Project online event held with National Centre for Family Hubs

Our online event with the National Centre for Family Hubs, which took place on 21 October 2024, was attended by practitioners, managers and researchers working in the areas of early help, family hubs and family support. 

Project team members Harriet Churchill (University of Sheffield) and Daisy Elliott (Action for Children) presented at the event, taking attendees through the Virtual Support for Parents' Study and its mixed methods approach to exploring approaches, benefits and challenges in the design and delivery of universal online and digital resources and services for parents and parenting.

The presentation included some initial findings and observations from the current area of project activity and the first major phase of the project, a research review that aims to answer the research question: What does published research tell us about the design, delivery and effectiveness of universally available online and digital platforms and services that provide signposting, guidance and support services for parents and families with children? An interim project report setting out the findings of the research review is due to be published in early spring 2025. 

The presentation also included a review of insights gained from the recently published independent evaluation of Action for Children’s 'Parent Talk' service, a bespoke online guidance and support service for parents, carers and families. The evaluation, undertaken by Dr Clara Rübner Jørgensen, Dr Jodie Pennacchia, Dr Eleni Stamou and Syed Labib Ul Islam at the University of Birmingham, considers parental engagement with the service and the main issues and concerns raised by data collected from parents as service users. You can read the full report here.

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