Government announces plans for 'super-nannies' to help parents

The government has announced plans to bring in 'super-nannies' to help families showing signs of anti-social behaviour.

The £4 million scheme will provide dedicated parenting experts in 77 areas across England, so that parents who are worried about their children's behaviour can get help.

Frontline staff tackling anti-social behaviour will be able to call on these parenting experts in order to provide help to families in evidence based parenting classes or sometimes on a one-to-one basis.

Home Secretary John Reid said: "Parents are the single biggest influence on a child's life but being a parent can be a difficult job and sometimes people need help to stop their kids getting into trouble. The support we are announcing today responds to the needs of parents and if we can help to build stronger families, then we will also create safer communities."

The announcement comes on the same day that Home Office research was published which showed that 53% of respondents believed that poor parenting was one of the key causes of anti-social behaviour, while four out of five people said that parents should be held responsible for the bad behaviour of their children.

The Department for Education and Skills also announced that it would fund training for up to 1,000 frontline workers in areas with a Family Intervention Project. FIPs seek to work with whole families to address parenting and behaviour difficulties and in doing so tackle anti-social behaviour.

Families’ minister Beverley Hughes said: "The majority of parents do a good job. But ineffective and chaotic parenting has a hugely negative impact on the lives of children and young people and on our communities.

"A minority of parents fail to set any boundaries and allow their children to drift into anti-social behaviour that is a danger to themselves and a menace to those around them. We want to give these parents the help and support they need."

Louise Casey, the government co-coordinator for respect, said: "We know that good parenting courses really work in improving children's behaviour. If good behaviour is taught at home, then we have a much better chance of seeing it in the school and in the streets."

Commenting on the announcement, Liberal Democrat family spokesperson Annette Brooke said: "Any support for struggling parents is welcome, however, providing just 77 'super nannies' for the whole country will not be enough to reach all families with problems and risks sending out the wrong signals.

"By providing support for only the most deprived neighbourhoods we risk stigmatising the least well-off as well as missing out many families in other areas who may need outside help.

"Parenting help must be a mainstream option freely available and easily accessible to all families."

(KMcA)