Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T03:18:50.106Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Parenting Support in England: The Bedding Down of a New Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2015

Mary Daly  and
Rachel Bray
Mary Daly
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford E-mail: [email protected]
Rachel Bray
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article enquires into how parenting support, as concept, policy and provision, has penetrated the English social policy landscape, and critically considers why it has proved so popular with policy makers. It first outlines the existing policy configuration. The second section identifies some key factors precipitating the roll-out of parenting support and the third section takes an overview of the significance of the developments from a social and family policy perspective. The argument advanced is that the growth and expansion of parenting support is explained by a coming together of a set of political exigencies around ‘risk’ and the healthy child, and a set of policy ‘solutions’ which are seen to have high promise. In particular, parenting support has the advantage of being relatively easily generalisable (especially in the form of programmes) and aligns with several current developments of the welfare state, towards activation, provision of support through services and an interest in localism.

Keywords

Parenting supportparenting programmeswelfare state reformfamily policyearly child developmentEngland
Type
Themed Section on Parenting Support in European Countries: A Complex Development in Social Policy
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , October 2015 , pp. 633 - 644
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Churchill, H. and Clarke, K. (2010) ‘Investing in parenting education: a critical review of policy and provision in England’, Social Policy and Society, 9, 1, 39–53.Google Scholar
Clarke, K. (2006) ‘Childhood, parenting and early intervention: a critical examination of the Sure Start national programme’, Critical Social Policy, 26, 4, 699–721.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daly, M. (2013) ‘Parenting support policies in Europe’, Families, Relationships and Societies, 2, 2, 159–74.Google Scholar
Daly, M. (2015) ‘Parenting support as policy field: an analytic framework’, Social Policy and Society, forthcoming.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisenstadt, N. (2011) Providing a Sure Start: How Government Discovered Early Childhood, Bristol: The Policy Press.Google Scholar
Family and Parenting Institute (2012) Families on the Front Line? Local Spending on Children's Services in Austerity, London: Family and Parenting Institute.Google Scholar
Gillies, V. (2004) ‘Meeting parents’ needs? Discourses of “support” and “inclusion” in family policy', Critical Social Policy, 25, 1, 70–90.Google Scholar
Gillies, V. (2011) ‘From function to competence: engaging with the new politics of family’, Sociological Research Online, 16, 4, 11.Google Scholar
Jenson, J. (2010) ‘Diffusing ideas for after neoliberalism: the social investment perspective in Europe and Latin America’, Global Social Policy, 10, 1, 59–84.Google Scholar
Lewis, J. (2011a) ‘From Sure Start to Children's Centres: an analysis of policy change in English early years programmes’, Journal of Social Policy, 40, 1, 71–88.Google Scholar
Lewis, J. (2011b) ‘Parenting programmes in England: policy development and implementation issues, 2005–2010’, Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 33, 2, 107–21.Google Scholar
Melhuish, E., Belsky, J., MacPherson, K. and Cullis, A. (2010) The Quality of Group Childcare Settings Used by 3–4 Year Old Children in Sure Start Local Programme Areas, and the Relationship with Child Outcomes, Nottingham: DfE Publications.Google Scholar
Morris, K. and Featherstone, B. (2010) ‘Investing in children, regulating parents, thinking family: a decade of tensions and contradictions’, Social Policy and Society, 9, 1, 557–66.Google Scholar
Ramaekers, S. and Suissa, J. (2011) The Claims of Parenting: Reasons, Responsibility and Society, Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Wastell, D. and White, S. (2012) ‘Blinded by neuroscience: social policy, the family and the infant brain’, Families, Relationships and Societies, 1, 3, 397–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar