Parenting Support

Families will require support when faced with problems they are unable to overcome on their own. Ideally support should come from existing networks, such as extended family, religious leaders, and neighbours. Where such support is not available or sufficient, additional family and community services are required. Such services are particularly important for kinship, foster and adoptive caretakers, and child headed households in order to prevent separation and address abuse and exploitation of children. It is also vital for children affected by HIV/AIDS and armed conflict, and those children living on the street.

Parenting support services are typically provided by social and community paraprofessionals. They focus on the individual needs of a child or family, in order to address and overcome issues which may lead to family separation or harm to the child. Such services should be provided within the context of case planning, beginning with an assessment of the child and family situation. By assessing the need first, an appropriate set of services can be offered, such as day care provision, parenting support, household economic strengthening, or psychosocial referral.

Day care services are particularly important for caretakers who are overwhelmed as a result of ill health, cannot provide adaquate care because they need to work, or who are isolated within the community. It provides an excellent opportunity for children to socialise with others, and can offer additional protection and education.

Parenting support provides caretakers with an opportunity to talk about their difficulties, and learn additional techniques for meeting their child’s developmental and relationship needs. It can enable caretakers to cope with behavioural problems, and address abusive parenting techniques, thereby reducing the need for family separation and improving the incidence of successful family reunification.

The literature in this section contains information on family support programmes for vulnerable children, including day care and parenting support.

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Adapting the Friends of the Children programme for child welfare system‐involved families

Amy M. Salazar, Kevin P. Haggerty, Susan Walsh, Bailey Noell, Erinn Kelley‐Siel - Child & Family Social Work, 07 Jan 2019

This paper reviews the Friends of the Children (FOTC) long‐term mentoring programme in the US and how it was adapted to serve children and families with child welfare system involvement.

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Balancing the scales: Custody deprivation and fostering in Iceland

Hanna Björg Sigurjónsdóttir, Robin Harwick, James Rice - International Social Work, 04 Jan 2019

Building on discourse analyses of custody deprivation cases, the authors of this paper call for greater understanding of how disability intersects with parenting and the need for an improved support system.

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Maternal schizophrenia and out-of-home placements of offspring: a national follow-up study among Finnish women born 1965-1980 and their children

Laura Simoila, Erkki Isometsä, Mika Gissler, Jaana Suvisaari, Eila Sailas, Erja Halmesmäki, Nina Lindberg - Psychiatry Research, 04 Jan 2019

This study investigated out-of-home placements in Finland among children with a biological mother having schizophrenia, and their relation to maternal characteristics and adverse perinatal health outcomes of the offspring.

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Manifiesto Para Equidad Racial y Liderazgo de Padres

Center for the Study of Social Policy, 02 Jan 2019

Para ayudarle a los sistemas de primera infancia en los E.E.U.U. a aprender a trabajar con padres de maneras que promuevan resultados equitativos y maximicen las oportunidades para todos los niños 40 padres líderes y personal de agencias de nueve comunidades de Early Childhood Learning and Innovation Network for Communities (EC-LINC) se reunieron en enero de 2018 para crear un manifiesto para el cambio.

Manifesto for Race Equity & Parent Leadership in Early Childhood Systems

Center for the Study of Social Policy, 02 Jan 2019

To help early childhood systems in the U.S. learn to work with parents in ways that promote equitable outcomes and maximize opportunities for all children, 40 parent leaders and agency staff from nine Early Childhood Learning and Innovation Network for Communities (EC-LINC) communities came together in January 2018 to create a manifesto for change.

The Routledge Handbook of Critical Social Work, 1st Edition

Edited by Stephen A. Webb, 2019

The Routledge Handbook of Critical Social Work brings together the world’s leading scholars in the field to provide a cutting-edge overview of classic and current research and future trends in the subject.

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Is Family Group Conferencing a Culturally Adequate Method outside the Origin of New Zealand? A Systematic Review

Reidunn Håøy Nygård, Merete Saus - Social Work and Social Sciences Review, 2019

Through systematic and strategic searches, the authors explored the existing trends of Family Group Conference (FGC) research in indigenous contexts.

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Protective Factors Action Sheets

The Center for the Study of Social Policy, 2019

This packet includes the research brief about each protective factor as well as an “action sheet” for service providers about their role in supporting families to build each protective factor.

Module 2 of the Parenting without Violence Bronze Course: How Parenting without Violence Works

Save the Children, 2019

This module is the second part of the Parenting without Violence Bronze Course. It focuses on the course's second learning outcome by sharing more about HOW Parenting without Violence works.

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Adapting a Parenting Program to Support Family Reintegration

Coordinating Comprehensive Care for Children (4Children), 2019

This Practitioner Brief presents key learning and recommendations from the Keeping Children in Healthy and Protective Families (KCHPF) project, an operational research project which supported the reintegration of children living in residential care back into family care in Uganda.