Agenda item

The Service Lead, Early Years and Prevention Service and the Strategic Parenting Officer introduced a report on Parenting in Slough – Multi-agency Strategy.

Members were informed about developmental work being undertaken to develop a multi-agency parenting strategy in Slough, including children and young people. This work drew on health and social care data and its key partners including both commissioners and providers of services across the borough, i.e. organisations that commission and deliver services for children and young people and families.

The Panel was provided with a presentation outlining three phases of the developmental process:

A Parenting Task and Finish Group was set up at Phase one to look at evidence such as Training the Trainer and parents were consulted to understand capabilities and how they matched the needs of the community. Wider procurement was engaged to develop evidence-based progression. Responsibility for the strategy and related action plans would rest on a wide range of partners, both internal and external to Slough Borough Council.  The Parenting Strategy Task & Finish Group members would be responsible for monitoring progress against the action plan and measuring the outcomes of the strategy.

The Panel was informed that the Positive Parenting Programme (Triple P), commissioned by the Commissioning Group, would be incorporated into Slough’s Parenting Offer as part of the strategy to deliver targeted outcomes. The programme would be universal in undertaking work to increase parenting capability as well as dealing with gang violence (which would be achieved through the procurement process).

The Council had invested in workforce development opportunities through the commissioning of a range of evidence-based Training the Trainer parenting programmes and the delivery of cross-skills competency based training. It was noted that by the end of March 2020, a team of officers would be in place to deliver the training into the future.

Screening would be critical to enlist the right people for the twelve-week training programme and participants would be required to commit to co-delivering a minimum of two programmes if funded by the Council.

Phase two involved the development of referral pathways and processes for parents/carers, ensuring timely and appropriate access to support. Service delivery would utilise the skills and expertise of practitioners across services to match delivery with individual need and expertise.

Members were referred to Slough’s Parenting Offer (Appendix 5) which outlines the multi-agency strategy from zero to the comprehensive offer. From April onwards, the commissioning processes would enable assessment of programmes to be held centrally to aid evaluation and future commissioning plans and to ensure that the best outcomes for young people and parents continued.

Phase three, the offer stage; antenatal/postnatal support could now be accessed universally by Slough residents as well as through targeted support.

A directory had also been produced and included on-line resources which were available to all Slough residents and could be accessed via the Council’s website.

The Panel raised a number of issues during discussion which can be summarised as follows:

·  Members welcomed the strategy and asked how the offer compared to similar offers nationally. The officer advised that the Multi-agency Parenting Strategy had been developed as Slough did not have a strategy and local authorities were required to have an offer in place. The offer was evidence-based and was therefore on par with the statistical and regional neighbouring authorities.

·  Members asked whether schools had been involved in the process. The officer confirmed that members of the Youth Offending Team (YOT) which provided a range of services and other key stake holders had formed part of the data collection and engagement process. The document was a live document and provided an online-resource which would be updated as more partners became involved and more training was undertaken, so that more resources could be added. 

·  Members asked whether the document would be reviewed annually. The officer affirmed that it would be reviewed annually and regularly as it was a Multi-agency Strategy, continuing to work with a range of different partners. Once partners had made a commitment, they would be bound by a service level agreement.

·  Members asked whether Ward Councillors had also been involved in the process. The officer confirmed that Ward Councillors had been involved as ambassadors and as parent champions who would direct residents to the strategy showing them how they could access the offer. The key aim was for all residents to be aware of and be able to easily access the document.

·  Member asked which area of the borough the 671 families, (since April 2015) meeting the Strengthening Families criteria, had been located. The officer advised that there were particular hot spots for particular issues which could be pin-pointed to ensure that the area was targeted for preventative measures.

·  Members acknowledged the focus on early help and prevention and asked how it would be monitored and evaluated and in what timescale. The officer advised that the programme would be evidence-based and assigned with an evaluation tool kit. Screening abilities at the start of the programme (using Triple P), checks would be made mid-way to establish the stage they were at and to evaluate impact at the end of the programme. The Panel was assured that the programme would deliver significant impact at the end for children.

·  Members asked how many of the sessions in the 12 week training were for parent champions. The officer advised that once staff had been trained (if funded by the Council) they would be bound by a service level agreement to co-deliver a minimum of 2 programmes. Twenty four practitioners from the first cohort would be expected to co-deliver 12 programmes and so on. Trainers would be champions as well as those in the focus group and further training would be provided if required.

·  A member asked how the work was done with families. The officer advised that this was done through interactive workshops which involved the children and their parents, as it was a family focussed intervention.

·  A member asked about the age group of children and they impacted on the programme. The officer advised that a strategic approach would be taken through the referral process. Programmes were themed i.e. children, young people, to provide a tailored offer in order to meet the needs of specific groups. This would lead to better outcome impacts for parents and children. The ambition was to build a workforce and manageable programme to develop and ensure a continual cycle. The training programme could therefore be viewed as an additional support tool.

The Panel noted that in the data provided, 61% of parents had described parenting as very difficult and one in five had difficulty in accessing parenting help. The officer stressed that the parenting programme alone would not necessarily ensure a final resolution to parents requiring help, as other issues would also need to be considered. Members noted that the aim of the strategy was to bring support under one umbrella to impact on the whole intervention process.

It was also noted that the Parenting Strategy would be launched with partners, Councillors and key stakeholders in April 2020.

The Chair thanked the Service Lead, Early Years and Prevention Service and the Strategic Parenting Officers for the report and presentation.

Resolved- That the Parenting in Slough - A Multi-agency Strategy report be

    noted.