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Parents: Advisory Services

Volume 497: debated on Thursday 22 October 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many calls there have been to the Parent Know How helpline in each month since it was established; what the cost of the helpline has been; and if he will make a statement. (293401)

Under our Parent Know How programme we are funding seven third sector organisations to provide helpline support for parents in England. There is not a separate single Parent Know How helpline. The funding for these helplines, for a three-year period, commenced on 1 April 2008. Management data, including the number of recorded calls made to the helplines, were collected on a quarterly basis in the first year (1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009). In the current year, we are now collecting this data on a monthly basis. The following table shows a breakdown of the number of recorded calls made to each helpline between 1 April 2008 and 30 September 2009.

2008-09: Recorded calls made

Helpline

Advisory Centre for Education

Contact a Family

Children’s Legal Centre

Family Rights Group

Gingerbread

Parentline Plus

Young Minds

Q1

33,395

4,361

4,978

6,498

2,544

47,033

2,502

Q2

10,669

6,598

6,752

5,560

2,923

40,140

2,018

Q3

15,249

4,575

7,070

4,211

2,434

39,266

2,437

Q4

21,298

5,815

9,008

6,957

3,095

39,430

2,868

Total

80,611

21,349

27,808

23,226

10,996

165,869

9,825

Overall total

339,684

2009-10: Recorded calls made to 30 September

Helpline

Advisory Centre for Education

Contact a Family

Children’s Legal Centre

Family Rights Group

Gingerbread

Parentline Plus

Young Minds

April

7,476

1,427

2,043

1,861

847

12,322

599

May

7,637

1,329

1,819

2,087

724

13,511

678

June

6,359

1,336

1,938

2,219

363

11,970

778

July

4,202

1,165

2,420

1,857

920

13,169

904

August

1,023

1,361

1,188

1,145

857

11,420

526

September

3,578

1,428

2,066

1,562

1,019

12,768

914

Total

30,275

8,046

11,474

10,731

4,730

75,160

4,399

Overall total

144,815

The third sector organisations each receive grant funding. The total grant funding claimed between 1 April 2008 and 30 September 2009 was £5,821,814.