Parents will be regularly inspected with their standard of
parenting being graded on a 7 point scale. Any parent who scores 1 will have their
children immediately removed from them.
A score of 2 will result in them being placed on ‘notice to improve’
with their parenting being inspected every four weeks and their children being
taken away from them if they do not rapidly improve their scores.
The strongest and most convincing complaints have come from
those parents who allow their children a lot of freedom. They are worried that while the skills of
strict parents are obvious, their skills are more subtle and less easy to
identify and correctly grade. They say
that they like to watch their children and allow them to make mistakes and
explore the world as much as possible, intervening only when necessary and
usually through subtle methods of encouraging their children to reflect on the consequences
of their behaviour which a stranger would be unlikely to spot and may confuse
with poor parenting. They are arguing
that the purpose of inspection should be to eliminate unacceptable behaviour
and some of them think that this is best done through support rather than the
immediate punishment of the confiscation of children. They think that acceptable parenting should not
be graded as the grade definitions proposed will reduce diversity of practice,
freedom and innovation and enhance the likelihood of parents moving towards
stricter, more overt and excessively interventionist styles of parenting which
are easier to accredit. They are also concerned that parents who do not understand the challenges associated with raising children with specific needs or raising children in difficult economic and social circumstances will negatively judge good parents who are coping with very challenging circumstances.
Parents have also complained that the schedule of high stakes inspections will force them to focus on passing those inspections rather than on their other activities which contribute to society which they feel that ultimately their children will benefit from seeing them participate in.
In response to their criticisms two concessions were
made. The first was that the definition
of the highest rating has been loosened to allow it to encompass excellent
parenting which allows significant freedom.
The protestors say this is not good enough as parents who allow more
freedom need to progress as well (they don’t suddenly emerge as being
outstanding parents) and the issue whereby not all inspectors may have they
experience to assess this type of parenting has not been properly addressed. They
are, however, more positive about the provision that parents should be allowed
to select from accredited inspection bodies – allowing them to reject those
which do not have the relevant expertise to assess their practice.
However in a last minute unexpected twist the second
decision to allow parents to select their own inspection body has been reversed. A couple of proponents of strict parenting
who had been defeated during the consultation processes quietly submitted an
amendment to force all parents to be assessed by one regulator. They managed to get that amendment scheduled
for debate at midnight on the night before Ascot so that it went through
without anyone noticing soon enough to object.
So now Ofspare exists.
What do you think will happen next?
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