Skip to main navigation Skip to main content
Home

Search

  • Donate
  • News & opinion
  • About us
    • Who we are
      • Our vision, mission, values
      • Meet the NCB family
        • Anti-Bullying Alliance
        • Childhood Bereavement Network
        • Council for Disabled Children
        • Lambeth Early Action Partnership
        • Northern Ireland Anti-Bullying Forum
        • Schools' Wellbeing Partnership
      • Our story
      • Our process
      • NCB in Northern Ireland
        • Outcomes Based Accountability
        • NI projects & programmes
        • News & opinion
        • Resources & Publications
        • LINKS
          • LINKS workshops
          • LINKS Grant Holder Organisations
          • LINKS Young People Advisory Group
          • LINKS Internship
          • The Impact of Covid 19 on LINKS Groups
          • Involving Young People in Decision Making
          • LINK News
          • LINKS Cluster Group Meetings
        • Working with children & young people in NI
          • Children's rights work
          • Commission us for participation support
          • Participation Support Programme
          • Recent projects with children & young people
          • Supporting children & young people's right to participation
          • Young NCB Northern Ireland
          • Young researchers
        • Northern Ireland events
        • Northern Ireland newsletter
        • Contact the Northern Ireland team
      • Our people
        • Trustees
        • Leadership Team
        • Anti-Bullying Alliance
        • Childhood Bereavement Network
        • Communications and marketing
        • Council for Disabled Children
        • Corporate services
        • Early years
        • Education
        • Fundraising
        • Health
        • LEAP
        • Northern Ireland
        • Research and Policy
        • Participation
    • Where we work
    • Join the team
      • Current vacancies
      • Employee benefits
      • Working at NCB
    • Media centre
      • Evidence
      • News & opinion
      • Spokespeople

    About us

    We bring people and organisations together to drive change in society and deliver a better childhood across the UK.

    More
    • Who we are
    • Where we work
    • Join the team
    • Media centre
    Featured

    Meet the NCB family

  • What we do
    • Research
      • Our research projects
      • Young Research Advisors
      • Research partners
      • Families Research Advisory Group
      • Research reports
      • Research ethics
    • Networks
    • Policy
      • All Party Parliamentary Group
      • Our manifesto
      • Policy campaigns
        • Give us a Chancellor
        • A vision for recovery
        • Children at the Heart
      • Reports and briefings
      • Research and Policy newsletter
    • Practice
      • Early years
        • Early Childhood Unit
          • Our programmes
            • Making it REAL
            • Education Endowment Foundation REAL RCT
            • Our work in Jersey
            • Our work in Lambeth
          • Our training
          • National Quality Improvement Network
          • Our resources
            • Early years leaflets
            • Knowledge Makes Change seminars
          • Early Childhood Unit newsletter
        • A Better Start
        • Early Years SEND Partnership
        • Lambeth Early Action Partnership
      • Health
        • Designated Medical / Clinical Officer role development
        • Expert Parent Programme
        • Safeguarding Early Adopters Primary tabs VIEW
        • The role of Independent Reviewing Officers in England
      • Inclusion & SEND
        • Delivering Better Outcomes Together
        • Information, Advice and Support Programme
        • It’s My Life! Decisions, Capacity and Education, Health and Care Plans
      • Wellbeing & mental health
        • Schools' Wellbeing Partnership
          • Whole school approach
          • Key resources
          • Recent partnership activity
          • Partnership members
          • Our forum
          • Apply to join the partnership
        • All Together: Whole-school anti-bullying programme
        • Award scheme recognises schools building better mental health
        • Get Your Rights website
        • Joining up the dots
        • Learn Equality, Live Equal
    • Participation
      • Young NCB
      • Recent projects with children & young people
      • Involving children & young people in research
      • Hear from the young people we work with
      • Join Young NCB
    • Our strategy

    What we do

    Our impact goes beyond childhood to deliver lasting change for future generations.

