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 economic burden of child maltreatment in the United States and implications for prevention

Xiangming Fang, Derek S. Brown, Curtis S. Florence, James A. Mercy , 01 Feb 2012

This paper presents new estimates of the average lifetime cost per child maltreatment (CM) victim in the United States and aggregate lifetime costs for all new cases of CM incurred in 2008 using an incidence-based approach. The authors find that the lifetime economic burden of CM is approximately $124 billion. Given this substantial economic burden, the authors argue that the benefits of prevention will likely outweigh the costs for effective programs.

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Child Abandonment and its Prevention in Europe: Romania summary brochure (English)

University of Nottingham, UK, 2012

This document is an English language summary brochure of the Manual of Best Practice titled ‘Child Abandonment and its Prevention in Europe,’ specific to child abandonment in Romania.

Child Rights in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Keeping Families Together: Making social protection more effective for children

Peroline Ainsworth, Elena Gaia, Anna Nordenmark Severinsson, 2012

This edition of Insights produced by UNICEF summarizes the findings and recommendations of studies on the impact and outreach of social protection systems in Albania, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine where high rates of child placement in formal care still persist. The research offers important insight into the weaknesses and challenges faced by social protection systems in the region, but also point to ways in which policy-makers might maximise the impact of social protection systems in order to ‘keep families together’.

Child Abandonment and its Prevention in Europe: Romanian Language Summary Brochure

University of Nottingham, UK, 2012

This document is a Romanian language summary brochure of the Manual of Best Practice titled ‘Child Abandonment and its Prevention in Europe,’ specific to child abandonment in Romania.

Child Abandonment and its Prevention in Europe: French Language Summary Brochure

University of Nottingham, UK, 2012

This document is a French language summary brochure of the Manual of Good Practice titled ‘Child Abandonment and its Prevention in Europe,’ specific to child abandonment in France.

Child Abandonment and its Prevention in Europe: Hungarian Language Summary Brochure

University of Nottingham, UK, 2012

This document is a Hungarian language summary brochure of the Manual of Good Practice titled ‘Child Abandonment and its Prevention in Europe,’ specific to child abandonment in Hungary.

Child Abandonment and its Prevention in Europe: Bulgarian Language Summary Brochure

University of Nottinghman, 2012

This document is a Bulgarian language summary brochure of the Manual of Good Practice titled ‘Child Abandonment and its Prevention in Europe,’ specific to child abandonment in Bulgaria.

Child Abandonment and its Prevention in Europe: UK Summary Brochure

University of Nottingham, UK, 2012

This document is an English language summary brochure of the Manual of Best Practice titled ‘Child Abandonment and its Prevention in Europe,’ specific to child abandonment in the UK.

Child Abandonment and its Prevention in Europe: Polish Language Summary Brochure

University of Nottingham, UK, 2012

This document is a Polish language summary brochure of the Manual of Best Practice titled ‘Child Abandonment and its Prevention in Europe,’ specific to child abandonment in Poland.

Child Abandonment and its Prevention in Europe: Danish Language Summary Brochure

University of Nottingham, UK, 2012

This document is a Danish language summary brochure of the Manual of Good Practice titled ‘Child Abandonment and its Prevention in Europe,’ specific to child abandonment in Denmark.