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|  | Parenting courses - money wasted or well spent?
« Thread Started on May 18, 2012, 9:04pm » | |
This week the Prime Minister launched parent classes
![[image]](http://db3.stb01.s-msn.com/i/48/4B9F7CA1ADC78769992C3AEDC68F.jpg "[image]")
Is it money wasted or well spent?
Money well spent?
Pamela Park from 'Parenting UK' has told ITV News that the government's free parenting class scheme is "money well spent". Ms Park said that the Can Parent website involved with the scheme had information from a "trusted source".
More here..
http://www.itv.com/news/story/2012-05-18/pm-launches-parenting-classes/
Money to tackle yobbery?
"Cameron's £100 parenting class Boots vouchers to help tackle child yobbery"
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-....l#ixzz1vFsgVMV6
Money for those who don't really need it?
Parenting classes will only benefit "worried well"
A new government scheme will offer parenting advice, but the former director of Sure Start tells Channel 4 News it will not benefit the parents who need support as other children's services are cut.
More here..
http://www.channel4.com/news/parenting-classes-will-only-benefit-worried-well
More about the parenting classes
Nine months after the summer riots, which were blamed in part on poor parenting, the government has launched a multi-million pound service to support the parents of young children.
From today, a new £3.4m email and text service will send advice to all parents expecting a baby or in the first month of parenthood. They might contain videos of midwives demonstrating bathing and other techniques, or advice from other parents.
Vouchers for £100-worth of parenting classes will be on offer from high street chemists to parents of under-5s in three pilot areas, allowing parents to seek help on anything from managing tiredness to nurturing relationships with their other half. They will be rolled out across England and Wales if successful.
Or more money for those that profit?
David Cameron has come in for a fair slice of criticism for those he chooses to associate, support and do business with. What with Coulson, Rebekah Brooks, Emma Harrison of 'A4E' fame you would think he would perhaps be a little more cautious over who he chooses to engage with in this latest scheme. Controversy has already broken out over how one of Cameron's old Eton chums is involved in the scheme. Under the scheme, to be launched in three test areas, mothers and fathers of under-fives will each be eligible for £100 vouchers, which they can use to buy lessons offered by independent organisations such as the National Childbirth Trust, netmums.com and Parentgym, the company run by Mr Cameron’s friend and former adviser, Octavius Black. Now, I'm sure the work of these organisations is entirely appropriate and admirably aimed at doing their best. But you just can't help stumbling across yet another close association with the government. Here we take a look at Octavious Black of Parentgym and his wife Joanne Cash...
Octavious Black
I'm not quite sure how Octavious Black is the man to be telling parents how to put nappies on their young babies. He seems to be more at home in a commercial world willing the minds of budding entrepreneurs into drawing out their marketing potential. Here's more about Octavious Black when he put in a guest appearance at leading international London law firm Allen & Overy...
The Mind Gym – Becoming indispensable
"Looking and sounding amazingly like a young-version Pierce Brosnan, the charismatic Octavius Black exploded onto the stage after lunch fired up no doubt by his recent coverage in the Sunday Telegraph. With such a short slot he made maximum impact by selecting a few key ideas – trust, value creation and measurement and energy – and communicating with vivid stories, interesting anecdotes (interestingly using Malcolm Gladwell as a key source) and various audience participation exercises. I particularly liked his suggestion to get people to describe the value they bring to an organisation in terms of a newspaper article and the HR example he provided “27-year-old opens Dutch hotel”.
Black seems far more at home in a professional marketing outfit amidst high flying lawyers than he would be amongst young toddlers at the local play group.
Read more here...
http://www.pmforum.co.uk/magazine/view_article.aspx?id=3503
Perhaps Octavius Black could pick up a few tips off his wife. Another one of Dave's Tory chums...
Libel lawyer and Tory 'A' Candidate for Westminster North Joanne Cash
Cash lost out to Labour's Karen Buck in the 2010 general elections when fighting for the Westminster North seat. But she didn't go quietly "Joanne Cash concedes defeat with rant at the press".
Read more about Cash's rant here...
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/polit....ss-6466737.html
Mylegal comment:
Our one time 'hug a hoodie' prime minister is not so much out of touch but fast running out of control. Prior to the elections he preached how he would help the disabled, since finding his way into number 10 we've all seen how he abandoned that particular promise. There is therefore nothing that compels me to believe this is a genuine attempt to help families at all. Quite how £100 quid parenting classes are going to quell yob culture is well and truly beyond me.
To look after struggling families goes against all Cameron has done in his wilful cutting back of Tax Credits and placing a greater expectation upon single parents to work for next to nothing with little regard to childcare provision. What such parents need are measures which help prevent the generation of a wave of 'latch key children', these classes aren't going to do the trick at all. The money would be far better ploughed back into Surestart and similar organisations who have earned their reputation.
Cameron seems to be running his very own job club down at Westminster these days. Somehow those that get these contracts seem to see the vacancy boards before anyone else and have a habit of getting through the interview with flying colours; it's usually blue. No doubt their 'CV's help when they bear some reference to an old chum now in Parliament; I'm sure bank references help if they show you've made it into that old exclusive millionaire's club. Cameron's transparency isn't in doubt - you can see though him every time.
By all means tell me if you think it's a good idea.....
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kempers
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| | Re: Parenting courses - money wasted or well spent
« Reply #1 on May 18, 2012, 10:32pm » | |
What a waste of money. Surely targetting those who need the service is the only way to get value for money - rolling this out to every new mother is ridiculous. Surely this "new service" overlaps with the work of the midwives, doctors, health visitors and Sure Start centres. I have had 3 children in the last 2 years. The most valuable help I have received has been through a HomeStart volunteer - impartial, honest and real help and advice. It sounds awful to say it but I hope that the pilot scheme fails.
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raman
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| | Re: Parenting courses - money wasted or well spent
« Reply #2 on May 20, 2012, 1:10pm » | |
Parenting courses for the right people done in the right way can be really effective. In my opinion a blanket £100 for parents is no way near enough money to help, courses have to be far more targeted and advanced. I also think courses should also have an element of therapy for some as this currently will not be funded by the Local Authority or the LSC.
What the government needs to do is focus of breaking the cycle of neglect that is within some families and help those who are the most vulnerable in society e.g. those with learning difficulties. Local Authority and Children Services funding cuts have already resulted in many organisations that provided parenting courses to stop providing such valuable help, so now offering £100 in an attempt to patch up this problem is ridiculous.
The key is prevention, if PROPER support and advice is put in early it will prevent massive future costs. Let me put it this way if a child is removed from a parents care and placed in foster care it costs the Local Authority roughly £200+ per child per week to keep a child in the placement. If legal proceedings are issued it costs tens of thousands if not hundreds of pounds. Plus costs from the criminal justice system etc
That fact is that these children will grow up to have there own children who will potentially fall into the same problems. They need help now and the level suggested is not enough and not targeted at the right people.
[Please excuse any typos]
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