National Academy for Parenting Practitioners to close in April

The National Academy for Parenting Practitioners will close in April 2010 after coming to the end of its three-year funding cycle.

The academy’s programmes on training will be continued by the Children’s Workforce Development Council and the research functions will be taken over by King’s College London.

The academy was launched in November 2007 to improve the skills of practitioners who support parents in England, chaired by Hilton Dawson, now chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers. It was created as part of the government’s Respect Action Plan to tackle antisocial behaviour, with £30m in funding from the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

In a statement announcing the news of its closure, the organisation said it had achieved its aims of training 4,000 practitioners across England and giving them the tools to support 30,000 parents a year.

Mark Molden, who became chair of the academy in July this year, said that through its programme of research and training it had secured “a widespread understanding among commissioners, providers and practitioners that work with parents needs to be evidence-based”.

He added: “Many thousands of parents have been equipped to build positive relationships with their children because of our work.”

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