Our most recent press releases:

• Voluntary and Community Sector Parenting Service Providers Key to Reaching Britain's Minority Ethnic Communities (03/04/07)
• Parenting UK Chief Executive to join City and Guilds Council (03/04/07)
• Dame Jane Roberts takes over as chair of Parenting UK (07/01/07)
• Parenting Education and Support Forum relaunched as Parenting UK (06/06/06)

Voluntary and Community Sector Parenting Service Providers Key to Reaching Britain’s Minority Ethnic Communities.

3 April 2007

At the Voluntary and Community Sector Engage Project conference Parenting UK announced the publication this month of new guidance for providers of parenting services for black and minority ethnic parents of teenagers.

The guidance will be in the latest of Parenting UK’s series of In Practice Papers that give practical advice to people who work with parents. The paper is based on findings from a three year project that showed parenting services often failing to meet the needs of black and minority ethnic parents and suggests several ways that this can be improved.

Where services are successful it is often through local voluntary and community groups and the paper looks at examples of where this has happened and suggests practical ways of bringing local community based groups into closer partnerships.

In many cases, particularly in rural areas, statutory service providers may deny that minority communities even exist and elsewhere their particular needs are given a very low priority. Yet, as examples in the paper show, a well thought through and planned approach can enable many more parents to be reached.

A lack of cultural competence, which can be as basic as not holding parenting sessions on days of religious festivals, is also a significant barrier. For parents with teenage children, changing values and cultures between the generations can also be particularly sensitive. It can be too easy for providers to make assumptions based on stereotypes rather than understanding the particular families in their area.

As well as specific examples, the paper offers general guidelines and frameworks that can be used as practical ways of helping to ensure that parenting provision is appropriate and effective for all the parents it is designed to support.

Parenting UK is the national organisation that supports people and organisations who work with parents and exists to support the spread and development of quality practice so that parents receive the services that they want and need.

For further enquiries and information on receiving Parenting UK’s In Practice papers contact: Debbie Cowley, Director of Practice Development, Parenting UK. 020 7284 8389

Parenting UK Chief Executive to join City and Guilds Council

3 April 2007

Mary Crowley MBE the Chief Executive of Parenting UK has been elected to the Council of City and Guilds, the UK’s leading vocational awarding body.

Parenting UK is the organisation that supports people throughout the country who work with parents and has been responsible for establishing the National Occupational Standards for Work with Parents. Mary Crowley believes that her appointment reflects the growing importance of vocational qualifications for people working in sectors like parenting support as well as the key role that Parenting UK is playing in establishing them.

“Personally of course I feel very honoured to be asked to join the governing Council of City and Guilds but I think this also reflects the growing importance being given to vocational qualifications in sectors like ours. At Parenting UK we’ve always felt that there is a real need to recognise that working with parents does require particular qualifications and these are distinct from those for general work with children. The importance of this has been borne out in the work we’ve done in developing the National Occupational Standards and we’ve also seen very often that there is a need for people who work with parents to be properly trained. This is particularly important if fathers and parents that are hard to reach are to receive the support they need.

City and Guilds has played a pivotal role in vocational training and awards for well over a hundred years and there’s probably never been a time when the need for this has been so important nor when those needs have developed so quickly. I’m looking forward to playing a role in helping to take that development forward. ”

At the moment, Parenting UK is working with City and Guilds as well as the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) on the development of a project to provide City and Guilds accredited training for work with parents for 850 learners in Further Education colleges across the United Kingdom.

For further enquiries and information about new training opportunities contact Debbie Cowley, Director of Practice Development Parenting UK 020 7284 8389

Dame Jane Roberts takes over as chair of Parenting UK

7 January 2007

Dame Jane Roberts has been elected Chair of Parenting UK, the national umbrella body for people who work with parents.

Dame Jane has been a Consultant in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry for 13 years and Medical Director of Islington Primary Care Trust since 2002. She was Leader of Camden Council from 2000 to 2005 when it became one of the most highly regarded local authorities in the country. She is the mother of a 15-year-old son.

Dame Jane replaces Dame Gillian Pugh, who had been with the organisation from the beginning. She was instrumental in setting it up, initially as a Forum of the National Children’s Bureau where she was Head of the Early Years Division. She saw the organisation grow from a staff base of two to the present 21 team members. Over the past ten years she has helped to ensure that Parenting UK made a significant contribution to a complex range of work to improve child outcomes. During her time as Chair, Parenting UK has developed National Occupational Standards for Work with Parents, created the Toolkit for Commissioners for DfES, put in place the Regional Development Team to provide local support to the sector, developed a national information service and won the Leonardo da Vinci project to create a transnational network for organisations working with parents across Europe. Dame Gillian now takes over the role of Chair of the National Children’s Bureau.

More information from Mary Crowley 07956 38 2020

Parenting Education and Support Forum relaunched as Parenting UK

6 June 2006

The Parenting Education & Support Forum, the leading professional body for the parenting sector has relaunched as Parenting UK.

The quality of parenting is now recognised as being critical to ensuring that children have a happy and successful life. With government placing increasing emphasis on the importance of parenting, there has been very rapid growth in the provision of support for parents. For example, all Children’s Centres and Extended Schools will be providing a range of help and these services are a key feature of the “Respect Agenda”. The National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services requires the provision of a range of support for parents. NICE found that parent-training programmes were effective and cost-effective in the treatment of conduct disorder in children.

Parenting UK was established in 1995 in order to support, inform and regulate the new parenting education and support sector. It led the development of the new National Occupational Standards for people working with parents in all the countries of the UK. It has over 1,000 corporate and individual members throughout the UK and overseas. It provides a library and information service and publishes a bi-monthly news bulletin as well as a popular web site and numerous briefing sheets and discussion papers.

Parenting UK chair Dame Gillian Pugh said: “I am delighted that government has recognised the right of parents to have access to support before things get difficult. I am proud of the role that Parenting UK has played in driving this agenda forward.”

Chief Executive, Mary Crowley, added: “Parents deserve the best quality services and support from trained professionals whom they can turn to as partners in the vital job of bringing up children”