Skip to main content Sitemap Help Copyright Feedback Accessibility

Training and Development Agency for Schools
Advanced search

Parenting support

Involving parents in their children’s education can help remove barriers to learning, raise attainment and improve attitudes and behaviour.

Parenting support aims to equip parents and carers with the skills to support their child’s education and to deal effectively with issues that could affect the well-being of the family. Schools will need to provide:

  • local services, tailored to the needs of those parents who stand to benefit most from support
  • transition information sessions for parents whose children are joining a reception class or transferring to secondary school
  • details of local and national sources of advice and support
  • access to parenting groups that use structured, evidence-based parenting programmes
  • access to informal networking opportunities such as coffee mornings and cookery or ICT classes, and
  • family learning sessions (depending on demand).

Providing parenting support

Schools need to take a proactive approach to ensuring that families feel engaged and able to ask for support if they need it. Parenting support services can be provided either by the school or by signposting parents to existing services. Schools will need to assess existing provision and consult parents and carers, staff and the local community about their needs before deciding which approach to take.

To help schools provide parenting support as an extended service, a role has been created – the parent support adviser (PSA). Some schools and local authorities already have similar school-based roles, such as family support workers and home school liaison officers.

Why offer parenting support?

Research carried out by Ofsted found that "services that were used by the most vulnerable parents were reported to have transformed the lives of some parents and had positive effects on their children." There is evidence to show that schools that work closely and effectively with parents have:

  • improved levels of achievement
  • more positive pupil attitudes and behaviour, and
  • greater parent participation in, and support for, the life and work of the school.

Where parents are engaged with the school, they are also more likely to share information, allowing problems and misunderstandings to be reconciled before they escalate.