Help parents to understand and support their children’s wellbeing needs
To evidence success against this benchmark, you will need to show how work with parents has had a positive impact on pupil wellbeing. Any evidence of improved parent wellbeing is also valuable as the two are closely linked – adults are better able to support children’s wellbeing when their own needs are being met.
Some examples might include:
- case studies showing how work to support parents has improved the wellbeing of their children
- evidence of how feedback from parental consultations has led to changes in your provision and the impact this has had on pupil wellbeing
- evidence of increased engagement by parents and/or families in wellbeing activities
- accounts from parents of how the school has supported their child’s or and/or their own wellbeing
- feedback from parents about how workshops, advice or working together with staff have helped them to support their child’s wellbeing.
Remember in each case to describe the impact of your actions (that is, what difference they made) and not just what you did.
Engaging parents with supporting pupil wellbeing is valuable for several reasons – not least because it encourages them to share concerns about their children.
Parents can reinforce helpful messages and strategies at home and this helps to develop a sense of family and school working together to care for students.
Asking their views on what would help to support children’s wellbeing and keeping them informed about wellbeing initiatives encourages ‘buy-in’ – and anything schools can do to help parents’ own wellbeing will also help to support that of their children.
Intentions are actions you intend to take in order to improve your provision in this benchmark. Choose three intentions to focus on.
Offering workshops or classes that help parents to understand and support their children’s wellbeing and mental health can improve pupil wellbeing in a number of ways. It helps parents to identify and address concerns and to raise them with schools. It also encourages them to use strategies at home that have proved effective in school and engage them in the school’s efforts to improve pupil wellbeing.
You could start by running presentations on common mental health issues at parents’ evenings or coffee mornings and including information in newsletters.
Follow this with invitations to specific sessions. Consider whether there are particular children who would benefit and encourage their families to attend. Work with family support teams to identify families in need.
Pastoral and other staff may be able to share expertise but also consider bringing in external trainers and check with local health and other services to see what they can offer. You may be able to work with other schools to share costs.
Top tips
- Offer Mental Health First Aid training sessions for parents.
- Provide sessions on healthy eating and social media use, sleep and ideas for increasing physical activity.
- Secondary school parents may welcome sessions on drug and alcohol abuse, anxiety and coping with exam stress, positive sexual health education, etc.
- Provide support on family issues that may also affect children and young people’s wellbeing such as divorce or separation and bereavement.
Not all parents want (or are able) to attend meetings and events, so using newsletters, emails and social media is a good way of ensuring that wellbeing information is shared as widely as possible.
Develop a termly wellbeing newsletter or a regular column in general newsletters. Tweet wellbeing information and tips or post them on your school’s Facebook page.
Include a parents’ section on the school website and update it regularly with links, ideas and suggestions for supporting their children’s wellbeing.
Top tips
Within your communications, you could:
- Include ‘guest columns’ in your newsletter with contributions from local providers about services they offer that help to support children’s wellbeing.
- Feature healthy recipes or physical activity tips.
- Include news about wellbeing activities taking place at school.
- Spotlight key interventions (for example, ELSA, Lego therapy, etc) that are used to support children’s wellbeing.
- Encourage children and young people to contribute material – primary age pupils could write about the daily mile or the wellbeing benefits of outdoor learning, secondary students could contribute articles about mental health.
- Profile members of the pastoral support team and other key members of staff. You could get children to interview them or ask them to write about the work they do.
- Include features on key events like Children’s Mental Health Week.
- Include a regular ‘wellbeing diary’ with information about in-school and other local programmes, events and school holiday sessions that help to support children’s wellbeing. This could include sporting or healthy cookery competitions, arts and music programmes, etc. Liaise with local leisure and children’s centres to find out what they offer and include this information.
Further resources
- You can find more information about how parents can support their children’s mental health at Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families and MindEd for Families.
- Young Minds provides an A–Z of resources for parents covering topics like eating disorders, self-harm, drugs and alcohol, grief and loss, etc.
Consulting parents about their children’s needs both improves the effectiveness of provision and helps to engage parents in the school’s approach to promoting wellbeing. It sends a message that schools want to hear from parents and helps to identify concerns within the community as well as particular families.
As with any consultation, make sure that you respond by sharing the results and what changes or additions you intend to make. Seek further feedback once changes have been implemented to assess their impact.
Consult as widely as possible. As well as involving parents in a wellbeing group, run surveys and consultation meetings. You could also offer things like wellbeing suggestion boxes or dedicated email addresses for parents who can’t or don’t wish to attend events.
Use general surveys and also give parents opportunities to share concerns about their own children via emails and face-to-face. Offer 1-2-1s and organise meetings for parents to discuss how the school works with their children or to request advice.
Top tips
- Some parents may find engaging with school difficult so try a variety of approaches including 1-2-1 meetings, small groups (perhaps of parents from particular community groups) or sessions that also involve their children. You could also meet off-site – at a community centre, for example – or with the support of a translator.
