Tell us what you do

Parents' Week gives us a great opportunity to tell policy makers, Government and the media what really happens in family and parenting services. In these hard pressed financial times, it is more important than ever to showcase your successes with families and make sure your local decision-makers know how much difference your work makes to families who need support.

We want to know your secrets! What do you do that means parents and carers keep using your service? How have you maintained your funding through difficult times? What makes you unique in your area?

We want to be able to share these top tips and achievements with other service providers, and ensure that funders recognise the depth and breadth of work going on in the family and parenting sector.

Leave us a brief message with your top tips to a successful service – we will post your contributions here and collate them all at the end of Parents' Week 2009.

* Your email address:
First name:
Organisation:
City/Town:
* Comment here:

Maxine, Voluntary Action Children and Families Team
Stoke on Trent
'We have developed a Parent Engagement Partnership (PEP) which is a mechanism for parents to have their say on strategies and services that affect them. The aims and objectives are outlined below. We have also developed a Parent Charter which is a set of standards that services measure themselves against to ensure that their service is parent friendly. We also train parents to become Mystery Shoppers and they 'shop' organisations (such as childrens centres) that provide services for families. We hold 3 Parent Consultation events per year where we collate the views of parents and these feed into the Children and Young Peoples Trust for change. Thanks to some of the wonderful work that we do, parents have been recognised in the new Children's Plan which is a great step forward.

PEP:
Aims:

  • Provide a way of consulting with Parents across the city
  • To represent parent views from Children Centres, Parent Groups, Organisations and Parent Forums City wide
  • To provide a welcoming, safe, supportive environment for parents to share
  • To offer support and respect for all group members
  • To support the Parenting Implementing Change Group and development of processes

Objectives:

  • To support Parents to attend the Parenting Implementing Change Group and voice their views
  • Build an effective and representational process to make sure that Parents are heard on matters that are important to them, their young people and the future of the City
  • To have representation on the PEP from all active parent groups City wide especially vulnerable groups
  • An excellent dissemination structure in place to ensure that information is reaching all groups and fed back into the PEP
  • To influence local issues that will bring benefit to parents young people and the community
  • To keep members informed of developments within the city that may impact on them/their young people
  • Support parents to engage with/understand the Children and Young People's Trust agenda'

Helen, Solihull Action through Advocacy
West Midlands
'Our project is supporting parents who have a mild to moderate learning disability. Our aim is to prevent children from being taken from their parents and placed into the care system. We support parents through meetings and actions relating to their child or children, to get their voices heard. We try to make contact with parents before a crisis has arisen and to put the right sorts of support in place to avoid further action by statutory services. We are the first project of its kind in this area and we will be working alongside childrens and adult services.'

Debra, Parent Support Advisor
North Somerset
'I work as a PSA (parent support advisor) within a large secondary school. My colleague and I hold evenings suggested by parents on topics ranging from bullying and keeping safe, internet safety, highs and hormones living with teenagers. We also hold information sharing evenings where we invite local activity /support groups to showcase their work. We have a presence at parents' evenings and are involved in supporting parents in meetings at school with house heads, governors etc. We also act as a self referral taking phone calls and home visits from parents asking for advice and support.'

Judith, Grandparents' Association
UK wide

  • We listen to everyone contacting us for help and advice, and if possible, adapt what we are offering regarding groups.
  • We run a range of groups, (support, grandparent and toddler) to suit the people attending - some are formal, some are flexible, social events.
  • For the people unable to attend groups due to commitments, distance or health, we have formulated contact lists (phone and e-mail) to put people in similiar situations in touch with each other.
  • We have run networking meetings for people in specific areas to meet up.
  • We have identified groups for which there is little or no provision (contact issue grandparents) and aided them to get in contact with others and set up support groups.
Last updated: 21st September 2009 at 12:09:52