Can anti-social behaviour be cut by fining parents?
BBCThey are designed to curb anti-social behaviour by requiring parents to attend courses. But, as the government plans to toughen the use of parenting orders, concerns have been raised that heavy fines will push families further into poverty.
Parenting orders are issued to parents or guardians if a child, under the age of 17, is behaving anti-socially or has been convicted of an offence.
The orders can compel parents to attend parenting classes or access advice and guidance. Ultimately, they can lead to fines.
They were introduced by Tony Blair's Labour government in 1998, to try and make parents more accountable for their children's behaviour - but the use of parenting orders is declining.
The Ministry of Justice said more than 1,000 were issued in England and Wales in 2009/10. But by 2022/23, only 33 were issued.
According to figures obtained by the BBC, the Youth Justice Board (YJB) said it was only aware of one parenting order being issued in the north-east of England and Cumbria between 2022 and 2025.
The YJB said it only had details of parenting orders recorded by Youth Justice Services, so the figure cannot be assumed to be a definitive count of all orders issued in the region.
'Parents' responsibility'
The government set out plans for new measures in its Youth Justice White Paper, which was released in May.
It pointed to figures showing eight in 10 prolific offenders in England and Wales committed their first crime as a child.
The plans include increasing the fine for breaching a parenting order beyond the current maximum of £1,000.
Labour Police and Crime Commissioner for Durham Joy Allen is welcoming the government's plans to increase the use of parenting orders.
"Where's the parents' responsibility in looking after the child's behaviour in disrupting the community?" she said.
"Tools and powers are great, but having them in the box and not using them doesn't help."
Allen said her officers often tell her that they believe parents need to take action.
"When they're working with anti-social behaviour in the communities, when they take the child back home, actually, they say it's the parents. And they would like more powers to take action against the parents."
But she stressed that this should be appropriate.
"Every child, every circumstance, is individual. For me, it's understanding the root causes. Sometimes it might be ADHD, it might be parenting, it might be who they're hanging around with at the time."
Allen also said it is not just an issue for parents and the police, but for health teams, probation teams, schools and youth groups.
However, some academics have raised concerns about the government's plans.
Nikki Rutter is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Durham University, and specialises in child behaviour.
"We have a huge amount of evidence that parenting orders aren't effective" she said.
"It's why we're seeing the decrease in them. The police know these are not effective measures."
She believes increasing fines will have a detrimental effect on communities.
"Poverty is inextricably linked to a lot of criminal activity. The more you're fining parents, the less money they've got. The less money the family have, we're seeing a further dive into poverty."
Rutter said parents need more support available to them from earlier on.
"Often families are not being heard when they're saying there is a problem. And we're seeing the outcomes of that much later down the line."
Some parents agree there is not enough support available for them to manage challenging behaviour.
Lindsey Brown is a mum from Northumberland who supports families of children with additional needs, and children who may display violent behaviour at home.
She believes fining parents would cause "more stress".
"Fining a family does not solve a problem," she said. "It just pushes another problem on to a family already struggling."
Brown said parents are often "stuck".
"Families come to me in crisis. They've done everything, they've asked for everything, and they're just not getting support. Because services are so stretched."
Announcing the plans earlier this year, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy said earlier intervention and support for families would "tackle the drivers of offending so fewer young people become trapped in cycles of crime".
However, Lammy said he would expect the power to jail parents to be used "very, very rarely".
