Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department spent on parenting programmes in England in (a) cash and (b) real terms in each of the last five years.

Strong and confident parenting can strengthen the well-being of families and improve outcomes for children. It is for this reason that, since 2012, the Government has been funding the trial of CANParent – a network of organisations providing high quality, universal parenting classes and advice, informed by robust evidence.

From 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013, the total amount spent on the CANParent trial was £1,248,640. From 1 April 2013 to the end of March 2014, the total was £2,228,806. The funds were allocated from the budget of the Department for Education.

The Trial was extended for one year, with responsibility transferred to the Department for Health, and will now run until March 2015. The budget for the one year extension of the CANParent trial stands at £1,286,000 for the 2014-15 financial year. No further funds have been committed to the project.

Market development work following on from the initial two-year trial, led by Family Lives, was transferred to the Department of Health from the Department of Education on 1 April 2014 and is due to run until 31 March 2015. The budget for that work stands at £1,140,758.

Parenting classes are also provided by local authorities and third sector organisations. Data on total spend on parenting classes is not collected centrally.