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Investing in Parenting Education: A Critical Review of Policy and Provision in England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2009

Harriet Churchill  and
Karen Clarke
Harriet Churchill
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Social Work, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield E-mail: h.churchill@sheffield.ac.uk
Karen Clarke
Affiliation:
Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, Politics, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester
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Abstract

Parenting education has been given an increasingly important role in government policies to address social exclusion. This paper examines the basis for investing in parenting programmes and reviews the various different types of parenting education provision. It discusses the evidence on the effectiveness of multi-component and group parenting programmes in modifying parent–child relationships and the outcomes for children and young people. The paper concludes that while such programmes appear to produce beneficial outcomes, it is important that they remain linked to a strategy that does not individualise the causes of social exclusion.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 39 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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