Parenting class vouchers - good idea or gimmick?

It is also a cost! It might last 5 minutes until the next innovation comes along or it's working so well that the Government thinks it's time to cut it [cynical emoticon] And yes who will be the teacher[s]? [another cynical emoticon]

Parenting advice /lessons/support is not a new invention! It has been happening through Nursery and primary schools for ages! Of course many parents have and will benefit. For example there are sessions at a local Children's Centre called 'drop the dummy' & run in partnership with a Nursery Nurse and a speech therapist. Stuff like this has been going on for ages and was funded by money form central government via local authorities. Governments just shuffle stuff about and try to package it up as new, innovative initiatives. It is not, it is a con!

Maggie P.

I saw that snippit on T.V. and my initial thought was how useful the video could be to new mums, mums who's husband's are working away or in the services and mums who simply do not have any family or friends to help them. The fact is all births are different as are the circumstances of the new mother. It is easy to say it's a natural thing and you follow your instincts but I for one do not forget the birth of my daughter was probably the scariest moment in my life. I remember saying to myself, for goodness sake your 26 years old, you know which end food goes in and which end it comes out.That did'nt stop worrying I was doing everything wrong from bathing her to how much milk she should have.

I can visualise a new mum bathing her baby for the first time watching the video and feeling someone is in the room with her, what is so wrong in that!. As for the vouchers I must admit I don't quite understand how it works but if it helps some new mums what harm is it doing. If it was cash and could be changed into fags and booze then that would be wrong but surely only mums who feel they need some support will bother anyway.

Is that the kind of parenting they are talking about? i thought it was about behaviour in toddlers etc.
I smell a rat as well. The company that had all the publicity when they made this announcement is described here:

www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/may/18/parenting-lessons-roll-out-country
They have made a killing selling their brain training courses to schools. In the book Bad Science there is a swingeing critique of their supposedly scientific methods (see reviews section for book info).
They are planning to use volunteers and then donate the voucher money to schools. Looks like a cunning marketing ploy to me.

I saw on The news a small video clip showing new Mums how to bath a newborn, handling a newborn, discussing breast feeding etc etc.
As a retired midwife I actually thought it a good idea as so many new Mums leave hospital a few hours post delivery and haven't a clue about much of this but just want to get out and the Community do not have the hours anymore to visit all new Mothers every day nowadays. Even with experienced Grannies to help, I have seen so often how they are desperate for more advice and hands on help, so maybe this will be beneficial.. It could reduce the incidence of Postnatal depression too.

Call me suspicious but I wonder who will be providing the "parenting classes". Someone who happens to be a friend of a friend of someone in government who just happens to have this company set up?

I smell a rat.

Parenting should be taught in school to boys and girls as part of the national curriculum.

It does feel a bit gimmicky when Home Start has had its funding cut - this is an organisation that sends in trained volunteers to befriend and support families where they are having problems with parenting. Far better a human being than £100 towards a course.

I guess it is all down to the implementation, Alison, in which case it would surely be better to implement it more effectively rather than change it for something new.
I was shocked by all the talk of changes to special needs provision announced last week. What happened to Every Child Matters and the Common Assessment Framework? Also, all the shock / horror about 20% of children having special needs, isn't that exactly what the Warnock Report said in 1978?

Just like when I went to a drugs talk at school, they told all of us there we needn't worry as we had turned up!

Mamie good to hear it works somewhere but I'm afraid not in SW19 which is not all as affluent as it sounds!

The people who really need it won't go. I went to one run through the school and one of the teachers was most disappointed when I told who was attending -she said 'all the ones with good parenting skills then'.

That certainly wasn't true in the area where I worked, Alison. Surestart was very well attended in some of the most challenging areas and was clearly making a difference.

Just like Surestart it will be the middle classes who benefit. My Dil and DS have both used it and found that everyone else was just like them. The health visitor said that the ones who really need it don't go.

It is just typical though isn't it, as if parenting and education can be a sort of quick-fix garden makeover, with a new planting scheme every year. Everyone praises education in Finland, but in Finland they decided what they wanted to achieve forty years ago and stuck to it. I think politicians of all hues are guilty of this and I deplore it. And I blame the press.

yes glammanana ...adding insult to injury springs to mind!!

Can someone explain how Grandparents can get them as well,or would it be gp's who are caring for their DGCs whilst parents at work if that is the case surely you would not leave littleones with someone who needs parentcraft classes for goodness sake ? I can see how it would help gp's who had custody of DGCs as it would help them with new ideas but the gp's would have already proved they are caperable to have custody.I think the money would be better being directed back to surestart and fix the mess that has been made there.

Yes ...but as indicated on an earlier thread about this ...grandparents can get them too!! How about that!!

Yes, I got that wrong - the vouchers can be collected at Boots and are towards the cost of the parenting classes. So there isn't even a bribery aspect to tempt the ones who would only go if there was something in it for them...

Hmm. Parenting does not stop when a child reaches aged 5, which is the cut-off age for support in parenting through this trial scheme and Surestart.
Surestart centers have been cut by about 100 this year already.
£100.00 vouchers towards parenting classes - how much do these classes cost for heavens sake? How many vouchers are available?

Surestart has been very successful. What a pity it is that financial expedience is not concentrated on this one area, which is available to those most in need.

I think it's just another gimmick. As shysal says, those who would actually benefit from such classes won't attend, unless they do so just to get the Boots vouchers, and there is already help out there in the form of clinics, health visitors etc. We all know some parents have no idea how to bring up their children properly, but this scheme is just patronising.

I think parenting classes would not be attended by those who really needed them, the places being taken by capable parents who wanted to do their very best by their children.