support services – and it is this last area of intervention that Birmingham City Council is seeking to develop.
Yesterday, the authority launched a new vision for delivering such a service across the city. Called the Integrated Support Strategy for Parenting, it is part of our Brighter Futures programme to transform children’s services from reactive responses to preventative practice.
In simple terms, the Integrated Support Strategy sets out a new and co-ordinated approach to providing the information, advice and training needed to help ensure parents are better equipped to bring up their children. Not undertaking the parenting itself, nor interfering when all is well, nor being judgemental – but just being supportive often at the most critical points.
What we are aiming to do is move away from a blame culture in which parents are vilified and held responsible for all of society’s ills.
Instead, we are looking to empower them by giving them the tools they need to perform their role positively and healthily.
It is essential that parents gain these skills if we are serious about safeguarding children and achieving sustainable and long-lasting improvements in behaviour and the safety of children. Lately we have all seen the tragic consequences of what can happen when parents – often through no fault of their own – are not equipped with the ability to look after their young. It is something that we in Birmingham are sadly not exempt from.
It can be all too easy to assume that problems rest solely with the most socially disadvantaged groups in society and that tragedies can be avoided by identifying “bad parents”. Research shows that, to the contrary, families across the social spectrum face many of the same challenges and difficulties.
The Government’s Every Child Matters agenda, which came into existence following the inquiry into the death of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie, aimed to introduce a new approach to safeguarding the well-being of children and young people from birth to 19.
Its aim was to ensure all children, regardless of their background, are supported in five key areas – to be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and achieve economic well-being.
Fine words these may seem, but at the heart of it is a will and desire to provide a much more integrated, joined-up approach to providing services to young people in a bid to achieve these goals.
And helping parents be better parents is a key tool to delivering this ambition. Positive parenting will, in turn, have an impact on improving child behaviour, social literacy and emotional health leading to better citizens in the long run.
Growing evidence based on national and international research is showing what works in terms of providing parenting support.
One of the key messages that comes across again and again is the importance of early intervention, which effectively means nipping problems in the bud before they escalate.
There are different kinds of intervention. Universal interventions are aimed at whole communities and are primarily prevention-focused. They typically involve pumping out positive messages around healthy parenting.
It could, for example, take the form of an awareness campaign on good eating habits or the right way to discipline children.
More targeted interventions are aimed at specific groups within the population who may have particular complex parenting issues. One example may be challenges faced by families who have newly arrived to the UK.
Group work can be used to address significant conduct disorders, but sometimes more intense one-to-one intervention is more appropriate.
There are, of course, a range of parent support groups already in existence. But there is a general acceptance that what is lacking is an over-arching strategy drawing all this together.
While many agencies do an outstanding and invaluable job, concerns that have been raised by parents include a perceived inflexibility in recognising their differing needs. They also complain of being passed from one agency to another and a lack of consistency from professionals who often give conflicting advice.
The new strategy aims to address these issues by providing a more joined-up approach leading to greater involvement and increased confidence among parents.
We can’t solve all the problems parents face, nor can public services be in every household every minute of the day.
But what we are attempting to do with this new approach is remove the stigma and provide a system of support by which we can empower parents to better fulfil what has to be one of the most challenging and rewarding roles in life.
To do this will not only improve the lives of our children and young people, it also enhances the lives of parents and ultimately leads to a safer, more cohesive and happy society.
Andy Jenkins is Birmingham City Council’s Parenting Project Manager
