You might have seen online that the Department for Education are to begin trialling free parenting courses in three boroughs (Camden, High Peak and Middlesborough). The idea behind the scheme is to find out if parenting classes are helpful to parents, and if there is demand for them, could it be developed so parenting courses are as much a part of the parenting process as ante-natal courses.
Late last year, when the idea was first floated, after much mulling, we
decided it would be worth investigating if this is something Mumsnet
could help provide - after all the courses are meant to be for all parents -
and we know we're a place lots of parents come for advice, support and
information.
We also know though that we're not experts in providing parenting
courses - so had a look to see who else provided courses and who we could work with.
We'd heard lots of good things about 'strengthening families, strengthening communities' parenting courses provided by the Race Equality Foundation, so have teamed up with them to work on a new course (based on SFSC's practice and learnings) that could be provided to families either face to face, online or a bit of both.
Parents in the three trial areas will now be able to choose our course
(or one provided by other suppliers). If you're in the three trial areas, please do choose our course! If not, the scheme will have very little impact on you. It might be that one day it's nationally rolled out, or that we're able to offer the online version to more of you, but in any case, how we operate the site, our talkboards, moderation policy, advertising guidelines, emoticon development and all of our other crucial activity will stay the same.
Hope this helps explain the programme if you're intrested, do let us
know if you have any other questions.
Best wishes
MNHQ