1. Evidence into Practice Lessons from Parenting Support Julia Gault, Head of Family Engagement, DCSF Presentation at DCSF Conference: The Use of Evidence in Policy Development and Delivery, 9 February 2010

2. Investment to Improve Parenting Significant growth since 2006 including: Parenting and Family Support part of the core offer for the over 3,000 Sure Start Children’s Centres and over 20,000 schools providing extended services; over 3,500 Parent Support Advisors linked to schools Family Intervention Projects will be operating in every LA by March 2010 – with a target to reach 10,000 parents a year by 2012-13 Each LA has two parenting experts able to provide one to one support to improve parenting skills Each LA has funding for a Parenting Early Intervention project (parents of at risk children aged 8-13) Progress on parental confidence and empowerment now tracked at national level through Annual Parent Opinion Survey

3. Workforce Skills Critical  Evidence is overwhelming of the power of parenting interventions to change behaviour  Skill of the practitioner in delivering the intervention demonstrated to be critical to its effectiveness  A small number of strongly evidenced manualised programmes dominated and polarised the national debate

4. Wide range of Practice Many locally produced programmes FAST Easy Tiger Parents System 24-7 Parenting Develop Your Child Coaching Family Learning HomestartFamily Links Strengthening Families Strengthening Communities Solihull Approach HENRY

5. Improve Practice Mechanisms required to:  Improve intervention choice  Improve fidelity to proven practice  Continue to develop understanding of effective practice where there are gaps in current knowledge Work of the National Academy of Parenting Practitioners addresses all of these

6. Response from the Sector  Commissioning Toolkit has been well received – looking at next phase of development and application of model to other sectors  Effective dissemination of learning from current trials  Evaluation of practice post-training innovative for a “skill area” rather than a “profession”.

7. Discussion Point Are there lessons that could be drawn from this into your own policy/delivery situation?

8. Contact details Contact:Julia Gault, Family Engagement Division, DCSF Tel:020 7783 8099 Email:julia.gault@dcsf.gov.uk 28