“Promoting parental skills strengthens families!” Yes, but what instruments are best suited
to effectively help parents cope with child-raising issues? And what experience has been gained from parenting programmes in various European countries?

International exchanges about structures, instruments and methods and the question of how to measure the effects of parental education were the focal points of a two-day conference entitled “Promoting parental skills in Europe – instruments and effects” that took place in Berlin on 11 and 12 February 2010.

On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) the staff of the Observatory for Sociopolitical Developments in Europe were hosts to conference participants from twenty different countries.

The event was well attended by both German and international guests: 120 academics, practicians and experts from national and regional authorities exchanged ideas on how the competence of parents could be strengthened. Two important aspects of the discussion were how families could best be reached and what programmes were effective in the long term.

Petra Mackroth of the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) and Prof. Friedrich Lösel from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität in Erlangen-Nuremberg presented the introductory addresses. In the course of the conference, participants had the opportunity to join six different working groups where they heard about various instruments to promote parental skills and their effects and
were able to discuss them.

The working groups – on parental education vouchers, institutional networking at local and regional level, access to parental education programmes, quality assurance and personnel qualification in parental education, evaluation of programmes and current research issues – provided a framework for intensive exchanges on the practical approaches taken in various European countries.

The following main conclusions can be drawn from the many practical examples and from the discussion on various instruments and approaches in parental education in Europe:

• Parental education means different things in different countries: the approaches taken and the methods used depend on the definition and position of parental education within the overall spectrum of social and educational measures. Some countries apply very structured and standardised measures, while in others more consideration is given to individual life situations and to the problems of specific families as the starting point for interventions. In a few countries, separation and divorce counselling are part of parental education.

• An important point is whether the measures and types of events are designed to transfer
knowledge, provide a forum for exchanges of experience, offer training or give ongoing support in social and pedagogical issues. Parental education can therefore take various forms, ranging from traditional lectures or other forms of knowledge transfer and the provision of printed information about many interactive or group measures to the Internet, which is used as a platform for exchanges and offers the possibility of anonymous interaction.

• The programmes offered tend to reach middle-class families. The question of access to other target groups is one of the central issues in all countries. A variety of ideas and approaches to reach more parents were discussed, for instance stronger involvement of migrant self-help organisations, parental education at the workplace and the use of vouchers.

• The issue of effect proved to be a highly controversial discussion point. The effect of
programmes was seen mainly as being dependent on their structure – with more tructured
programmes being easier to assess. More individualised measures are much more difficult to gauge in terms of their effects. There was thought to be a clear need for exchanges of information on the various approaches to parental education – with the question of valuation and assessment of effects viewed as particularly important for further discussion.