Call to teach parenting at school

CHILDREN in schools should be learning about the “responsibilities of parenthood” to better prepare them for family life, a councillor has said.

Bridgend councillor Nicole Burnett, Labour, believes children should be taught how to manage their finances and be a good citizen as well as what is involved with parenting in order to help them lead a “normal family life”.

Speaking at a Bridgend council meeting on early help and children’s social care, she questioned whether more could be done in schools to help prevent the increasing demand for services such as the new council-run Baby in Mind Service.

The new service involves intensive support for pregnant mothers and their partners to develop the necessary skills to keep their children safe.

The early intervention aims to prevent the baby being taken into care.

Cllr Burnett said: “I don’t feel there’s enough parenting and citizenship done in Personal and Social Education (PSE) at the moment.

“Most students are taught things that are irrelevant – they’re not even taught how to look after an animal, let alone a child or what the responsibilities of that are.”

She added: “I’m really concerned about this aspect of education and that schools have got so much freedom in terms of what life skills children are prepared for. I feel there’s an extreme lack of skills being taught.

“This is nothing to do with sex education, it’s to do with what it’s really like to have a baby in the house and what it needs to be looked after.

“It also includes things like what’s a healthy relationship, what’s acceptable and what’s not, what’s abuse. I don’t feel it’s covered enough.

“Some children have nothing to compare themselves against. It needs to be shown to them in an educational context to make sure they grow up with an education which will help them lead a normal family life.”

Bridgend council’s interim director of education, Lindsey Harvey, said while all schools delivered PSE differently and there was no compulsory model there was now a “far better interaction” between schools and health services.

Cabinet member for education Charles Smith said the council would talk to schools about what more could be covered within PSE.

Between 2016-2017, the overall numbers of children in care across Wales increased by 5.5%.

In Bridgend, the numbers increased by 2.2% and was the fourth highest in Wales for the number of looked after children per 10,000 population.