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Professional advice not needed

Parents will not welcome plans by the Government to spend more money on advice for families and have expressed the need for concrete services instead, a survey has found.

Prime Minister Tony Blair announced earlier in the week the Governments plan to help families in need before problems arise in children’s behaviour.

Participants at the Diverse Britain: Social Practice and Social Policy conference yesterday discussed the findings of the research conducted by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Families and Social Capital Research Group at London South Bank University.

The majority of parents told the researchers they did not feel that they needed professional advice to bring up their children. Families believe that the parenting advice would be an intrusion into their lives and was not welcome. Parents found that advice they had received in the past was not helpful and the majority of working class families dismissed the idea.

The research discovered that ethnic minority families were perfectly capable of keeping connections and caring relationships despite the break up of physically located communities.

These ties continue to work across international borders, with research finding that second generation Italian immigrants often maintain their familial relationships at a distance.

Irene Watt.

Next week: Boris Johnson MP and Stephen Williams MP talk exclusively to FE News


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