Study reveals low take-up of Government-funded parenting classes

While the Government’s aim was to normalise and de-stigmatise parenting classes, the report shows that few parents took up the offer of free parenting advice.

A consortium led by Family Lives and supported by Ecorys, the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships and the Family and Parenting Institute have been chosen by the Department for Education, as the preferred bidder to support the development of the parenting classes over the next two years from April.

Currently CANparent is managed by Ecorys, Parenting UK and Orion Print and classes are ran by 14 organisations, including Coram and the National Childbirth Trust.

However, Montessori St Nicholas has just pulled out of the scheme in Camden, frustrated by bureaucracy and low take-up.

Trials of the CANparent initiative, which is aimed at mothers and fathers with children aged five and under, began in April 2012 in Camden, North London, High Peak-Derbyshire and Middlesbrough in the North East.

Under the scheme, families receive vouchers with a monetary value of £100 to spend on parenting advice delivered by an approved list of local providers. Vouchers were available from local children’s centres, GP practices, health centres and Boots stores. From November 2012, parents were able to download the vouchers from the CANparent website.

The CANparent interim report, which was carried out during the first six months of the trial, evaluates whether or not the free provision of parenting classes in the three areas will provide sufficient incentive to providers to start offering universal classes nationally.

Another evaluation is to be carried out this year when the trial has been in operation for at least 12 months. The final report will be published in 2014.

Participation

The interim report found that as of 30 April 2012, only 2 per cent of parents of under-fives in the three areas, had taken part in the parenting classes and participation levels were below 5 per cent for all key sub-groups.

The low take-up of classes was thought to be because at the time interviews were conducted in early summer 2012, only a small number had began running CANparent classes, with some planning to start them from September at the earliest. There were reports of parents receiving vouchers and finding the class they wanted to attend was not yet up and running.

Overall, most providers had taken few steps to prepare for offering parenting classes within a market model. There were misunderstandings of the nature of the market, for example, that the large number of vouchers meant that there would be no competition for parents.

There was also a lack of clarity between providers and stakeholders as to who was responsible for marketing the CANparent classes.

Another issue was that there were too many providers in one trial area - Camden.

While the attitudes of mothers and fathers towards classes were generally positive, the report found that in total only a third of parents said that they might participate in classes and just ten per cent said they were very likely to.

Parents were most positive in Camden, where 41 per cent of parents said they were likely to take part in classes. The proportion of parents likely to take part in classes was lower in Middlesbrough (33 per cent) and High Peak (27 per cent).

Mothers were much more likely to say they would take part than fathers. Two-fifths of mothers said they were either very or fairly likely to take part in classes, compared with only a quarter of fathers.

According to the report, lack of knowledge of the positive outcomes from parenting programmes and time constraints were the main inhibitors to participation. Around 38 per cent of parents could not see that they might benefit from more advice or support, while 16 per cent said they did not have time to attend classes.

There was also a widespread sense that classes were not needed because parents had support from family and friends, or were coping alright by themselves.

Less well-qualified, lower income and young parents were more likely to highlight issues around classes being potentially judgemental in nature, or participation in classes being a sign of failure on their part.

Voucher delivery

The majority of those with vouchers had been actively offered them rather than picking them up from a display/pile. It is thought this is because parents weren’t sure what the vouchers were for.

Vouchers were mainly given out by children’s centres and other early years settings who were also the biggest drivers of awareness of the scheme.

Of the households that had received a voucher, around four in ten had already signed up for a class or said they intended to do so. However, only a quarter of those said that both parents would participate in the classes. In total, only three households had already started Can Parent classes, which equates to five per cent of those who had received vouchers.

Paying for classes

Across all three areas, there was no certainty about what parents might be willing to pay for courses following completion of the trial, but providers believed there would be a need for a mixed economy of paid for and subsidised provision.

Estimates for how much parents would pay for classes ranged from the belief that they would not pay at all to estimates in the low hundreds of pounds.

The report found that potential willingness to pay for classes was strongly linked to household income- 49 per cent of high income households (annual gross income of £35,000 or more) said they would definitely/probably be willing to pay, compared to 26 per cent of low-income households (annual income of £15,000 or less).

One in ten parents highlighted the fact that classes would be too expensive for them. Concerns about the cost of classes were mentioned most frequently by parents from mid-income households.

Recommendations

The report makes a number of recommendations to increase demand, take-up and supply and support sustainability.

It says that the success of CANparent depends on increasing demand and take-up of classes, as well as creating a sufficient supply of providers of quality classes.

One idea to accomplish this is to raise awareness of the Can Parent vouchers - currently only 20 per cent of parents are aware of them. It also suggests actively engaging with parents so they understand what the vouchers are for and emphasising the flexibility of classes as time pressures are a significant barrier to participation.

To reach fathers, it recommends engaging them through other, more ‘male-orientated channels'. The report goes on to say that families out of work are less likely to interact with formal childcare settings, meaning that other channels will be more effective at reaching this group.

A Department for Education spokesperson said, 'Most parents go to ante-natal classes before their child is born and we want them to be able to access similar help and advice in the earliest years of their child’s life.

'The CANparent trial aims to improve parenting skills and address the everyday issues that can arise when raising young children. It is still being successfully delivered by 13 of the original 14 providers and feedback from parents is very positive.'

Sharon Hodgson MP, Labour's shadow children's minister, commenting on the poor take-up of the Government's parenting classes, said, 'David Cameron claimed this would be the most family friendly Government ever, but he's made ordinary families bear the brunt of cuts to services and financial support, and now his flagship parenting programme is in chaos.

'The major issue with the parenting class scheme is that it will never reach those families who need the most help. That is why Sure Start centres and outreach programmes are so important, but this Government has slashed the budget by more than 40 per cent, with the most deprived areas facing the biggest cuts.

'David Cameron promised he would provide high quality support for parents but he has failed.'

Sue Robb, head of early years at 4Children, said, 'The evaluation report highlights key lessons from the first year of the CANparent scheme. The positive attitude parents showed towards parenting classes demonstrates their potential, but with parenting classes a new notion for many families, it was always likely that take-up would be slow in the beginning. CANParent is an ambitious idea, that parenting support should be available to all families, rather than just to troubled families at the point of crisis. As such the programme needs to be given more time to demonstrate whether or not it can deliver on this potential.'