A library of engagement tactics for parenting programmes

Practical, evidence-informed ways to help more parents find, start and complete evidence-based parenting programmes.

Understanding how families move from first hearing about a parenting programme to actively taking part helps us design better engagement strategies.

By identifying where families are getting stuck, you can choose tactics that target the right part of the engagement lifecycle.

The Engagement Lifecycle

The engagement lifecycle maps parents' engagement journeys from initial awareness of the programme and consideration of whether to take part, to initial attendance and sustaining engagement with the programme over time. By using this lifecycle as a diagnostic tool, you can pinpoint exactly where engagement falls off and select the most effective tactics to address those specific gaps.

Awareness

How do I raise awareness of what programmes exist for families?

Consideration

How do I encourage parents to consider signing up for programmes?

Conversion

How do I support families to attend after sign-up?

Sustaining

How do I encourage families to sustain engagement throughout the programme?

View our resources below to learn how you can choose the right tactics for your local area:

About the parent engagement playbook

This playbook of parent engagement tactics brings together practical, evidence-informed ways of helping parents find, start and complete parenting programmes.

It’s designed for people working in and with local authorities who are responsible for delivery i.e. those making day-to-day decisions about how programmes are offered, promoted and supported, often with limited time and resources.

Read more about our approach in the methodology section.

This is an alpha version.

This playbook is an early version. It will continue to evolve as we learn more about what works to improve parental engagement. Throughout, we’ve indicated how well-evidenced each tactic is and have linked to the source of this information.

ALPHA