The collection contains 39 verbatim transcripts from interviews with 40 respondents involved in the field of parenting support in England. Of the 40 people interviewed, 14 are experts (academics and others with advisory or advocacy roles), 16 are service providers (within local government and voluntary sector organisations) and 10 are decision makers (within national and local government).The central interest of the research project is to identify and characterise the kind of social policy measures that are involved in parenting support. The project explores the type of interventions and programmes that have been put in place over the last decade or so. A second objective is to identify the factors that are driving the move to parenting support. Using interviews with experts, decision-makers and service providers (N=39), the project examines how views around good parenting are translated into policy and how the relevant policy developments are related to other domains of policy (e.g., child welfare, family policy and so forth) and other ideas about children’s and parents’ welfare.

Face-to-face elite interviewing based on a guide containing open-ended questions. Interviews lasted approximately 1 hour. Sampling procedures for the three groups of respondents were as follows: Service providers were selected from the two case study areas to contain equal representation of those who engage directly with parents and those who manage services, and to achieve a match in role and seniority between the two areas. Decision makers were selected to represent key actors in the two study areas and at national level. Experts were drawn from a list of national-level actors engaged in research, advising or planning in the field of parenting support, with senior roles in a range of institutions (academic, advocacy and national provider organisations).