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Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society.

Parents Helping Parents: It takes a village to raise a child

This report is about how the power of parents and their communities can be harnessed to better support families with young children.

Parents are the most important influence on early childhood development. But they don’t always have the support they need.

We know that parental involvement has a greater impact on children’s development than any other factor. We also know that directly supporting parents can have a positive impact on child outcomes. Despite this, public services often don’t start from the agency of parents and fail to draw from and build on their energy, skills and community connections.

Through case studies and evidence, we argue for the wider adoption of what we call ‘parent-powered approaches’ – models of family support that harness the skills, experiences, and knowledge of parents, carers, and the wider community – to better support families in the early years and ultimately improve the life chances of children.

Authors

Will Bibby

Will Bibby

Will Bibby

Senior Programme Manager, Government Innovation

Will was a Senior Programme Manager working on Nesta's people-powered public services and education programmes.

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Carrie Deacon

Carrie Deacon

Carrie Deacon

Director of Government and Community Innovation

Carrie was Director of Government and Community Innovation at Nesta, leading our work on social action and people-powered public services.

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