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Parenting

My Lords, I join other noble Lords in thanking the noble Baroness, Lady   Massey, for introducing this important little debate and congratulate my noble friend Lady Tonge on a forthright and challenging maiden speech. The noble Baroness, Lady Massey, said that parenting was a difficult job for which we as a society give little training. We on these Benches wholeheartedly agree. Yet, we all know that effective parenting is important. Poor parental supervision has been identified as one of the most important factors in juvenile crime and that the total cost of crime to this country is put by the Home Office at some £60 billion every year. We also know that home influences on the young play a significant part in domestic violence later on. Again, the Home Office reckons that that costs society more than some £5 billion a year. Childhood experience is closely linked with mental health and depression. Depression costs the country £9 billion a year. Those statistics demonstrate that it would be not only sensible but cost-effective if we could do something about better parenting. The noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, indicated that it would not be so difficult for us to do something about that. There are openings through Sure Start. Schools provide us with an obvious forum through which to reach parents, particularly at those vulnerable points of transition: when a child starts school at the age of five; when children move from infant to junior school at the age of seven; when they move from the junior school to the secondary school at the age of 11; and when they have to make their choices for GCSEs and other qualifications at the age of 14. All provide us with opportunities for bringing parents together. We also know that the earlier that we can nip the problems in the bud, the better it will be. For every child who displays by the age of 10 emotional and behavioural problems, the cost to society will be 10   times that of the other children in the class. Therefore, we should be doing something about it. What can we do? I draw to noble Lords’ attention a recent publication from the National Family and Parenting Institute, mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord   Northbourne, which describes a number of pilots that it has run, called parent information points. Essentially, the Institute tries to use the opportunities—the transition points—that I described, to get in and to provide parents not only with information but with the knowledge that they are not alone. That is important with any support group. All parents have trouble in one way or another bringing up their children and they should not be alone. The pilots involve a two-hour session with parents. So far, they take place when the children are aged five, when they start school, at 11 when they transfer to secondary and at 14 when they make their choices. So that they become easy with each other, the parents are given a short interactive session when they go around the room and talk about their problems. They will then present the parents with 10 top tips on handling children of that age group. They also have a market stall with all kinds of pamphlets and information. These have proved remarkably effective. The evaluation of the experiment indicated a substantial and significant increase in parents’ self-reported knowledge of child development issues, an awareness of family support services, a readiness to use services and a confidence in themselves as parents. The greatest reported impact was among groups considered hard to reach, including parents on low incomes and Asian parents. Three-quarters of those attending said they had   learnt something new about child behaviour. Seven per cent found the market stalls useful and 89   per cent said that they had learnt something new about services available to them with the more positive impact in the deprived areas. Clearly, the pilots are worth following through and I look forward to hearing from the Minister what proposals the Government have to do so. I hope that they will roll out the programme nationally not only for those aged five but for younger children at Sure Start age. We know that the earlier one can intervene the better. We have raised many questions during the debate and I look forward to hearing about the Government’s proposals. The Question is relevant: to ask the Government,"““what strategies they are developing to encourage effective parenting””." Effective parenting can play a crucial part in the development of these young people and failures in parenting will reverberate through generation after generation.