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Positive Parenting: The National Evaluation of the Youth Justice Board's Parenting Programme

NCJ Number
212211
Author(s)
Deborah Ghate; Marcelo Ramella
Date Published
September 2002
Length
146 pages
Annotation
This report presents the results of a national evaluation on the Youth Justice Board’s Parenting Program conducted from 1999 to 2001.
Abstract
The last 4 years have seen profound changes in the youth justice system in England and Wales. Among a range of new responses to youth offending that were made available to the courts after the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act, the Parenting Order was created, requiring mandatory engagement by the parents of young offenders and school refusers with various forms of parenting education and support. Parenting order marked a radical new direction for the youth justice system. However, concerns were expressed about the net widening effect that this new program and gateway into the criminal justice system had created for families. This concern formed the backdrop to implementation and more importantly evaluation of the Youth Justice Board’s (YJB’s) Parenting Program. The Youth Justice Board (YJB) engaged the Policy Research Bureau (PRB) to conduct a national evaluation of the implementation and impact of 34 Parenting Program projects. This report presents the findings from this national evaluation conducted from June 1999 to December 2001. After an introduction, the report is structured into four primary parts. In part 2, the objectives and structure of the projects that formed the Parenting Program are described. Part 3 presents findings about the effects and effectiveness of the projects from both parents and young people’s perspective. Part 4 explores the learning that emerged from the evaluation for those involved in purchasing, planning, and delivering parenting support services within the youth justice system. The final part summarizes key messages from the evaluation, analyzing the process of setting up and delivering the projects, in the areas of interagency working, human resources and staffing, reaching and engaging parents, parents’ learning styles, and practical and logistical issues, and monitoring and evaluation. References and appendixes 1-3