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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Family Support and Alternative Care in the Baltic Sea Region Background Paper 2015

Daja Wenke - Council of the Baltic Sea States Secretariat, Expert Group for Cooperation on Children at Risk, 06 May 2015

This background paper was developed as part of a regional study which gathered relevant data and information on family support and alternative care in the eleven Member States of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS).

Family Support and Alternative Care Tallinn Expert Meeting Report 2015

Council of the Baltic Sea States, Estonian Presidency 2014-2015, Sotsiaalministeerium, 06 May 2015

This report provides an overview of the two-day expert meeting on alternative care and family support in the Baltic Sea Region that took place in Tallinn, Estonia in May 2015.

Tallinn Recommendations and Action Plan on Alternative Care and Family Support for the Baltic Sea Region 2015 - 2020

Republic of Estonia Ministry of Social Affairs, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Estonian Presidency 2014-2015, 06 May 2015

Government representatives, experts and professionals from the Baltic Sea Region including Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, the Russian Federation, Sweden and wider Europe gathered at a two-day expert meeting in Tallinn, Estonia and, together, endorsed a set of recommendations and action plan on alternative care and family support on 6 May 2015.

Compendium of promising practices to ensure that children under the age of three grow up in a safe and supportive family environment

UNICEF, 01 May 2015

This Compendium is a compilation of the most encouraging initiatives in the area of prevention of child abandonment and relinquishment that have been implemented and tested in the CEE/CIS region.

The Family Startup Program: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial of a universal group-based parenting support program

Tea Trillingsgaard, Rikke Damkjær Maimburg and Marianne Simonsen - BMC Public Health, 21 Apr 2015

This protocol describes an ambitious experimental evaluation of a universal group based parenting support program, the Family Startup Program (FSP), currently implemented large scale in Denmark; an evaluation that has not yet been made either in Denmark or internationally.

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Country Care Review: Germany

Better Care Network, 17 Apr 2015

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Unaccompanied and Separated Children Video

Global Child Protection Working Group, 16 Mar 2015

This video examines Standard 13, “Unaccompanied and Separated Children,” of the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, developed by the Global Child Protection Working Group and collaborators.

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Mental Illness and Parenthood: Being a Parent in Secure Psychiatric Care

Fiona R. Parrott, Douglas l. Macinnes and Janet Parrott - Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, Vol. 25, No. 1 , 06 Mar 2015

This qualitative study sought to understand the experiences of parents in England who are separated from their children due to their placement in a secure psychiatric center. The study included participants whose children had been placed into foster or kinship care or family adoption.

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“The love that I was missing”: Exploring the lived experience of motherhood among teen mothers in foster care

Elizabeth Aparicioa, Edward V. Pecukonisa, Shalita O'Nealeb - Children and Youth Services Review, 10 Feb 2015

The present study employed Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore the experiences and meaning of motherhood among teen mothers in foster care in the United States.

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The ‘Being and Doing’ Side of Our Behavior: Family Well-Being in a Time of Change

International Federation for Family Development , 01 Feb 2015

This paper provides a brief overview of basic family structures in EU countries and a description of family breakdown and its impact on children’s wellbeing.