Parentline Plus campaign to encourage parents to 'Just Ask' gets support from MPs

6.00.00pm GMT Thu 17th Nov 2005

Parentline Plus offers a 24 hour free parent to parent helpline

The national charity Parentline Plus - the largest independent provider of parenting support in the UK - has launched a major campaign to urge parents to 'Just Ask' - in a bid to remove the stigma of seeking out parenting support. Annette Brooke MP, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Children and Families has tabled a parliamentary motion to congratulate the charity on the campaign. Parentline plus believes that thousands of parents are put off asking for help because they fear they will be labelled as 'bad parents'.

Following extensive research and consultation with hundreds of parents across the country, the charity has produced a new report 'Parenting Behind Closed Doors' which aims to encourage parents to see asking for help as a sign of strength.

Parentline Plus fears that below the surface millions of families are living with stressful situations, and keeping their anxiety private and within the family, because they are frightened about what could happen to them if they reached out for help at any level.

Welcoming the campaign, Annette Brooke MP said:

"This campaign is an excellent initiative to stress that asking for help with parenting should be seen as a strength rather than a weakness on their part.

"Parents today face a wide range of huge challenges and difficulties, and should be encouraged to seek help and use available services when they need an extra helping hand with parenting - crying babies, toddlers' tantrums, teenagers' mood swings - not just when things have reached crisis level."

Dorit Braun, Chief Executive of Parentline Plus, a charity says.

"Our message is clear, that parenting support needs to be freely available and not just when things go wrong or when government deems that a child has behaved in such a negative way that parents must be punished as a result."

"Parenting is so private and intimate that parents remain unwilling to admit publicly how difficult it can be. As a result, many feel unable to ask for help which could make significant improvements to their lives and the lives of their children".

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Parentline Plus research suggests that many parents know what their children's problems are, yet cannot access the service that they want or have to wait too long to receive it. One parent told us "I wanted help when he was 18 months but it was only when there was a possibility of exclusion at 5 that social services helped".

Parentline Plus is now making a series of recommendations including flexible, high quality and affordable services reflecting the needs and cultural beliefs of all parents; recognition that extended schools need the resources to be creative and innovative if they are to deliver effective support for parents; commitment to working towards a kite-marking or quality assurance scheme for all providers of parenting and family support services; an understanding of the need of parents for independent and confidential support; an understanding that parents want to stay in control of the choices they make about their family.