Parenting Support: Policy and Practice in the Irish Context

ABSTRACT

Increasing government interest in parenting support has emerged in response to the increasingly diverse form of families, a growing emphasis on children’s rights and a policy shift towards prevention and early intervention. This has contributed to a range of stakeholder activity in the area, with the notion that parenting is a set of skills that can be learned now widespread. The need to establish “what works” in parenting support has resulted in considerable research, with evidence supporting the provision of universally accessible supports for all parents which can be tailored for those with additional needs. Simultaneously, an increasing body of evaluation research has resulted in positive evidence-based outcomes for a range of parenting support programmes. This article presents an overview of the policy and practice of parenting support, exploring the international and national literature on what works in improving parental capacity, and detailing the wide-scale emergence of parenting as a policy imperative. The article presents the Irish context, describing the diversity of the population, mapping the current service provision landscape and detailing the strategic direction and emerging parenting support programme of work within Tusla, the statutory Child and Family Agency.

KEYWORDS:

• Parenting
• support
• policy
• practice
• prevention

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on Contributors

Nuala Connolly is a Senior Researcher with Barnardos Ireland. She undertook the research for this article as a Postdoctoral Researcher with the UNESCO Child and Family Centre, NUI Galway. She is experienced in the teaching and practice of multi-method and multi-themed research, including longitudinal evaluation and field-based action research. Her primary areas of expertise lie in social policy, information policy and research methods. Nuala holds a BA, MA and PhD from UCD Ireland and is an appointed member of the Council of Europe and European Commission Youth Partnership Pool of European Youth Researchers.

Carmel Devaney, is a Lecturer and Course Director of the Master Degree in Family Support Studies in the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, School of Political Science and Sociology, at NUI Galway. Carmel is Principal Investigator on a number of research and evaluation projects under the Partnership, Prevention and Family Support programme for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. In recent years, Carmel has been lead researcher on a number of projects for Tusla and has designed and delivered a number of Family Support training initiatives for managers and practitioners. Carmel has also worked for many years in children and family services as both a practitioner and manager. Carmel's recent publications and conference presentations are in the area of Family Support, child welfare and protection, and wellbeing. Carmel holds a BA in Social Studies (DIT), an MA in Family Support Studies (NUI Galway), and a PhD (NUI, Galway).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Atlantic Philanthropies [grant Prevention, Partnership and Family Support].