There’s an open door for parents at the Department for Education

It’s not surprising that most of the reaction to the Schools White Paper is around SEND. It’s a hugely important issue and we know many parents struggle for support. Our National Parent Survey tells us 4 in 10 parents of a child with special educational needs has found it difficult to get the support their child needs. 

Looking below the headlines, what really struck me was the focus on parents and improving relationships between home and school, it just might not quite have hit the media yet. 

Parents have a hugely important role, with the Education Endowment Foundation showing that good parental engagement can be worth four months’ academic progress for children over the course of a year. That is huge and a figure repeated in the White Paper. 

It is our job to be the voice of parents in education and make sure that parents are heard loud and clear inside the Department for Education. We were also pleased to be one of a small number of charities invited to a round table at 10 Downing Street yesterday morning to discuss the launch of the White Paper with the Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

As the White Paper says, pointing to our research, “…a third of parents of primary children, and half of parents of secondary children say they do not get enough information on how to support their child’s learning outside the classroom”.

We were pleased to see some important recognition of the role of parents, building on a speech Bridget Phillipson gave to Parentkind last year, where she said:

“Over the last decade, I believe that parents have been underrepresented in our national conversation. 

“[The National Parent Survey 2025]….tells me two things. It tells me we need change. And it tells me that parents must be partners in that change.” 

The Department for Education has created a new parental engagement team and has now announced its intention to “…establish minimum expectations that supports the creation of meaningful home-to-school partnerships”.

Having a Parent Teacher Association (PTA) is described as a basic expectation and we would strongly agree. We would love to see a PTA in every school – they can play a big role in building school communities as well as raising money for schools. We were pleased to see the Government hold up PTAs as an example of meeting ​‘minimum expectations’ for schools. 

With 1 in 4 parents telling us there has been a breakdown of trust between parents and teachers at their child’s school, the ​“Parent’s Guide to School Complaints” is acknowledged as part of the answer. This was a major piece of work supported by the DfE, Ofsted and the wider education sector that we hope will help both parents and schools.

Our Parent Friendly School accreditation was held up as an example of how schools can show they want to work well with parents, with the report saying: ​“We will also increase awareness and build on the learning of existing programmes, such as Parentkind’s Parent Friendly Schools Accreditation.” 

It is now time for every school to be Parent Friendly School and we will work with ministers to make this a reality. Hundreds of schools, across England, are now recognised as Parent Friendly Schools pointing to a quiet revolution taking place in schools.

There’s a feeling of an open door for parents at the Department for Education. We’re keen to see ministers grasp the possibility of real change through working with parents and getting to grips with parental engagement in education, something we always describe as the missing piece of the jigsaw.