High Peak to trial parenting class scheme

A new parenting class pilot scheme will be introduced in High Peak in Derbyshire.

The Government has announced vouchers for £100-worth of classes will be on offer to parents of children aged up to five.

A new digital service will also be offered to parents in the first months of parenthood, providing “regular, relevant and tailored” advice such as videos of midwives demonstrating bathing and other techniques.

The Prime Minister David Cameron said it was “ludicrous” that people had to train before they were allowed to drive a car but could bring up a baby with no practice at all.

High Peak is one of three trial areas for the scheme, which will also be tested in Middlesbrough and Camden in North London. If successful, the classes could be extended throughout England and Wales if successful.

The pilot scheme is part of a series of initiatives being launched, nine months after the riots that swept across England last summer, for which ministers blamed a breakdown of family discipline.