Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, launched Supporting Parents: A National Model of Parenting Support Services.
Supporting Parents is a national model for parenting support services, which takes a whole-of-Government approach to improve support for parenting.
The vision of Supporting Parents is for all parents to be confident and capable in their parenting role, helping to achieve the best outcomes for children and families.
Supporting Parents is a cross-government approach to ensuring Greater awareness of parenting support services, Greater access to parenting support services, More inclusive parenting support services and Needs-led and evidence-informed parenting support services.
Speaking about the model, Minister O’Gorman said, “I am very proud to deliver the publication of Supporting Parents: A National Model for Parenting Support Services.”
“The past few years have not been an easy period for parents in Ireland. It can be difficult for parents to know what to do, especially in a time of high stress or turmoil. The role of parenting support services is invaluable in this respect.”
“The vision of Supporting Parents is for all parents to be confident and capable in their parenting role, helping to achieve the best outcomes for children and families. It also sets out a cross-government, cross-society approach to ensure that all parents can access high quality supports in a timely manner”.
In developing Supporting Parents, the Government seeks to improve services by setting out a shared vision with agreed principles and shared goals to promote a cohesive, joined-up national approach to parenting supports. The plan takes account of existing policies and commitments, and seeks to strengthen and develop mechanisms for effective coordination, co-operation and collaboration.
“Evidence and experience from around the world shows that for us to create positive change, we need the involvement of the whole community, and the whole of Government, working together,” said Minister O’Gorman.
“I hope that our work on Supporting Parents will not only raise awareness of parenting support services, but help us to meet the needs of everyone who plays a parenting role in our society.”