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ParentChild+ can change lives

“Imagine a world where every child enters school ready to succeed because every parent has the knowledge, skills, and resources to build school readiness where it starts: the home.”

This is the aim of ParentChild+ which Family Lives has brought to the UK. The programme supports the home-learning environment by working closely with parent and child and aims to increase school readiness, improve social-emotional skills and increase a family's engagement with appropriate services and social networks.

The initial introduction of ParentChild+ into the UK was funded by the Early Years Social Action Fund in 2016. Family Lives is one of five organisations selected to take part in the Early Years Social Action Fund, an innovation fund from Nesta and the Office for Civil Society.

​What is ParentChild+?

Improving children's school readiness

The programme aims to improve children’s school readiness through home visits, modelling to the parent how to use play to support their child’s emotional, physical, language and cognitive development. Home visitors visit families for half an hour, once a week for up to 76 visits, gifting the family a book each week to support the interactions. In the same week, families attend group messy play and creative sessions, in local Children’s Centres to enhance social interactions with others.

We constantly review the gifts to ensure they reflect the cultural backgrounds of our families, and recently applied an anti-bias checklist to our choices. Home visitors also take additional activities to support individual developmental needs and interests. Evidence-based studies from the US, where this programme originated, show that children who go through the programme enter school 10 months ahead of their chronological age, with a 30% higher graduation rate at age 18 than their peers. The intensity of the programme ensures that families who consistently attend sessions often have life-changing experiences.

Home visitors receive initial training and ongoing support in the following areas: child development; parntal engagement; building respectful, trusting relationships with families and communities; the ethics of home visiting; and cultural competence. The programme addresses a range of outcomes for parents, including a child’s cognitive gains, social and emotional gains, and home environment outcomes.

The evidence

ParentChild+ has a strong evidence base of effectiveness in the US (add link). Children on the programme are 50 per cent more likely to measure ready for kindergarten, they score 2.5 times higher on social-emotional skills assessment than their peers, and they enter school performing 10 months above their chronological age. You can also read the final report of the Evaluation of pilot delivery of ParentChild+ in England, 2018-2020.

Key aims of the programme

  • To improve children’s readiness for school
  • To improve their long-term outcomes
  • To close the achievement gap between low and higher-income families
  • to increase social interactions

Delivery in the UK

This is an ideal programme to support those families who are not accessing the free two-year-old childcare entitlement and who are at risk of entering school significantly behind their peers. It is currently estimated that nearly 30% of eligible families or more than 70,000 families across England aren’t accessing this childcare entitlement.

Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea ParentChild+ 2019-2023

In May 2023, Family Lives successfully completed a four-year ParentChild+ programme jointly for Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea funded by a Social Impact Bond. During the Covid lockdown, home visits pivoted to video sessions, however the most vulnerable families were seen at local Children’s Centres.  At the request of the funders, the programme expanded to support an additional 48 children. 10 places were also funded for families affected by the Grenfell tragedy and the Home Visitors received trauma informed practice training, to assist in supporting these families.

The impact of ParentChild+ 2019-2023

This is the impact of ParentChild+ delivery session in Westiminster, Kensington and Chelsea

In May 2023, the Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea programme was refunded for a further four years. In this newly configured Programme, families receive one home visit and attend a group activity per week, in local children’s Centres, over a 74-week period

Tower Hamlets ParentChild+ 2020-2024

In 2020, Family Lives was commissioned to expand the ParentChild+ Programme into Tower Hamlets, an area with the highest child poverty rate in the country coupled with the lowest uptake of the free 2-year-old nursery offer.  The four-year programme targeted Bengali families and delivered all sessions in Mile End Children’s Centre.

The impact of Tower Hamlets ParentChild+ 2020-2024

The impact of ParentChild+ delivery sessions in Tower Hamlets

Other ParentChild+ Programmes delivered by Family Lives

Pilot Programmes were delivered, using volunteers in Nottingham, Ealing and Newcastle between 2018 – 2020.

In January 2019, funded by the Education Endowment Foundation, 132 families took part in a Randomised Controlled Trial in South Yorkshire, Doncaster, Rotherham, Sheffield and Barnsley, with an evaluation from the University of York.

Programmes were successfully delivered in Newcastle, Rotherham and Nottingham from 2020 to 2023.

This is a timeline for ParentChild+ delivered by Family Lives

For more information about ParentChild+

If you would like to find out more about delivering ParentChild+ in your area, please email Ceri Cobain.

Watch this video from Georgina Price talking about how the ParentChild+ team in Westminster maintained engagement with their families through virtual play sessions during the Covid-19 lockdown.