More parenting support for Warwickshire families
Warwickshire County Council is providing more support to local families to help the county’s children to be the best they can be.
The council’s Family and Parenting Support Team have introduced a new team of advisors who are working with priority school clusters to offer early support to parents and carers.
The Parent Support Advisors’ priority will be to address issues associated with transfer to primary school and secondary school, poor attendance and low attainment particularly with pupils aged 5-12 years. They will work closely with parents of children in this age group and schools to find early solutions to problems which may affect achievement.
Families can make self-referrals to the advisors or be put in touch with them by any member of staff within the school or from an agency working with the school. Once contact is made, the advisors will meet parents to identify any issues before putting together a short programme of help.
This can take the form of a series of one-to-one or group sessions to address concerns. The advisors brief is broad, they may offer help with confidence building or provide practical advice about establishing a routine. In many cases the advisors may be involved in looking for further support, for example, putting a family in touch with a benefits advisor or locate childcare.
The local authority’s Head of Family and Parenting Support, Sally Lightfoot, said: “The role has been introduced in Warwickshire following evidence gathered from a National Pilot by the University of Warwick’s Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research. This research demonstrates of the impact of the role elsewhere in the country where parents identified feeling better about themselves and more confident to tackle problems.
“The advisors work will bridge gaps between a number of services working with families and their function complements a range of family support projects already in place.”
For more information please call Warwickshire Family Information Service on 01926 742274 or visit http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fis