The Parent Support Advisor Team are parenting professionals who use tried and tested techniques to promote good communication and relationships between parents and children.
Advice and support is on offer to help parents with a whole range of issues – whether it’s tantrums and toy throwing, bust-ups at bedtime or more serious problems.
This service has been developed in response to the fact that every local authority is now required by law to have a parenting strategy.
Initially, eight parent support advisors, backed up by two senior advisors, are working in 18 primary schools in the borough and it’s hoped that eventually the service could be expanded.
The team work with teachers, learning mentors and special needs co-ordinators to identify families which would benefit from their support, but parents can also refer themselves to the service.
Advisors organise a range of support activities as well as other fun and learning activities in schools and in the community such as stress free holidays. There are also summer activities and advisors work with parents both on a one to one basis and in groups.
Some of the methods being used by the team have been featured on the popular parenting TV show Driving Mum and Dad Mad. They include the widely used Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) that gives parents the chance to discover new ways to build relationships with their children and how to handle bad behaviour.
Triple P also deals with issues that can affect parents themselves, such as depression, or coping with stress. In addition, help is available on how to deal with a range of issues that affect children and young people throughout their development into adulthood. Triple P groups are friendly and often parents who join them develop friendships and continue to support each other after their group is finished.
Shirley Leatherbarrow, the council’s commissioning lead for parenting, said: “Although parent support advisors are highly visible in schools, they will go out to a family home and offer support. The team’s role is to support parents so they can help with their child’s learning as well as tackling under achievement and remove barriers to learning.”
Shirley added: “All the programmes used by the parent support advisor team like Triple P have been well researched and proved to be highly effective.”
"The team’s role is to support parents so they can help with their child’s learning as well as tackling under achievement and remove barriers to learning."
If you would like more details about the service provided by the Parent Support Advisor Team, contact: Dawn Glynn or Stephanie Shorrocks (Senior Parent Support Advisors) on 01942 777720 (option 1).
