About The National Parent Survey
The National Parent Survey is one of the UK’s biggest parent polls with over 100,000 different pieces of data. We have made the full data available for free to anyone with an interest in what parents are thinking.
Parentkind commissioned YouGov to survey 5,490 parents across the UK.
The National Parent Survey 2024 reveals that parents don’t feel appreciated, find balancing home and work life difficult, don’t spend as much time as they would like to with their families and are worried about the amount of time their children spend using screens.
Too many children don’t enjoy school, and too many don't feel safe when they go to school. The cost-of-living crisis is hitting parents hard with even some on middle incomes telling us they are struggling to afford the costs associated with sending their child to school.
This survey is full of data that should make us all sit up and think again about the barriers preventing children from succeeding in education and how we should support parents.
Introduction
Parents actively engaging in their child’s education is critical to their life outcomes.
However, family characteristics, location and individual children’s needs, coupled with today’s climate of school cuts and the cost-of-living crisis, to name a few, can all affect the extent to which parents can actively support and engage in education.
If parents are unable to support their children’s learning in and out of school then those children will not thrive through and beyond education as others might.
Parentkind’s purpose is to:
support parents and enhance their voice to maximise every child’s chance of reaching their academic potential and thriving during their educational journey.
Involving parents more deeply in education first requires an understanding of what they think about their child’s school experience now.
This report uncovers major parental concerns, whether that’s about negative influences on their child’s mental health and wellbeing or their own financial worries about paying for school uniforms, resources and additional learning experiences.
By addressing the challenges faced by parents head-on and ensuring fair access to resources, we can collectively work towards an education landscape that maximises the potential of parental participation and in so doing, nurtures happy, well-rounded, future-ready students.
Let's take a look.
Cost of living and poverty
3.7 million parents are struggling to pay their bills
Balancing work and home time
55% of working mums reduced their hours to spend more time with their kids
Mental health and wellbeing
Over 2 million parents say their mental health is poor or very poor
Parents' time pressures
33% of parents say chores and caring responsibilities stop them spending time with their kids
2.8 million parents are worried about affording their rent or mortgage.
It comes as no surprise that one of the biggest concerns for parents right now is the cost of living. Many of the parents we spoke to are struggling to keep their family afloat, and the poorest often sacrifice eating meals and heating their homes in order to pay for things their children need.
As day-to-day finances are a struggle, saving for the long-term is an impossibility for some. More than a third of parents have less than £500 in the bank for a rainy day. This in turn means they have to sacrifice holidays, family trips out, hobbies and more.
One in five
struggle to afford the costs associated with sending their child to school.
Screen time and its impact
On a typical weekday, 1.5 million children spend more time on electronic devices than they do at school
Uniform, school trips and school meals/drinks are the biggest concerns for parents.
This is concerning because our report highlights multiple areas where lower household income is strongly associated with increased challenges in supporting children's education, both within and outside of school, as well as a higher likelihood of children experiencing mental health issues.
Parents' views on education
1.5 million parents are unhappy with the education their child receives
Parents supporting learning
4 million parents regularly argue with their children about homework
School attendance
1 in 5 children refused to go to school in the last year, despite their parent thinking they should
School attendance
One in five children have refused to go to school in the last year, despite their parent thinking they should go
More than 2 million parents describe their own mental health as poor or very poor.
Mental
health
and
wellbeing
Children are more likely to have a mental health issue if their parent's own mental health is poor.
Being a parent is tough, and many have told us that they are struggling with their mental health.
As well as the stresses and pressures of work and home life, some parents tell us they have little time for self-care, hobbies and friendships. They also feel that society doesn't value them. Almost a quarter of parents told us they aren't happy most of the time.
The poor mental health of parents can have a direct impact on the mental health of their children. As we're in the midst of a mental health crisis with many health services struggling, we urgently need to do more to support families in need.
28% of parents say their child has missed school due to poor mental health.
More than half of parents have told us their child has experienced poor mental health in the past year.
More pronounced differences emerge when breaking the data down by free school meal eligibility, parenting a child with SEN and parent disability, which reveal a much higher incidence of almost all mental health conditions and pressures among the children affected, from universal experiences such as homework or anxiety through to clinical conditions such as depression and eating disorders.
This is affecting academic success, as over a quarter of children who experience poor mental health have missed school.
One in three parents don't spend as much time as they would like to helping with schoolwork.
Learning
outside
school
Nearly one in ten secondary or post-primary children don't have a designated space to do homework in.
We know parents want to get more involved with their child's education, but there are numerous barriers preventing them, including having the time and guidance from their child's school.
Parents also question whether the work their child is given to do at home is useful, and whether the subjects they are being taught are relevant to the future job market.
One in four
parents doubt they could speak to the headteacher of their child's school within 24 hours.
Barriers limiting children's access to activities
Parents already provide a wide range of formal and informal support for their children’s learning outside school, but around one in seven feel that they don't know how best to support their child outside school and would benefit from clearer guidance from schools as to what would be most helpful to their child's development.
About Parentkind
As a national federated charity, Parentkind gives those with a parenting role a voice in education.
We invest substantial resources in representing parent views on their child’s learning to local, regional, and national governments and agencies. Evidence tells us that parental participation in education benefits all children in all schools and society as a whole.
Parentkind’s network of almost 13,000 Parent Teacher Associations mobilises over 100,000 volunteer fundraisers to raise in excess of £120 million annually to fund vital equipment and services for our schools.
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Help us share the voice of parents
We will be sharing the voice of parents on all of our social channels as well as the key findings from the report.
We have created a social media toolkit which includes ready-made posts for you to download and share on your social channels.
Thank you for your support in helping to make sure the voice of parents is heard.
Methodology
The National Parent Survey was conducted online by YouGov.
The fieldwork took place from 26th April to 16th May 2024 amongst 5,490 parents in England (3,012), Scotland (1,313), Wales (862) and Northern Ireland (303), who have at least one child aged 4 to 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 were carried out by Parentkind. Unless otherwise noted, all percentages on the charts/graphics are rounded to the nearest whole number.
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 26% of respondents strongly agree that their child enjoys school, in reality the proportion is likely to be between 23.5% and 28.5% (i.e. the margin of error would be +/-2.5%). Statistically significant differences in results for particular demographic subgroups are mentioned in the report. 16 Old