    More
    • Research
    • Networks
    • Policy
    • Practice
    • Participation
    • Our strategy
    Featured

    Give us a Chancellor

    Featured

    Reports and briefings

  • Resources
    • Events & training
      • Calendar
      • Training and consultancy
        • Early years training
    • Covid-19 resources
    • Resources for schools
    • Major reports
    • All resources

    Resources

    Information and tools to guide policy and practice development.

    More
    • Events & training
    • Covid-19 resources
    • Resources for schools
    • Major reports
    • All resources
    Featured

    Covid-19 resources

    Featured

    Resources for schools

  • Partner with us
    • Our impact
    • Trusts and foundations
    • Corporate partnerships
    • Individual fundraising
    • Donate
    • Annual reports
    • Shop
      • Memberships
        • Anti-Bullying Alliance membership
      • Tools and resources
        • Early Childhood Unit Resources

    Partner with us

    Get involved today to help us build a better childhood for every child.

    More
    • Our impact
    • Trusts and foundations
    • Corporate partnerships
    • Individual fundraising
    • Donate
    • Annual reports
    • Shop
    Featured

    Trusts and foundations

    Featured

    Donate

100 Conversations: The hopes and concerns of parents in 2018

Published

23 Feb 2021

Tags

Early years

To better understand the hopes and concerns parents and carers have for their young children in 2018, Family Action and the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) facilitated conversations in a range of settings across the UK. We heard from over 300 parents and carers. We found that:

  • Without exception, parents and carers want happiness, opportunities and choice for their children. They also want their children to have the self-confidence to be themselves and to participate positively in their community
  • Good parenting and caring is seen as the most important aspect of a happy childhood
  • To provide the right care for their children, parents need good mental health and emotional wellbeing. This was particularly so regarding maternal mental health, where some mothers felt more support would be helpful
  • Some parents find it hard to spend as much time with their children as they would like, owing to the need to work to provide for their family
  • Specific universal health services are a key part of parents’ experiences of support. However, these experiences were mixed, with some parents feeling they were being judged or that they could not trust some professionals
  • Parents value support from their family and wider communities. This includes friends made through accessing group settings, and the role that children themselves can play in contributing to a happy family life
  • Children’s Centres, A Better Start and Northern Ireland Surestart were spoken of positively in terms of how they facilitated access to formal and informal support.

This message from parents lays down a range of challenges to civil society in terms of what support should look like going forward. Specifically we may need to consider how we:

  • Support maternal mental health through awareness so all forms of support is reached by those that need it
  • Incubate informal support networks so no family feels alone
  • Build consistently good parent-professional relationships so parents can have confidence in how they are being supported
  • Nurture the personalities of children and young people themselves so they can contribute to healthy and happy families both now and in the future
  • Make space for family time, rather than creating more support activities that parents have to do away from their children.

Read the full 100 Conversations report.

Resources

  • Events & training
  • Covid-19 resources
  • Resources for schools
  • Major reports
  • All resources

Resources Filters

Resource Tag

Share

  • Share on facebook
  • Tweet this
  • Share linkedin
  • Email
Back to top
Home

Sign up to our newletter

  • About us
    • Who we are
    • Where we work
    • Join the team
    • Media centre
  • What we do
    • Research
    • Networks
    • Policy
    • Practice
    • Participation
    • Our strategy
  • Resources
    • Events & training
    • Covid-19 resources
    • Resources for schools
    • Major reports
    • All resources
  • Partner with us
    • Our impact
    • Trusts and foundations
    • Corporate partnerships
    • Individual fundraising
    • Donate
    • Annual reports
    • Shop

© National Children's Bureau 2021

  • linkedin
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • youtube
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy statement
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookie Policy
  • Suppliers area
  • Contact us

Registered charity No. 258825. Registered in England and Wales No. 952717.

Registered office: National Children’s Bureau, 23 Mentmore Terrace, Hackney, London E8 3PN. A Company Limited by Guarantee.

Site by Effusion