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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The Family Conferencing: A Ground-Breaking Practice for Community-Based Child Protection in Kenya

Diego Ottolini, 01 Apr 2011

A retrospective exploratory study on 73 family group decision making conferences for children referred to institutional public services in Kenya to investigate the short, medium and long term conference outcomes on child’s safety, permanency and wellbeing.

The Family Conferencing

Diego Ottolini, 01 Apr 2011

This is a retrospective exploratory study looking at 73 family group decision-making conferences for chidlren referred to institutional public services in Kenya.

World Report on Disability 2011

World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank, 2011

The first ever World report on disability, produced jointly by WHO and the World Bank, suggests that more than a billion people in the world today experience disability. This report provides the best available evidence about what works to overcome barriers to health care, rehabilitation, education, employment, and support services, and to create the environments which will enable people with disabilities to flourish. The report ends with a concrete set of recommended actions for governments and their partners.

View Report

Cabinet Brief: Strategy for National Child Care Reform

The Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF), Rwanda, 2011

This brief was prepared by the Rwandan Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF), requesting the Cabinet to approve the proposed child care reform strategy and to support its implementation.

Strengthening Families and Communities: 2011 Resource Guide

Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2011

Resource guide developed to support service providers in their work with parents, caregivers, and children to prevent child abuse and neglect

Children without Appropriate Care: Participant Manual for Asia and the Pacific

Louise Melville Fulford, 31 Dec 2010

This manual offers a training session targeted at policy makers, professionals and paraprofessionals who are already working on programs to support children without appropriate care, or who may begin work in this area. This workshop focuses on children in developing contexts, who require support within their families and those who need an alternative care placement.

Situation Analysis and Recommendations: Dampier Peninsula Indigenous Parenting Support Services

Save the Children, Australia, 01 Dec 2010

This report, published by Save the Children Australia, analyzes the situation of the parenting support services for Indigenous communities in the Dampier Peninsula of Australia.

Positively Caring: Ensuring that Positive Choices Can Be Made about the Care of Children Affected by HIV

EveryChild , 20 Nov 2010

This report examines the impacts of HIV on the care choices of children, exploring how HIV affects whether or not children can remain within parental care, and on the alternative care options open to them.

Supporting Refugee Families: Adapting Family Strengthening Programs that Build on Assets

Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services , 23 Sep 2010

Briefing note on supporting refugee families through asset-based family strengthening programs.

Family Strengthening and Support: Policy Brief

Save the Children , 01 Sep 2010

Call for greater political and financial commitment to help build parents’ capacity to care for their children and to tackle the poverty and social exclusion that underlie many of the problems experienced by children and their families.