Parents International’s Director, Eszter Salamon had co-authored a newly published paper on parenting support under the umbrella of the EuroFamNet COST Action. This has been a very much under-researched, but important topic for parents, and thus we decided to be part of creating the evidence base that we use in our work. It presents a review of recent academic literature which considers the ways in which formal family support is conceptualised, developed, and delivered in the European context, and reflects the work of a year and a half, done as volunteers.

This literature review aims to:
1. Identify and examine similarities and differences in the meanings and applications of ‘family support’ as a key concept within and across European countries.
2. Consider similarities and differences in national approaches to family support and family support services for children, parents and families across European countries.
3. Present a review of how the literature in these areas has conceptualised, evaluated and theorised these similarities and differences.

Devaney, C., Christiansen, Ø., Holzer, J., MacDonald, M., Matias, M., Piessens, A. & Salamon, E. (2021). The conceptualisation and delivery of family support in Europe: A review of academic literature. EurofamNet.

You can find the report in the ParentHelp Library here.

Parents International has been part of the Education Policy Reform Dialogues organised by OECD since 2018. After a longer break, representatives of OECD Member governments and key stakeholders have met again for a 2-day discussion on 22-23 November 2021 in Ghent, Belgium. As countries focus on recovering from a profound global
crisis and building a better normal, it was the right moment to imagine a future in which education systems can adapt
more nimbly to uncertain times – and to dare to make it a reality. The event provided a forum in which senior policy makers can come together with their international peers and OECD experts to shape a clearer vision of a responsive and resilient future for education, and identify smart strategies that will bring it to life. Parents Intenational was represented by its Director, Eszter Salamon.

The event coincided with the launch of the Education Policy Outlook’s Framework for Responsiveness and
Resilience in Education Policy. Building on analysis of international evidence and examples collected across
OECD and non-OECD countries, this framework offers an integrated vision of how existing and emerging policy
efforts can come together to underpin education systems’ capacity to thrive in ever-changing local and global
contexts. It has the ultimate aim of nurturing education systems that bring together resilient learners, resilient
broader learning environments and resilient systems. We were happy to see that throught this review of evidence even the OECD started to promote the importance of engaging parents. The numbers presented clearly show that parents are already deeply involved in the education of their children. Now it is time to engage them in desiging and implementing change.

This and the next edition of the Education Policy Reform Dialogues (EPRD) are also aiming at supporting countries’ preparations for the upcoming EDPC Ministerial Meeting, to take place in December 2022, which will look into the topics of: Resilience, Equity and Lifelong Learning. Therefore, adopting the framework as key substantive background, the EPRD 2021 will explore the ways in which policy makers can create the conditions to nurture resilient learners through an education which focuses on the whole child and adopts a whole-of-society approach, brought to life by empowered, multi-dimensional professionals. While encouraging ambitious thinking, discussions will be grounded in the political economy of reform, taking into account participants’ realities at a critical moment of recovery and recalibration following a period of prolonged global crisis.

In the interactive event, participants discussed the following questions presenting inspiring practice and looking into what national education policy should focus on:

• Which education policy successes, from the pandemic period and before, should education systems retain and strengthen beyond 2021?
• How can policy makers best approach their systems’ purpose, people and processes to create the conditions for change to take hold?
• What practical steps should education systems now prioritise as catalysts for change, based on international evidence?

We were invited to inspire by appraoches that work, so – among others – we presented the municipal education council model from Hungary and the Parent’R’Us coaching and mentoring approach to ensure all parents are engaged.

The Finnish education system is a role model for many countries. Still, they think it is often too teacher-centred, and there is a lot more to do for parent-teacher partnerships. Our award-winning Parent’R’Us model was the basis of a workshop we were invited to hold at the Helsinki Education Week on 4 November 2021. It was delivered in English, so it was not only open to Finnish educators (teachers, school leaders, parents, etc.). Unfortunately, the organisers decided to hold the event online, but we have agreed to follow up in person.

The topic at hand was creating strong and equal partnerships between parents and schools through parental engagement. We invited teachers, school heads and parents to join this virtual workshop organized by the Education Division of the City of Helsinki and Parents International and explore the Parent’R’Us project.

Agenda of the workshop:

• Opening and introduction
• Discussion on parent rights
• A short introduction to the theoretical background behind the Parent’R’Us project – understanding parental engagement
• The participants’ experiences
• Presentation of the Parent’R’Us model
• Q&A and closing

The workshop was very interactive and well received by participants. The Education Division of the City of Helsinki and Parents International have agreed to actively collaborate in the future to support implementation.

Parents International has organised three face-to-face pilots of the ParENTrepreneurs Training to ensure that the programme we developed in the project consortium works in different contexts. As other partners have only been able to pilot online, this was crucial for the project’s success. The pilots took place in October and the beginning of November in Hungary, the Netherlands (this training was the only one foreseen) and Spain.

Netherlands

The ParENTrepreneurs pilot in the Netherlands was the first complete in-person pilot of the training. The pilot had been postponed in order to be delivered according to the application. The application had also contemplated an international pilot in advance of national pilots but in some cases this had not been possible owing to the covid related delays.. The pilot was delivered implementing the training manual. The training was delivered in English to a group of parents from various backgrounds and nationalities, with children enrolled in kindergarten or school in the country.

The training was offered on three consecutive Saturdays between the middle and the end of October with two modules delivered each day. Since there was much more interest and demand beyond the available 20 places, a second training is planned after the international training, in the Spring or early Summer 2022. Childcare and activities for children were offered alongside the training.

The 20 people enrolled in the pilot participated in all activities and filled the evaluation forms for each module separately. Overall, we can say that the training was very well received, the parents found it very useful, enjoyable and appropriate to cater for their needs.

Hungary

The ParENTrepreneurs pilot in Hungary was an extra pilot of the training in an effort to have f2f pilots in at least 3 country contexts. The pilot was delivered and completed following the training manual. It was delivered in Hungarian, but using the English training materials to a group of parents who are all active parent leaders at different levels. It was held over the long weekend at the end of October and 1 November 2021 with two modules delivered each day.

Childcare and activities for children were offered alongside the training. The 9 people enrolled in the pilot participated in all activities and filled the evaluation at the end of the training for the whole experience. Overall, we can say that the training was very well received, the parents found it very useful, enjoyable and appropriate to cater for their needs. Linguistic barriers using the English training material were present, but addressed fairly easily.

Spain

The ParENTrepreneurs pilot in Spain, Catalonia was an extra pilot of the training in an effort to have f2f pilots in at least 3 country contexts. The pilot was implemented and followed the training manual completely. The pilot was delivered in Spanish to a group of parents who are all active parent leaders at different levels, but the evaluation was done in English. The training was held over the long weekend at the end of October and 1 November 2021 with two modules delivered each day.

Childcare and activities for children were provided alongside the training. The 8 people enrolled in the pilot participated in all activities and completedthe evaluation forms for the training as a whole once. Overall, we can say that the training was very well received, the parents found it very useful, enjoyable and appropriate to their needs.

The ParENTreperenurs trainings have proven to be relevant and interesting for parents with different cultural and national backgrounds, different age groups and also for parents of younger and older children alike. Most of the topics are easy-to-link to everyday parenting challenges. Being entrepreneurial in everyday life is a relatively unique concept for parents in this country context. Most of the topics are easy-to-link to everyday parenting challenges. The training was given a very good evaluation by participants with only a few recommendations for refining it.