Wrexham’s

Parenting Strategy

2010 – 13

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Contents

Page

Glossary of Terms ...... 3

Executive Summary ...... 4

  1. Introduction ...... 8
  2. National Context ...... 11
  3. Local Context ...... 12
  4. Consultation ...... 19
  5. Improvement in Parenting Provision in Wrexham ...... 32
  6. Inter-Agency Information Sharing ...... 36
  7. Four Key Priority Areas ...... 39
  8. Monitoring, evaluating and reviewing the strategy and the provision and expanding the vision ...... 41
  9. Wrexham Parenting Strategy Action Plan...... 43
  10. Appendices ...... 75

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Glossary of Terms

CYP services[1]All services that work with children and young people, including local authority services, schools, health services, voluntary organisations and community groups

Parenting Providers All organisations that provide information, guidance, support and interventions for parents to support their parenting role[2]

PSGParenting Strategy Group – representatives from the main providers of parenting services in Wrexham

SFPStrengthening Families Programme (10-14)

Parenting TeamThose who work for the Council in the Prevention and Inclusion Department , providing co-ordination of parenting provision; currently the Parenting Co-ordinator, Parenting Administrative Assistant, SFP Co-ordinator

WFIS Wrexham Family Information Service

PIPsParent Information Points – touch screen kiosks where parents can access the information from the WFIS

CAHMSChild and Adolescent Health Service

CYPPChildren and Young People’s Plan

FPB Framework Partnership Board

ICCIntegrated Children’s Centre

NSFNational Service Frameworkfor Children, Young People and Maternity Services

SCoGStrategic Co-ordination Group (subgroup of FPB)

WAGWelsh Assembly Government

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Executive Summary

The Vision for this Parenting Strategy is to

“Improve the outcomes of children and young people in Wrexham now and in the future, by better supporting parents in their parenting role”.

The Principles are

  • To ensure that provision is of the best possible standard, delivered by qualified and experienced practitioners
  • To ensure that appropriate parenting provision is available at all tiers of need[3]for all parents who need it, including those in potentially marginalised parent groups[4]
  • To maximise the opportunities for parenting providers to work together in partnership, in order to optimise provision

The Purpose of this Parenting Strategy for Wrexham is to improve the support provided to parents in their parenting role. This strategy brings together all main providers of parenting in a partnership to consider the current provision, to map that against what parents and practitioners tell us is needed and to develop parenting provision to meet this need. This strategy is the record of the work done by parenting partners and their plans to improve parenting provision over the next three years.

The key national priorities from both the WAG Parenting Action Plan and the NSF have informed the Parenting Strategy in Wrexham, as have those of the Children and Young People’s Plan locally.

Tiers of Need

The following tier system is used in this strategy to describe the different tiers of need for parenting support and the services that are designed to address this need.

Tier 1 - Universal Need

At Tier 1 services include: Information available to all parents; Leaflets, TV programmes, verbal, books and booklets, self-help DVD programmes

Advice available for all parents: from Wrexham Family Information Service, Health Visitors, teachers, nursery staff, chemist, doctors and health centres, libraries etc.

Tier 2 - Extra support for parents is needed

At Tier 2 services include: Support is parent – led, voluntarily accessed, or ‘opt-in’, Information and advice, parents groups, programmes for groups and individual families, family support; Child(ren) may have a TAC or some extra support

Tier 3 Needs - Parenting intervention is needed

At Tier 3 services include: Information and advice, parents groups, programmes for groups and individual families, family support; Child may have a TAC or be a Child in Need

Tier 4 Needs - Family needs crisis or urgent intervention

At Tier 4 services include: Information and advice, parents groups, programmes for groups and individual families, social work support; children may be on CP register or a young offender; family may have in depth assessment

Current Provision

Mapping of parenting provision, carried out in 2009 in Wrexham has resulted in a mixed picture. Some areas have better provision than others; parents of some age-groups of child are better served than others; some tiers of need have better provision than others. In particular, there was fairly good provision at tier 1, insufficient at tier 2 (except in some primary schools) and provision for tiers 3 and 4 tended to be focused on pre-school and primary aged children living in areas of deprivation. A gap in parenting for parents of the 10+ age group was identified immediately, although this has partly been addressed by the recent introduction of the Strengthening Families Programme (10-14).

Consultation

In the summer of 2009, a consultation[5] took place about parenting support in Wrexham where questionnaires were completed by parents, parenting practitioners, schools and staff in children and young people’s services. The questionnaires asked about their thoughts on current parenting provision, any identified gaps in provision, their experience of and thoughts about parent participation, their thoughts about current arrangements for access to provision and the potential for developing new provision.The results of the consultation have been used as a basis for the decisions made about the development of new provision for Wrexham. The strategy explains how the key messages from the consultation link to the Strategy Action Plan.

