Support: key lessons from research

Intervention in the family must respect and support the emotional bond between parents and child.

Support should be provided to parents and children as people first.

Support is most effective when it is consistent, non-intrusive and non-threatening.

Parents should be enabled to participate in the making of decisions with a bearing on their family life.

Support is more effective when aimed at the survival and maintenance needs of families, followed by childcare tasks, than to modifying styles of interaction within the family.

Service providers must be responsive to any informal supports already in place.

Problems often arise when a family in difficulty is forced to turn for help to the very professionals with the main statutory responsibility for child protection.

Parents should be made to feel in control of events.

The attitude of those who deliver the support is crucial in determining its effectiveness.

A parent-child relationship based on love and affection is more easily supported than replaced.