Supporting parental involvement to strengthen early years attachments and encourage learning

Effective parenting plays a critical role in shaping children’s wellbeing, achievements and prospects from the early years onwards. Emotional bonds are crucial for neurological development and positive early years experiences have long-term effects on development. Nurturing relationships and secure attachments between mothers and fathers and their children contribute towards a broad range of later capabilities, such as love of learning, social skills and self-esteem. Supporting parenting is therefore a crucial part of ensuring that family provides the best possible environment within which individuals can develop.⁷

Improving parental support

Understanding this, we have transformed the availability and effectiveness of parenting and family support:

as stated in chapter 3, we have made parenting support available through Sure Start Children's Centres and other care settings in the local community;
every local authority now has dedicated parenting support available for the mothers and fathers of children at risk of anti-social behaviour;
we have introduced the Parenting Early Intervention Programme (PEIP), helping to halve the number of parents who classified their children as having significant behavioural difficulties; and
the Welsh Assembly Government has introduced Flying Start, targeted at the 0-3 age group in the most deprived communities in Wales, as well as the Parenting Action Plan.

Parental involvement is also vital throughout the rest of childhood, especially to their children’s education. Mothers and fathers should be centre-stage in their child’s learning. Not only is that what parents want, but evidence underlines that this is vital to educational success.⁸

A positive learning environment in the home during the early years can greatly enhance a child’s attainment. Parental involvement in their child’s reading has been found to be the most important determinant of language and emergent literacy.⁹ More broadly, parental aspirations for their children have a strong and significant link to attainment.¹⁰

We have already taken significant steps to promote parental engagement in learning, including through enhancing schools’ reporting systems to parents, and the requirement to have Home School Agreements in place.

More broadly, intergenerational learning can play a key role in helping people from different ages and backgrounds feel part of the same community, appreciate their similarities and respect their differences. Our Wider Family Learning programme and our Family Learning Impact Funding support activities to tackle the barriers to learning that are passed from adult to child and from generation to generation.

In the Children’s Plan: One Year On: a Progress Report,¹¹ we announced measures to further support families’ capability to make a positive impact on children’s learning, and to strengthen the partnership between families and schools, childcare settings and children’s centres in securing the best educational outcomes for all.

This will be achieved by:

empowering parents to engage, setting clear expectations of what they can expect from schools, nurseries and other settings;
giving them regular, high-quality information on how their child is progressing;
supporting them to develop the skills they need to help their child learn; and
ensuring that professionals are trained in how to work with parents and that schools and other institutions are accountable for how well they work with parents.

This will also form part of our wider ‘Think Fathers’ campaign to raise awareness and provide guidance to the workforce on how to better engage fathers.

Providing additional support: Family Nurse Partnerships

We will continue to support all families in their efforts to engage with their children through the early years to increase bonding and encourage learning. However, we recognise that some mothers and fathers need more intensive support, especially in the early years, to provide the best possible environment for their children.

The Family Nurse Partnership programme offers a structured, intensive home visiting programme for vulnerable, young, first-time parents from early pregnancy until the child is two years old. It is a programme that has been developed over more than 30 years in the US, and research has demonstrated consistent long-term and short-term benefits for children and their mothers. These include significantly improved health and wellbeing, improved language development and school readiness, increased maternal employment, reductions in children’s injuries, neglect and abuse, and increased paternal involvement.¹²

As a result of the initial success of this programme, we will expand the Family Nurse Partnership programme to more young, first-time mothers, particularly those identified as most vulnerable or at risk, to guide them through pregnancy and the first two years of their child’s life. The forthcoming Child Health Strategy will provide details of our plans to expand this programme, as well as setting out further initiatives to support child development.

Case study: Supporting parenting through the Family Nurse Partnership

First-time mum Jenny was very nervous about giving birth and bringing up a baby - even though her partner, Michael, was very supportive. But working with Family Nurse Debbie Nash helped her to overcome those nerves and prepared both Jenny and Michael for becoming parents.

Debbie visited the couple regularly throughout Jenny’s pregnancy, and discussed with them a range of issues around bringing up children - from the personal health of both mother and baby, to the parental roles, to issues around Jenny’s and Michael’s skills, education and work. One particular subject was healthy eating: after Debbie explained how important certain foods are for pregnant mums and their unborn babies, Jenny and Michael worked hard to improve their diet - a major step for Jenny in particular, who had previously had an eating disorder.

Crucially, the sessions helped Jenny to build up trust with Debbie and she began to talk about her feelings around the child - a key part of the Family Nurse’s role. “We empower our clients to face their difficulties, which may involve accompanying them to groups and appointments of all kinds. Because of the nature of the work, we have to be emotionally available to the girls, supporting them so they can be emotionally available to the child.”

Another key aspect of the Family Nurse Partnership is around the relationship between the mother and father. Though Michael was very committed to Jenny, it’s not always the case, as Debbie explains. “A lot of our girls don’t know the dads very well when they get pregnant - it’s near the start of the relationship. We make the dads feel important and give them lots of praise, which encourages them to stay around - though in Michael’s case, that was never in doubt.”

For Debbie, it is a hugely rewarding and valuable approach. “Parents are willing to do almost anything to help their babies move on in life. Our support helps them do that.”

Notes

National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, Working Paper 1: Young people develop in an environment of relationships, 2004
Sammons et al, EPPE: Influences on children’s attainment and progress, 2008
Bus et al, Joint book reading makes for success in learning to read, Review of Educational Research, 1995
National Literacy Trust, Why it is important to involve parents, 2007
DCSF, The Children’s Plan: One Year On: A Progress Report, 2008
Olds, D, The Nurse - Family Partnership: An evidence - based preventive intervention Infant Mental Health Journal, 2006

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