All the evidence shows that good parenting is really important if we want our children to improve their future opportunities, move them out of poverty, make sure they achieve and reduce the chances of them becoming involved in negative behaviour. Over 50% of people surveyed as part of the development of the Respect Agenda said that a parent not bringing their children up properly is a cause of anti-social behaviour.

This is not an attempt to vilify us as parents and we acknowledge the quality of care that babies and toddlers get from their parents and all their carers will influence how they develop and the adults they will become.

Parenting is not something that comes naturally to us all, it is something that needs support and guidance, and research would suggest that 75% of all parents regardless of their background have felt they needed help with parenting, at some point in time.

Here at Sure Start Speke we have developed a number of approaches to supporting mums, dads and those caring for children. We hope that we have developed a down to earth approach that encourages parents to ask for help when they need it most.

We have a specific advantage in so much as we have an antenatal service within the centre and this allows us to identify any early fears that new parents may be experiencing, or issues that may affect the way they parent. We believe that prevention is the best way to deal with any issues mums and dads may have.

We work closely with Parklands Extended School to ensure that we are developing a cohesive service to parents that moves across the various transition stages that children will face as they progress into adulthood.

Our family support focuses on:

We have offered a range of training programmes that support parenting from:

For more information on these courses and how they can help both you and your child check out our Parental Support section

All of this is underpinned by our Parent Mentor Service which provides at home support to families. For more information, please visit the Parent Mentor website.

This service and our associated activities ensures that we are directly supporting parents to achieve the 5 outcomes for children through the support we give to mums, dads and anyone with caring responsibilities for children.