Council awarded national quality mark for parenting programme
Shropshire Council is celebrating after being awarded the CANparent Quality Mark from the Department of Health for its ‘Understanding Your Child’ parenting programme.
The CANparent Quality Mark is the only quality standard that has been developed for the parenting sector, by the parenting sector. It’s awarded to organisations who are developing or delivering universal parenting classes.
Shropshire Council’s ‘Understanding Your Child’ programme offers parenting workshops and groups which provide easy to implement, proven parenting solutions that can support families to understand their children’s behaviour, improving relationships and prevent future problems before they arise.
Ann Hartley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for children’s services, said:
“The award is a testimony to the quality of our provision across Shropshire through our network of facilitators and Shropshire Council’s parenting team, and we want to credit and thank the many teams who have helped make the programme a success.
“There are so many teams who have supported the programme, and the Quality Mark recognises the enthusiasm, dedication and hard work of a great many people and teams over the last two years.
“We have seen significant delivery through our Sure Start children’s centres, and were proud to be able to showcase north Shropshire as an ideal model of delivery, developing the programme specifically to meet the needs of the families in the locality.
“We have had continued support from a number of teams: the Early Help team; Targeted Youth Support, Family Solutions, EnHance and Autism West Midlands, plus the Family Information Service, PACT and Crisis teams. We’ve also been supported by our public health colleagues who have assisted in the delivery of our professional training and are supporting us in the development of an ante-natal provision
“We have also seen the provision of groups grow significantly with the ever increasing engagement of schools with the project, and fifty plus schools have been involved in the delivery of groups.”
Karen Ladd, parenting strategy co-ordinator with Shropshire Council, said:
“Parenthood can be extremely rewarding and enjoyable. It can also be demanding, frustrating and exhausting. Parents have the important role of raising the next generation, yet most people begin their careers as parents with little preparation, and learn through trial and error. Through our programme we help parents to look at what they are already doing well and how to build on that to make it even better.”
For more information about Shropshire Council parenting programme, click here.
For more information about CANparent, click here
Further information
During the application process, organisations must specify what parenting classes they are delivering which they want to be assessed for the quality mark. In order to achieve the CANparent Quality Mark, organisations must demonstrate that they have met all the indicators across all four quality elements.
Photograph
Pictured at the Woodside Primary School SureStart centre in Oswetsry are (left to right): Lynette Jones; Helen Lloyd – parenting group facilitator; Abby Willan; Kelly Rockley
