Insights into Digital Peer Support for Parents
I joined Action for Children’s Service Design team for 6 months on secondment from the Civil Service Fast Stream. During this time, I researched digital peer support as a form of family support service. This involved a review of the current literature, desk research on existing services, interviews with internal colleagues, consultation with external organisations providing digital peer support services, and a survey of service users (parents).
In this blog I share my learning on digital peer support for parents.
Why do parents need digital peer support services?
Parents need better support
Data from Action for Children’s own online parenting support service, Parent Talk, acts as an early warning system for some of the challenges that parents in the UK are facing. In 2021–22, child mental health was the top issue that parents sought advice on and there was a huge increase in parents seeking support for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Parents facing these issues often struggle with stigmatisation and feelings of isolation, suggesting they might benefit from peer support.
And peer support is effective
There’s a broad spectrum of services operating across the UK under the term ‘peer support’ which presents a challenge for meaningful comparison and evaluation of the effectiveness of projects. There is, however, rich qualitative evidence of the positive impacts of parent-to-parent peer support. Most frequently cited benefits are shown below. Robust quantitative evidence of positive outcomes is lacking, though there is no evidence of harmful effects.
But why DIGITAL peer support?
According to Ofcom, almost all internet users (98%) used at least one type of online communication platform in 2021. Peer support, whether formally labelled so or not, is already happening online for many parents. The question is how we create safe and inclusive spaces to ensure digital peer support is positive, supportive, and promotes sharing of safe advice and evidence-based information.
Is digital peer support for parents effective?
The technology sector moves quick and the ways users are interacting online is constantly evolving. This presents a challenge for studies trying to evaluate the impact of peer support. No studies have found harmful effects, but quantitative evidence of effectiveness is largely inconclusive.
What is the current landscape of digital peer support?
I identified several characteristics that can be used to categorise existing services which are described below. The grid shows examples of existing peer support services mapped by some of these characteristics.
Type of service
Digital peer support services include virtual support groups via video call, virtual support groups via social media (usually Facebook or WhatsApp), 1-to-1 support via video call or email/text/webchat, and online forums.
1-to-1 vs group peer support
1-to-1 peer support is more intensive because support is directly tailored to individual parents’ needs and is usually delivered by a trained peer supporter. It also enables greater trust to be built between peer supporters and parents. However, the reach of 1-to-1 peer support is smaller and it can present a challenge for recruiting volunteers with lived experience of a specific issue.
Synchronous vs asynchronous
For synchronous digital peer support, parents have to be online at the same time. Support is immediate during meetings but there is no support in between sessions. For asynchronous services, parents do not have to be online at the same time and can access support whenever they want. These services require more time from facilitators to moderate activity.
Open vs closed
Some services are open to the public and can be used by anyone. These have much larger reach, but users may engage less for fear of judgement if information is publicly visible. Creating a safe and supportive environment in an open group can be more challenging for facilitators. Sensitive or stigmatised issues such as mental health may be more suited to closed services, where members have to be admitted by facilitators and may need to meet certain eligibility criteria.
Geography
Local groups have the advantage that parents can share locally-specific recommendations. National groups can connect parents with similar experiences to create a community even when they are few and widely dispersed. Peer support services without geographic restrictions can help parents to reach peer supporters at any time of day (including parents in different time zones overnight).
Topic
Some services are topic-specific, such as those for mothers or fathers, mental health, SEND, breastfeeding, single parents etc. The topic often influences other characteristics, for example SEND services may be more suited to local groups to help parents learn about other local support available and share local recommendations.
Level of moderation
Facilitators should be clear about the overall purpose of a digital peer support service to determine the type of engagement they want to encourage, level of moderation and extent to which they want to control content. Is the service for parents to share recommendations, give practical advice, share personal stories, or a space to vent and express emotions?
Insights into digital peer support for parents
Advantages of digital peer support services
- Many services were originally set up to provide existing users with support between meetings. Once established, providers found they were also reaching new user groups, such as parents who struggled to attend in-person meetings due to work/childcare/disability.
- Digital services enable different forms of engagement with peer support. The ability to post anonymously, tune into meetings with video off, or simply observe other parents interacting online can make digital peer support less intimidating for parents engaging for the first time.
- Offering peer support both in-person and online as well as enabling different ways of engaging makes services more inclusive and increases accessibility for parents with a range of access needs and preferences.
- The digital environment brings together many parents with lived experience in a single space. Parents looking for support can benefit from the collective knowledge and experience of the community to help them navigate the complex system of support.
Creating a safe and supportive digital environment
We can help ensure the advice parents receive online is safe by encouraging peer support to take place in moderated spaces with professional oversight.
To create safe and supportive digital environments that are attractive to parents, it’s important to understand that digital services are more than just the digital platform. Time needs to be invested in the people and policies behind the platform. This includes:
- Establishing community guidelines to ensure all members understand the expected behaviour.
- Training staff or volunteers as moderators to remove harmful posts.
- Training facilitators to role model positive peer support, to guide conversations and interject with evidence-based information, as well as recognise and respond to higher levels of need.
- Ensuring there are strong safeguarding policies in place.
The greatest barrier to creating a safe and supportive digital environment is a lack of understanding of the time, cost, and commitment needed. Digital services are sometimes sold as a ‘quick fix’ or cheap alternative to an in-person service. Without adequate training of facilitators or strong policies in place, a digital peer support service will be unattractive to parents and could give rise to negative peer interactions and sharing of unsafe information.
Partnering between organisations delivering digital peer support
Digital peer support should complement rather than replicate other services. Partnering between organisations can improve outcomes for families by:
- Improving organisations’ understanding of where their services sit in the bigger picture of support available.
- Promoting greater inclusion and accessibility for a range of users by signposting between peer support services to offer a range of options (un/structured, in/formal, in-person and digital).
- Positioning peer support alongside rather than directly within children’s centres or family hubs to make them more accessible for parents who may fear judgement from more formal services.
- Building relationships between those delivering peer support and higher-level intervention services is useful for addressing safeguarding concerns and referring parents with higher levels of need.
- Improving volunteer management by sharing recruitment and training of volunteers.
- Smaller, more locally-embedded organisations with greater understanding of the local context help to involve local people in service design.
I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who who has supported this project. I’ve been blown away by the incredible work being done to support families within and beyond Action for Children.
This research was a follow-up to research I conducted on digital family support more broadly. You can read blogs on my insights into digital family support here and learning about the current landscape of digital family support here.
For guidance on designing and delivering a peer support service for parents, I recommend using the Maternal Mental Health Alliance’s Perinatal Peer Support Principles and Parents 1st UK’s Guides for perinatal volunteer peer support initiatives.
