National Parent Survey 2023
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This survey is wake up call to schools and politicians around the country. The cost of living crisis is hitting more and more families, who used to have comfortable incomes but are now concerned about the cost of sending their children to school. Millions of children now face the grim reality of parents not able to buy new school uniform or the cost of school trips, covering the cost of school lunches is also a major worry for parents, especially those on the lowest incomes.
Read the nation-specific reports
Cost of living
In one of the largest surveys of parents in Britain, Parentkind found that even middle class families are now feeling the pinch with one in six families with household incomes over £70,000 struggling to meet school costs.
The research revealed that 2.8 million children in the UK live in households where their parents are struggling to afford the cost of sending them to school with half of all parents citing uniforms (50%) and school trips (44%) as the biggest financial headache.
The figures a much worse for parents with children entitled to free school meals, with almost two thirds (61%) concerned about the cost of uniforms and over half (52%) worrying about paying for school trips.
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2.3 million children
live in households where their parents are struggling to afford the cost of sending them to school
Mental health and wellbeing
Mental anguish is a major worry for the nation’s parents with “shocking” levels of anxiety and depression reported by parents, particularly for parents with children at secondary school.
- More than half of parents (51%) of secondary school children worry about the toll exams are taking on their children with 1 in 4 (25%) saying their children are suffering from depression.
- Half (50%) of parents with teenage children worry about the time they spend on electronic devices with a quarter (24%) expressing fears their children have been subject to cyber bullying and online abuse. One in seven (15%) said their teenage children feel the pressure to live up to the expectations of social media influencers.
- 1 in 10 parents say their teenage children are turning to self harm which could mean up to three quarters of a million (740,000) children are self harming.
- 1 in 7 (14%) parents with children at secondary school say their child feels unsafe at school, including 1 in 25 (4%) parents who say their teenage children have been sexually harassed, equivalent to 363,000 children across the UK.
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2.4 million children
have experienced bullying -
726,000 children
have experienced cyberbullying -
363,000 children
have experienced sexual harassment
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363,000 children
in secondary school have self-harmed -
181,000 children
in secondary school have experienced eating disorders -
544,000 children
in secondary school children have experienced pressure to meet social media’s expectations
Parent involvement
Only 14% of parents feel that the government listens to what they want for their child’s education.
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745,000
primary school parents feel they lack school support for home learning -
2.7 million parents
would be willing to volunteer to help their child’s school -
600,000 parents
Learning at school
When it comes to support from schools for these issues, parents feel left to pick up the pieces by themselves.
- Almost two thirds (62%) of parents with children at secondary school who said their child suffers from depression report being dissatisfied with the support offered by their child’s school or receiving no support at all.
- A similar number of parents (63%) report being dissatisfied with the support received from their child’s school when it came to cyber bullying or online abuse.
- 6 in 10 parents (61%) who report that their child has turned to self harm report being dissatisfied with support offered by their child’s secondary school or receiving no support at all.
- Half of parents (51%) with a child at secondary school who has experienced sexual harassment report being dissatisfied with support offered by their school or receiving no support at all.
The National Parent Survey was conducted by YouGov in June this year. YouGov spoke to more than 5,000 parents across the UK making this one of the largest nationwide polls of parent opinion.
Methodology
The National Parent Survey was conducted online by YouGov. The fieldwork took place 5th – 26th June amongst 5,126 parents in England (3,067), Scotland (1,032), Wales (768) and Northern Ireland (259) who have at least one child aged 4–18 in school. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK parents aged 18+. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc.
Analysis and reporting was carried out by Parentkind. In 2023 the entire sample was increased to a minimum of 5,000 from a previous count of 3,750, extending the sample size in Wales and including Scotland for the first time.
Given the changes to the sample size and composition comparisons with previous years’ data are not possible. Margin of error: as the survey is not polling the entire population of parents in the UK, but rather a sample of the population, results are subject to a margin of error which is estimated to be between 0.5 and 2.5 percentage points for the whole sample.
The exact margin of error varies with the proportion considered. This means that, if for instance, according to the survey 28% of respondents strongly agree that they would like to have a say on their children’s education at school level, in reality the proportion is likely to be between 25.5% and 30.5% (i.e. the margin of error would be +/-2.5%). Statistically significant differences in results for particular demographic sub-groups are mentioned in the report.
Where we’ve made reference to pupil numbers in the report, these have been estimated using information on the total number of primary, secondary or all pupils in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland published by the respective national governments for academic year 2022/23. Where, for example, 20% of all parents reported that their child had experienced a particular issue, we have assumed that this would be true for 20% of all pupils.
