The demise of David Cameron’s premiership in 2016 marked a significant turning point in government strategy on support for parents. Cameron had pledged to publish a Life Chances Strategy containing plans for a national parenting support offer. But his departure from Downing Street resulted in the strategy never being published. Since then, government policy on parenting programmes has been scant, with the most significant initiative being the development of the Reducing Parental Conflict programme in 2018.
What hasn’t changed over the past five years is the need for parenting support. Figures from Public Health England show that at the age of two, 17 per cent of children have not hit the expected milestones for personal, social and emotional development, with that gap growing to 28 per cent by the age of five. This should not be surprising considering a quarter of children are born into home environments that are not conducive to good parenting because the household is affected by domestic violence, mental illness or substance problems.
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