- Parents may fear that sharing information about their child’s or their own wellbeing may have a negative effect on how they or their child is perceived. Take care to avoid judgement and always stress that you want to hear about problems and worries so that you can try to solve them.
- Encourage engagement by inviting parents into school to celebrate achievements. Wellbeing discussions shouldn’t just be about problems. Sharing successful practice with parents may encourage them to ask for help or open up about worries.
- Set up regular wellbeing discussion forums led by parent governors or a family support worker.
- Informal conversations will often produce ideas and suggestions so make sure you have a procedure for recording and passing these on to the relevant members of staff.
Further resources
- Check out this guide on engaging with parents.
As well as engaging generally with parents about wellbeing, you should aim to work directly with the families of children with wellbeing-related issues. As with broader consultations, make sure that parents don’t feel that they are being judged but rather that you would welcome any information they can give you as well as their feedback on any interventions they try with their children. Focus on developing a sense of staff and family working together as a team to support the child.
Some may have had difficult experiences with other services – or feel that they are being judged on their parenting skills – so be very clear that you share their wish to do the best for their child and would welcome their support. Try to consider any issues that may affect how parents feel about engaging with authority. For example, they may have experienced (or anticipate) discrimination due to their identity or academic background. Cultural differences in attitudes to education may also affect interactions with the school.
Top tips
- Share successful approaches such as mindfulness or zones of regulation, physical activity or healthy eating tips which parents can use to support their children at home.
- Ask parents for advice and accept them as the experts on their own children. If appropriate, you might share challenges you faced in your own parenting or when supporting other children.
- Work with them on writing referrals and requests for additional support.
- Where parents are resistant, consider if others outside the school could help to develop relationships – for example, parent governors.
- Highlight the positives as well as the problems – what their child is good at, how much progress they have made, etc.
- Give parents time to express their concerns and listen reflectively. Ask supplementary questions and seek clarification to promote discussion.
- Consider setting up multi-family groups where parents and professionals work together to help improve children’s wellbeing. This also gives parents opportunities to share concerns with others who are having similar experiences.
Wellbeing or mental health issues experienced by other family members can also affect the wellbeing of children in the family. As well as providing information about where pupils can access support, it is important to signpost families to information and resources that can help parents, siblings or others who are experiencing difficulties.
A parents or families page on the school website is one way to do this but you should ensure that information is included in newsletters and other communications too and that all pastoral and other relevant staff (for example, receptionists) know how to access information and signpost family members to sources of help.
You should provide information about a range of physical and mental wellbeing concerns and also make sure ‘emergency’ numbers like The Samaritans (call free 116 123) and ChildLine (call 0800 1111) are widely shared.
Top tips
- Think broadly about the kind of support families might need – consider debt or housing advice or support for giving up smoking or gambling.
- Share online services and helplines but also seek out information about local support such as food or clothes banks. Some schools have set up their own.
- Include information about community groups and activities that support wellbeing as well as those that can support families in need.
- Appoint a family support worker (or engage with a local service) to help increase capacity for supporting parents. If possible, accompany parents to appointments or initiate links with other services if you are concerned that they may not have the confidence to do this themselves.
Further resources
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Supportline offers confidential emotional support.
Anything that schools can do to support the mental and physical health of parents will hugely benefit the pupils. It also helps to engage parents with the school’s approach to promoting wellbeing.
You should plan a mix of activities that:
- promote physical and mental wellbeing and health (for example, yoga, relaxation, mindfulness, sport)
- bring the school community together to increase awareness and share traditions (for example, cooking and sharing food, celebrating different cultural festivals)
- provide creative opportunities and support (for example, art therapy, singing, gardening)
- involve spending time out of doors, especially in urban areas.
Top tips
- Parents or staff may be happy to lead sessions or activities but also consider allocating resources for external coaches, artists and other practitioners. Work together with other schools to co-fund activities.
- Organise trips and events to bring parents together and celebrate the wider community. Plan activities that help parents to learn new skills, make friends and mix with a wider circle.
- Consult parents about what activities they would like and solicit volunteers to lead them.
- Plan large social events that involve the whole family like fetes or festivals. You can also use these as opportunities to showcase activities for parents.
- Share information about local groups (especially free activities) and encourage parents to sign up.
- Survey and otherwise consult with parents to evaluate the impact of activities on their wellbeing and that of their children.
- Do you actively involve the parents of vulnerable children in supporting their wellbeing? This includes more than just informing them about children’s progress and might involve, for example: offering support with strategies they can use at home; working with them and their children alone or in small groups; consulting them regularly about how they feel their child is doing and using this feedback to shape your delivery.
- How have you helped parents to understand the principles that underpin children’s – and their own – wellbeing?
- How do you support the wellbeing of parents and their families through activities, providing advice, signposting to resources and services, etc?
- How do you keep parents informed about the school’s approach to supporting wellbeing and mental health? How do you ensure that their views inform planning and delivery?
- Do all parents have access to information about strategies they can use to support their children’s wellbeing?
- Do all staff appreciate the connection between children’s and parents’ wellbeing and take this into account when planning support, managing interactions, etc?