‘I'm just there to ease the burden’: the parent support adviser role in English schools and the question of emotional labour

Abstract

In 2005, the Department for Education and Skills announced a £40 million investment in a new school support worker role, the parent support adviser (PSA), for 20 English local authorities. A pilot project ran from 2006–2008 and resulted in the establishment of 717 PSAs in 1167 schools. The national evaluation of the project forms the evidential basis of this paper, with interviews conducted with 69 PSAs, 85 PSA line managers and 105 parents and a database recording casework with nearly 21,000 parents. This paper focuses on the nature of the PSA role as the first centrally funded parent support role in English schools. The theoretical framework provided by the concept of ‘emotional labour’ and the development of the concept represented by the 4Ps typology provides the conceptual structure. This paper argues that although the characteristics of the PSA role appear to place it within the category of work requiring emotional labour, PSAs and parents regard that aspect of the role in a positive light. For the PSAs there was little evidence that emotional labour necessary for the role of PSA led to dissonance between role and worker or alienation from the product of PSA labour.

Universal Parenting Programme Provision in England; Barriers to Parent Engagement in the CANparent Trial, 2012–2014

“…The critique of ‘New’ Labour's approach to family policy notwithstanding, the three Labour governments of 1997–2010 pursued their strategy with a range of initiatives, including the introduction of Sure Start Children's Centres (H M Treasury, ), the development of a new para‐professional role in schools, Parent Support Adviser initiative (Cullen and others, ; Lindsay and others, ) family intervention projects aimed at tackling antisocial behaviour (White and others, ) and support for evidence‐based parenting programmes. One characteristic of the Labour governments’ policy initiatives was a stress on scientific evidence, including in relation to parenting programmes (West and others, ), and in 2006, the government began a major investment in evidence‐based parenting programmes.…”

Governing through trust: Community‐based link workers and parental engagement in education

“…The third technique is ‘contrived conviviality’. It has been acknowledged elsewhere that effective interventions are undergirded by positive relationships (Cullen et al ., ). And the link workers placed a high premium on their ability to establish meaningful relationships with parents.…”

“…For it is here that ‘the role of an independent arbiter who is afforded the time to establish a relationship with a parent is helpful in building confidence and conveying positive messages about the student and their schooling’ (Rose, , p. 10). Parenting support programmes are most effective when they build rapport with parents (Cullen et al ., ; Wainwright & Marandet, ) and the techniques employed by the link workers help in this endeavour.…”

Parenting programmes for parents of children and young people with behavioural difficulties

“…We investigated these ideas in both the PEIP study (Cullen, Cullen, Lindsay, & Strand, ) and also an earlier study of the introduction of Parent Support Advisors (PSAs), which could be similarly critiqued (Cullen, Cullen, & Lindsay, ). Our studies went beyond these critical analyses of possible negative concepts of parenting programmes.…”