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Most would agree that disadvantaged young parents often need help with parenting skills. But it is easy to alienate one or other parent in the process, finds Sarah Wellard.

Bringing up children is no longer something that we are expected to just get on with,  but a set of skills and knowledge to be mastered. For policy makers looking for cheap and effective ways of dealing with problem families and improving the life chances of disadvantaged children, parenting education is an appealing option.

Parenting programmes are a key element of the government’s teenage pregnancy strategy. Every year 25,000 babies are born in the UK to teenage parents, one of the highest rates in the developed world. These children are at greater risk of developmental delay, low educational achievement, behavioural problems and abuse, than the children of older mothers.

Jane Barlow and Esther Coren from the Health Services Research Unit at the Department of Public Health at Oxford University have reviewed the research on individual and group-based parenting programmes.¹ They conclude that these programmes can be effective in improving outcomes for teenage mothers and their children. Of the programmes reviewed, Barlow and Coren found that group approaches produced the most positive changes. Barlow says: “It is clear that it is helpful for people to be in a group with other parents. Outcomes for parents depend on the skills of the facilitators, such as being respectful and empathetic and having a sense of humour, rather than the specific content of the course.”

Hilary Pilcher is a teenage pregnancy and parenting midwife who aims to put these principles into practice. She works in the Scunthorpe area as part of the local teenage pregnancy strategy. She offers one -to-one and group support to young mothers, their partners and families, together with a playworker. The group work is semi-structured, and she tailors the programme to issues which young parents raise in discussion. Pilcher says: “It’s about listening and being aware of where the young person is at, emotionally and psychologically, and responding. The principles of working with teenage parents are exactly the same as with young adults, except that it usually takes longer to develop a relationship of trust.”

Debbie Cowley, practice development manager at Parenting Education and Support Forum (PESF) agrees that the attitude and skills of the facilitators are key. She says: “Facilitators need to acknowledge that parents are experts on their own children. That’s just as true for young parents as for older ones, but people often feel they have a right to talk to young people in a certain way. Young people often feel criticised and patronised.”

She says that while young parents may benefit from attending mixed parenting programmes alongside older parents, there’s a strong case for separate services. She says: “Ordinary services don’t always appeal to young people. It’s about looking at what their needs are and responding; for example, meeting other young parents. But not everyone wants a group. A drop-in, talking over the phone or going to people’s homes might be more appropriate.”

Young parents are more likely than their childless peers to have a background of poverty, low educational achievement, or family conflict or to have been in care. Deena Haydon, principal officer for research and development at Barnardo’s, is developing a resource pack for professionals working with young parents on behalf of the Teenage Pregnancy Unit. She has been talking to a number of young parents about what they need.

Haydon believes that service providers need to look holistically at the needs of young parents who are themselves vulnerable. She says: “It’s simplistic to think it’s only about help with parenting skills. The issues the young people identified were around self-development, education, training and careers, knowing about household skills and budgeting and having appropriate accommodation, as well as parenting. They also wanted other young parents involved in setting up and running services.”

These kinds of concerns are reflected in a series of pilot programmes for young fathers being set up by the Home Office’s Family Policy Unit. The aim is to develop model projects in Birmingham, Sheffield, Norwich, London and Newcastle based on existing best practice, which can then be refined and replicated elsewhere in the country. The rationale behind the work is that a father’s involvement can make a big difference to children’s lives. Apart from the obvious social and emotional benefits, children who stay in touch with their father tend to achieve more at school and are less likely to offend. Yet one year after the child’s birth, only 50 per cent of the fathers of children born to teenage mothers are still in contact with the child.

Kevin Lowe, assistant director for training and development at the Trust for the Study of Adolescence, and co-ordinator of the young fathers’ projects, acknowledges that contact is not always in the child’s interests. “Contact is a good thing provided the father can offer something positive. Some are just not able to do that,” he says.

Lowe says that the projects will embody five key elements, energetic outreach, one-to-one work with young men, semi-structured group work, peer support and work with professionals. Outreach work with hospitals and midwives is vital to identify the young fathers in the first instance, and also to try to challenge some of the unhelpful stereotypes about young fathers. Lowe says: “There’s a strong view that all young fathers are feckless and irresponsible. By no means all fall by the wayside, but the odds are heavily stacked against them. Young women and their parents don’t necessarily see them as having a role, especially if they don’t seem the most attractive prospect at the time. They feel that they’re not wanted and they don’t feel terribly good about themselves if they can’t be a provider.”  

Evidence from earlier work in Norfolk indicates that some young men benefit from group work focusing on parenting issues, and that peer support can be a powerful influence for good. Lowe says: “Young fathers can be a great resource to each other and the best advert for the service.” The most vulnerable young men may also need one-to-one help to deal with personal issues. They may also need guidance with practical issues to do with parenting and setting up home.

Young fathers and young mothers may need support before they are able to benefit from being part of a group. Barlow cautions against seeing parenting programmes as a panacea. She says: “We know there is a group whose very difficult problems aren’t being reached. Some 30-50 per cent of participants don’t show any change. Large numbers drop out or don’t go along to programmes, sometimes because of personal difficulties or because they don’t expect to get anything good out of it. Parenting programmes need to be seen as part of a range of interventions.”

Unpublished research from the Oxford team on unintended consequences of parenting education underlines how vital it is proceed with caution when intervening in family life. Initial findings suggest that where only mothers attended the programme, their participation can lead to increased tension with partners. Many of the women interviewed spoke of the difficulties they faced at home when trying to apply the techniques they had learned on the programme, including gaining the support of their partners.

As with all social interventions, there is a risk that the good intentions of practitioners may blind them to the potential for harm. Although PESF have plans in the pipeline for quality standards and a core curriculum for training parenting facilitators, parenting education and parent training is still something of a regulation-free zone. Anyone can call themselves a parent educator and set up a course. In practice, parenting education is provided by a wide variety of professionals including health visitors, social workers, youth workers and psychotherapists, as well as parents who have themselves participated in parenting programmes. Some have received specific training but others have not. Consequently, the quality of parenting education is variable.

Cowley says: “There’s lots of good practice out there, but there’s also the danger of making young parents feel worse if people try to tell them what to do.”  

¹ Coren, Barlow, The Effectiveness of Individual and Group-Based Parenting Programmes in Improving Outcomes for Teenage Mothers and their Children, A systematic review of the literature, Oxford, 2001