Quality

The strategy defines what a ‘quality’ parenting service is:

  1. Practitioners are experienced and sufficiently qualified to deliver their parenting service to a good or excellent standard
  2. Access for parents to the provision is straightforward and does not present parents with insurmountable obstacles
  3. The service represents evidence - based practice
  4. There is evidence of a focus on positive parenting, the importance of play and the involvement of the father
  5. The service is evaluated using an evidence based evaluation tool and is judged to be effective or very effective in terms of outcomes for families
  6. The level of parent participation in the service is appropriate to the service and is at least at the ‘consultation’ level[6]

Recommendations of the Parenting Strategy

That a 3 yearly Audit of ParentingProvision be carried out by the Parenting Team in partnership with parenting providers to assess the extent of provision, how provision addressed need, the quality of parenting services and the extent to which Wrexham’s parenting practitioners meet the minimum level of qualifications expected at their tier of provision.

That an Annual Mapping of Parenting Provision and an Annual Assessment of Parenting Services be carried out and that an Annual Report on Parenting Provision be compiled by the Parenting Co-ordinator in order to assess and record progress against the actions in the Parenting Strategy Action Plan.

That an annual Training Plan be developed by the PSG to meet training needs of parenting staff.

That parenting providers follow the guidance regardingInformation Sharing contained in this strategy when sharing confidential and sensitive information about families between agencies.

That new members of staff be introduced to the Parenting Team, funding permitting:

  • Parent Network Co-ordinatorwhose role would be to promote parent participation, access to provision and to support the development of Tier 2 provision for parent groups
  • Sessional Parenting Workers who will deliver individual programmes and interventions as and when needed
  • Parenting Officerto deliver parenting programmes and one-to-one interventions and to train practitioners to deliver interventions and support their delivery
  • Dads’ Worker to actively promote father-friendly parenting provision in Wrexham and to promote the participation of dads in parenting provision and in children and young people’s services

New Provision will be introduced to Wrexham to meet need, with the PSG advising as to its suitability, its evidence base and its cost effectiveness. A partnership approach to delivery will be used wherever possible.

Parenting Strategy Action Plan

The action plan is divided into four sections, addressing

  1. Workforce Development
  2. Parent Participation
  3. Parenting Provision
  4. Parenting and Schools

Workforce Development

  1. To increase the numbers of highly trained, qualified, experienced, motivated and flexible parenting practitioners, able to deliver a wide range of evidence based parenting provision to the highest standards
  2. Enable parenting practitioners to evidence their skills, qualifications, training and experience in working with parents when applying for jobs, training places or applying to deliver parenting interventions

Parent Participation

  1. Raise the standard of parent participation in Wrexham among parenting services and in children and young people’s (CYP) services.
  2. Ensure that agencies in Wrexham fully support parents to participate in their services to the highest level possible
  3. To improve access to Parenting Provision

Parenting Provision

  1. To maintain and develop current provision and to introduce a variety of new evidence based provision to meet the needs of Wrexham parents at all tiers of need, including parents in potentially marginalised groups.
  2. To assess the quality of parenting provision in Wrexham and to improve the quality of provision where needed
  3. To increase the capacity of providers in Wrexham to deliver parenting provision

Parenting and Schools

  1. To increase the amount of parenting provision delivered in school premises
  2. To increase the partnership role schools play in providing parenting support and to ensure that young people understand the basics of good parenting

Actions under these headings are outlined in the strategy, with indicators of how progress towards these objectives will be measured.

Monitoring and Reviewing

This Parenting Strategy covers a 3 year period, from April 2010 – March 2013. Progress towards the short, medium and long term actions identified on the parenting action plan will be monitored throughout each year and reported annually each March by means of an annual report to the Enjoyment and Participation SCoG. The PSG will engage in an annual process of reviewing and revising the Parenting Strategy Action Plan. In the autumn of 2012, the PSG will engage in the process of agreeing a new Parenting Strategy for the period beyond April 2013.

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  1. Introduction

Purpose

This strategy has been written to give the reader an understanding of the why, who, how, what, when of current and future parenting provision.

Why?

  • Why the strategy has been written
  • Why the actions on the action plan were chosen

Who ?

  • Who has been involved in developing and informing the strategy
  • Who is involved in parenting provision in Wrexham

How?

  • How the strategy has been developed
  • How parenting provision should be delivered

What?

  • What the strategy is aiming to change
  • What new provision is being planned

When?

  • When the strategy will be completed and reviewed
  • When the actions in the strategy will be done

The aimof this Wrexham’sParenting Strategy is to improve the support provided to parents in their parenting role. This strategy brings together all main providers of parenting in a parenting partnership to consider

  • The current provision and what parents and practitioners think of it
  • What parents say about the support they want
  • What practitioners say about the provision that is needed
  • The level of parent participation in Wrexham

This Strategy is the record of this work undertakenby parenting partners and their plans to improve parenting provision over the next three years.

