Parental Opinion Survey Summary of Findings

1. 1 Parental Opinion Survey Summary of Findings Mark Peters, TNS-BMRB Presentation at DCSF Conference: The Use of Evidence in Policy Development and Delivery, 9 February 2010

2. 2 Project Background “to provide a voice for parents we will set up a new national Parents’ Panel with links into a full cross-section of public opinion, so these perspectives are better reflected in government policy making”Children’s Plan, 2007, page 21. • Parents’ Panel: explore parents’ experiences and views on a range of key issues related to government policy making and development, initially focusing on the Children’s Plan. • Parental Opinion Survey: provide Ministers with information about the opinions of parents on a range of issues focusing on their role as parents, their confidence as parents and their views about support services.

3. 3 Parental Opinion Survey - Background Aims • Collect data to measure opinions and behaviours across a range of parenting issues • Questionnaire designed around a number of parental confidence indicators Sample • Random Probability Sampling • Parents randomly chosen from selected households, some questions refer to randomly selected reference child Fieldwork • Annual Survey of 2,384 interviews (between 9th February - 18th May 2009) • Interview length – 31minutes • Response rate – 63% Questionnaire • Links to existing research (Parental Involvement in Children’s Education Survey, National Survey of Parents and Children)

4. 4 Develop Baseline Measure of Confidence 4 Core Themes: • Confidence in parenting skills • Perceived ability of parents to support their child’s learning • Access to parental information and advice services • Confidence in parental support services

5. 5 Confidence in Parenting Skills

6. 6 Confidence of parent when caringfor/with child %

7. 7 Findparenting rewarding %

8. 8 Find parenting frustrating %

9. 10 What drives Frustration? Key demographic factors include: • Increased number of children; • Lower education background; and • Working status (two full-time working parents). Attitudinal factors include: • Perceived lack of time; • Perceived behaviour issues; and • Lack of parental confidence.

10. 11 Managing behaviour – SpecialEducational Needs Parents of children with SEN were more likely to: • argue with their children at increased frequency • get on less well with their children • have problems with their child’s obedience • struggle to control their child’s behaviour • experience behaviour problems which have affected their mental health • experience tension with their partners and major family rows

11. 12 Perceived Ability of Parents to Support Child’s Learning

12. 12 Whether involved in child’s progress through school life %

13. 13 Who is most involved in child’s school life? % who say they are a little more involved/much more involved than their partner %

14. 14 Who wants to be more involved inchild’s school life? %

15. 15 Creating a Baseline of Parental Confidence

16. 16 Confidence Index • Confidence Index provides a measure of overall parental confidence • created using statistical processes to establish a number of themes (i.e. dimensions) related to parental confidence • Respondents were also allocated into one of the following groups based on their ‘score’: • ‘Lower’ confidence: The score range for parents in this group was between 35 and 61; • ‘Medium’ confidence: The score range for parents in this group was between 62 and 76; • ‘Higher’ confidence: The score range for parents in this group was between 77 and 94.

17. 17 Confidence Index %

18. 18 Implications of High Confidence Enjoyment of parenting Confident parents were more likely to enjoy parenting and find it less frustrating. They were more likely to be content with the amount of time they spent with their child. Parental involvement Confident parents were more involved in their child’s education. Behaviour Management Confident parents argued less with their children, faced fewer struggles managing behaviour and experienced less tension as a result of their children’s behaviour.

19. 19 Access to parental information and advice

20. Information / services accessed by parents 20 %

21. 21 Service users by key characteristics %

22. 22 How received information, advice or support % The vast majority of service users said they had received the information/advice/support in the way they had wanted

23. 23 Confidence in support services

24. 24 How confident would know where to go if needed information about parenting issues % 2 5 34 14 43

25. 25 How confident would know where to go if needed information, by key characteristics %

26. 26 Usefulness of services used %

27. 27 Conclusions… • Building confidence and self esteem • Consistent messages around lack of confidence for some groups • How do we engage these groups? How can services be promoted to the groups most in need? • Some parents may need more help supporting their children at home • A significant minority of parents claimed that they never felt confident helping their children with homework. Greater links may be needed between home and school for these parents. • Parents of children with SEN face particular challenges (especially around behaviour issues) • How can we better meet the needs of parents of children with SEN? • Many non-resident parents lack involvement but desire more involvement with their children; they also lack confidence in supporting their child’s learning/development and in knowing where to go for information and advice • How can we engage non-resident parents that want to be more involved?

