Measuring the impact of your project or intervention can provide evidence of value for money and that the intervention chosen has had the intended consequence for the family. The following booklet produced by the Family and Parenting Institute provides a useful guide:
Measuring your own effectiveness with families, parents and children: a short guide to evaluation produced by the Family and Parenting Institute. These can be ordered by going to their website .
Parenting Programmes
There are a myriad of parenting programmes available but not all of these have been vigorously evaluated. The Welsh Government’s guidance for Flying Start contains recommendations on parenting programmes appropriate for pre-school age children.
The Cardiff Parenting Framework contains useful information about parenting programmes and the evaluation done on these. Please visit their website to view this.
Flintshire has produced an extensive document looking at the suitability of various parenting programmes and the evidence to support them. You can download this document here.
The Commissioning Toolkit developed by the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners (now part of Children's Workforce Development Council in England) is intended to help commissioners to make informed choices about how suitable a particular programme may be in meeting the needs of specific parents. The Commissioning Toolkit evaluates and rates the quality and effectiveness of parenting programmes using the Parenting Programme Evaluation Tool (PPET).
The following papers may also be useful:
Reaching parents: Improving take-up of parenting programmes: guide to promoting access to parent education programmes and maintaining attendance, Social Care Institute for Excellence SCIE 2009What Works in Parenting Support? A Review of the International Evidence, Patricia Moran, Deborah Ghate and Amelia van der Merwe, Policy Research Bureau Research, 2004The delivery of parent skills training programmes: Meta-analytic studies and systematic reviews of what works best, Family and Parenting Institute Supervising family and parenting workers: a short guide, Honor Rhodes, Family and Parenting Institute
Parents play a direct role in helping their children learn especially at an early age. Parental involvement in a child's education has been shown to be a factor in better attendance, attainment and positive attitudes to learning. Fathers’ involvement has also been shown to be pivotal. A number of papers provide evidence of this:
The Impact of Parental Involvement on Children’s Education, DCSF 2008The Impact of Parental Involvement, Parental Support and Family Education on Pupil Achievements and Adjustment: A Literature Review Professor Charles Desforges with Alberto Abouchaar, DCSF 2003Predicting adult life outcomes from earlier signals: modelling pathways through childhood, Report for HMT, Leon Feinstein, 2006
The following paper is a useful source for practical ideas on involving parents in primary school:
Good practice in parental Involvement in primary schools, Estyn, 2009
The Early Home Learning Matters website brings together the evidence around the vital role parents play in their child’s early learning and provides practical resources for children’s early learning from birth to 5 years.
The following report details findings from a quantitative survey conducted in 2006 by Children in Wales examining the issue of parental involvement in the education of their children:
Parents and Schools - Making the Connection: An exploration of the relationship between parents and schools in WalesParent participation/engagement
When services are developed in partnership with parents they are more likely to be useful to them and to be well used. The following guide has been produced by the Welsh Government to provide a model for parent participation and give practical examples:
Parent Participation: Practice Guide for Children and Young People’s Partnerships, Welsh Assembly Government, 2005
The following paper may also be useful:
Reaching parents: Improving take-up of parenting programmes: guide to promoting access to parent education programmes and maintaining attendance, Social Care Institute for Excellence SCIE 2009
Information for the families you work with
In December 2012, The National Association of Family Information Services (NAFIS) produced a briefing on Family Information Services: A survey of Family Information Services in England and Wales.
Our website contains a range of free resources for parents and details of sources of support and information available in different areas of Wales.