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Vision and Principles

The Vision for this Strategy is to

“Improve the outcomes of children and young people in Wrexham now and in the future, by better supporting parents in their parenting role”.

The Principles are

  • To ensure that provision is of the best possible standard, delivered by qualified and experienced practitioners
  • To ensure that appropriate parenting provision is available at all tiers of need[7]for all parents who need it, including those in potentially marginalised parent groups[8]
  • To maximise the opportunities for parenting providers to work together in partnership, in order to optimise provision

Involvement of Parenting Organisations in the Strategy

The parenting strategy group which has worked together to create the strategy has been working at two levels.

  1. The Parenting Strategy Group
  2. The Four Parenting Strategy Sub Groups

The Parenting Strategy Group (PSG) comprises members from 34 different parenting organisations, including statutory (local authority, health) and voluntary organisations. The Group is chaired by the Parenting Co-ordinator.

The four Parenting Strategy Subgroups are focussed upon

  1. Strategy Development and Workforce Development
  2. Parent Participation
  3. Parenting Provision
  4. Parenting and Schools

All members of the PSG sit on at least one subgroup and the subgroups also have some co-opted members who do not sit on the PSG.

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The Development of the Strategy

In recent years, Wrexham has offered parents support through a number of different organisations which, prior to summer 2007 was co-ordinated through the Family Support Group, a subgroup of the Children and Young People’s Framework Partnership Board (FPB). As a result of a restructuring of the FPB and the dissolution of its subgroups, it was decided that the co-ordination for parenting would be managed by a parenting co-ordinator, who started in role in April 08. Following an initial mapping of providers and provision, the Parenting Strategy Group was formed and work started on the Parenting Strategy in October 2008.

Reporting

The PSG has met 3-monthly, with its subgroups meeting more frequently and reporting to the PSG. Reports from the PSG are taken to the Strategic Co-ordination Group (SCoG) for Enjoyment and Participation, chaired by the Chief Officer for Prevention and Inclusion, and through this SCoG to the Framework Partnership Board.

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  1. National Context

Many areas in Wales have now developed their own Parenting Strategy in response to the Welsh Assembly Government’s Parenting Action Plan, published in 2005. The Plan raised the profile of support for parenting and parent participation. It focused on improving information given to parents, promoting positive parenting, improving the standard of parent participation in services (including schools), improving the link between schools and parenting and on providing support to specific groups of parents.

The National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services (NSF) also measures the extent to which local authority areas provide support for parenting and promote parent participation. The NSF requires services in local authority areas to assess their provision in terms of a number of key priorities including

  • Offering a range of universal and targeted services to meet assessed need
  • The provision of parenting advice which is consistent, achieved through multi-agency training programmes
  • Ready access for parents/ carers to evidence-based information about parenting issues through a range of appropriate media
  • Joint working arrangements to promote and deliver parenting education
  • Finding creative solutions for barriers to participation in parenting support programmes
  • Programmes designed with the participation of parents

The key priorities from both the WAG Parenting Action Plan and the NSF have informed the Parenting Strategy in Wrexham.

The Parenting Strategy Group has been in touch with many other areas of Wales in order to inform the Wrexham Parenting Strategy in terms of national initiatives, parenting provision and examples of good practice. To this end, the Parenting Co-ordinator attends both the All Wales Parenting Co-ordinators’ Forum and the strategic group, Fforwm Magu Plant, (both facilitated by Children in Wales).

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  1. Local Context

Current Child Population

Information on the population of Wrexham has been taken directly from the Assessment of Childcare Sufficiency carried out for Wrexham CBC by Melyn Consulting in 2008.

The most recent statistics[9] suggest that there are 23,106 children aged 0 to 14 living in Wrexham.Children are spread across the County Borough fairly evenly (in relation to the population as a whole). The population of children and young people in Wrexham fell by 2.8% between 2001 and 2006 according to ONS population estimates - a loss of 658.In the period from 1996 to 2006, the numbers of live births in Wrexham were variable but since 2003, they have been increasing steadily.

Long term projections for the overall population of children in Wrexham are downwards. By 2026 it is expected that there will be between 11% and17% fewer children and young people than there were in 2001.

There is a clear correlation in Wrexham between indicators of poverty and deprivation and the population of children. In general, in the most deprived areas are those with a higher proportion of children in the population.

The Childcare Sufficiency Assessment recognises that the statistics on the population changes as a result of inward and outward migration have not yet been fully collated. However, it makes the following points:

Data from Wrexham schools detailing the numbers of children with English as an additional language (EAL) should provide an indication of any increase in children moving into the area who do not have English or Welsh as their first language. This shows a marked increase in the numbers, with 665 children identified as having EAL in 2007 compared with 356 in 2006 and just 288 in 2005. This represents an 80% year-on-year increase.