28. 28 …Conclusions • Fathers are less engaged than mothers in their children’s education and less likely to use support services - these differences are not explained by working status • Is there anything more support services can do to help alleviate parental ‘frustration’? • Vast majority of parents who had used parental support services found it easy to obtain the information they needed in the format they required • How can support services reach out to less confident parents who don’t know where to go when they need information or advice about parenting issues? • Large majority of parents generally believe that existing services are useful • Survey indicated more could be done to enable parents to shape services according to their particular needs - limited provision for parents to provide input on their customer experiences in the form of feedback facilities

29. 29 Parents’ Panel: Approach and illustration of findings Anna Sweeting, TNS-BMRB Presentation at DCSF Conference: The Use of Evidence in Policy Development and Delivery, 9 February 2010

30. 30 Parents’ Panel - Background Aim • To explore parents’ experiences and views on a range of key issues related to government policy and offer ministers and policy-makers a direct insight into parents’ perspectives on the issues that affect them. Topics covered include • Parental engagement • Support for parents • School information • Extended services • Family stability • Bullying/online safety

31. 31 Methodology Panel sample • 40 parents • Recruited using purposive sampling, reflecting a wide mix of demographic and attitudinal factors • From 5 areas: Bristol, Leicester, Leeds, London and Newcastle Method • Panel members will meet quarterly over a period of three years to discuss a range of issues linked to government policy • First panel in January 2009 attended by Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families • Just completed our 6th event which was combined with Parent Know How event

32. 32 Methodology (cont.) Deliberative approach • A deliberative approach was adopted to enable panel members to develop their views and fully engage in the research. • Deliberative research aims to provide a forum for reflective, considered and informed discussion. • Deliberative methods incorporated in the panels include interaction between panel members, presentations from DCSF staff, plenary sessions with Ministers, stimulus materials drawn from expert information, and video ethnography. Video ethnography • Following each event, 4 parents took video cameras and were asked to interview friends, family and relevant stakeholders about topics discussed. • Videos analysed and a summary produced which was showed at the beginning of the next event.

33. 33 Example of findings:Perceived Ability of Parents to Support Child’s Learning

34. 34 Perceived ability of parents to support their child’s learning • Different perceptions of what they considered supporting a child’s learning to entail: • Formal and informal • Variations in the extent to which parents on the panel felt they should support their child’s learning: • How much responsibility for a child’s learning should lie with parents and how much with schools? • Two way dialogue needed • Who should drive the process? • Those that had negative experiences felt it was the responsibility of schools to drive any partnerships between parents and schools and those that had more positive previous experiences tended to think that the driving of a partnership should be conducted jointly.

35. 35 Perceived ability of parents to support their child’s learning • Parents generally felt confident in their ability to support their child’s learning • Ability to engage varied according to the age of their child • Older children and teenagers perceived as the most difficult to engage with but most engagement needed • However their ability to support their child’s learning generally rested on the extent to which they could overcome barriers: • Personal issues • Limited time • Perceived lack of skills and confidence • Child’s attitude towards parental involvement. • External factors • Lack of extended family support • School’s approach to learning

36. 36 Perceived ability of parents to support their child’s learning • Suggestions for improving parents’ ability to support their child’s learning • Better understanding of how children are taught and topics covered • Increasing confidence, skills and knowledge of parents • Flexible opportunities for parents to engage

37. 37 Parental Opinion Survey and Parents Panel Julia Gault, Head of Family Engagement, DCSF Colin Stiles, Family Engagement, DCSF Presentation at DCSF Conference: The Use of Evidence in Policy Development and Delivery, 9 February 2010

38. 38 Tracking success Departmental Strategic Objective 1 Secure the wellbeing and health of children and young people DSO 1.10 Parental confidence empowerment and positive roles

39. 39 Building policy 1 Parental Opinion Survey helped build picture of families today: • Children, adults and families are by no means homogeneous - their individuality needs to be recognised and respected. • Trend for a larger proportion of families to be brought up by one parent living alone • In general, women are having fewer children and doing so later in life. • Challenges parents face have changed, parenting may be becoming more stressful, particularly for lone parents and families on low incomes.

40. 40 Building policy 2 Survey results are driving reforms: • Data on service users’ characteristics informs development of services providing information to parents. • Guidance will be issued to LAs on how to build on successful family learning impact funding • Ensure accessibility of services to all families including lone parents and parents where English not the first language • Data from survey drives legislative activity – influenced the legislation flowing from the Schools White Paper

41. 41 Building policy 3 Survey results are driving reforms: • Government to promote the message that Sure Start Children’s Centres services are available to the wider family • “Think Fathers” campaign and Bookstart Dad’s Toolkit • Families to receive an assessment for family and parenting support when the situation suggests they need help • LAs to offer intensive “family intervention services” to provide intensive support for families with the most complex needs

42. 42 Testing ideas In response to Parents Panel discussions the Government will: • Develop information and advice to help parents understand how they can support their children’s learning at school • Improve communications with parents on facilities offered through Sure Start Children’s Centres and Extended Services • Improve parents’ and employers’ awareness of family friendly employment rights and practices • Review whether further changes are needed to help parents access childcare • Work with the Family and Parenting Institute (FPI) to develop some accessible national service standards for family friendly practice

43. 43 Looking to the future The Government will: • Continue to measure parental confidence through the confidence indicator • Measure progress locally through the second National Indicator Set • Families and Relationships Green Paper will build on the key findings of the survey • Pursue Green Paper recommendations with the Parents Panel • Parents Panel: further develop facilitation techniques and in depth exploration of issues

44. 44 Questions Colleagues are invited to consider: • Does the research resonate with your findings on your own policies and services? • What opportunities exist to take the findings forward across government?

45. 45 Contact details Contact: Colin Stiles, Family Engagement Division, DCSF Tel: 020 7783 8121 Email: colin.stiles@dcsf.gov.uk Report: www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/DCSF-RR194.pdf Research Brief: www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/DCSF-RB194.pdf