25 Years of SFSC: Equity, inclusion, and lasting change for families and communities

Published On: 5 September 2025Tags: News

Leandra Box reflects on the last 25 years of the SFSC programme

In 1999, as an early career researcher at the Race Equality Unit (now the Race Equality Foundation) I set out to answer a vital question: were Black families being reached by parenting support services? Funded by one of the first-ever grants awarded by the National Lottery Charities Board, the research revealed an important gap in provision where many families, particularly those from Black, Asian and minoritised communities, were either not being reached or not being offered appropriate support that met their needs. Too often, these families were navigating the additional pressures of discrimination, stigma, and structural oppression, with little acknowledgement of how these forces affected parenting.

Seeking a model that could address this reality, the Foundation connected with Dr Marilyn Steele, a US child psychologist whose “Strengthening Multi Ethnic Families” model spoke to some of the gaps we had identified. It acknowledged those structural issues and the realities of the lives of the families we sought to support whilst prioritising cultural competence, empowerment, and community voice. Together with Dr Steele, parents and practitioners, we adapted this model for the UK, ensuring it directly addressed the lived experiences of parents; creating space to talk openly about racism and other inequality, and providing strategies for challenging these barriers both within the family and in the wider community.

Over the last 15 years, the programme has undergone substantial growth and development. The Race Equality Foundation became the sole owner and developer of SFSC, and the model is now a fully UK-based programme, continually refined through our quality assurance processes and co-designed with the communities it serves.

SFSC has grown into a national movement supporting parents, strengthening relationships, and helping to transform the environments where children grow up, with our goal of healthy violence free lives for all children and families. Every stage of its journey has been guided by a commitment to equity, inclusion, and lasting change ensuring that families who have often been overlooked or underserved receive the recognition, tools, confidence, and community connections they need to thrive, even in the face of systemic challenges.

25 years of achievements and influence

Over the past quarter-century, SFSC has grown from a promising pilot into one of the most far-reaching parenting programmes in the UK, certainly in its ability to reach minoritised groups and others who were often poorly served by mainstream services. Around 4,000 facilitators have been trained, delivering the programme to more than 75,000 parents and likely benefiting over 150,000 children.

SFSC’s delivery stretches across almost every London borough and well beyond — to Manchester, Liverpool, Halifax, Kirklees, Hull, Bristol, the Midlands, and as far south as Cornwall. And its reach has grown internationally, with facilitators bringing the programme to families in Kosovo, the Republic of Ireland, Portugal, the Caribbean, Iran, and Bangladesh.

From its inception, SFSC has been a tool for equity, breaking down barriers that have historically excluded minoritised communities from effective parenting support. The curriculum is designed to help parents not only reflect on their own strengths but also acknowledge and navigate the impact of oppression and inequality. Parents are encouraged to name these challenges, understand their effects on family life, and develop practical strategies to challenge inequities, whether that means advocating for their child in school, building on the strengths in families, or creating networks of support in the community.

Over the years, amongst many different projects, we have utilised SFSC to:

Trial new ways of engaging minoritised parents to reduce parental conflict for the Department for Work and Pensions, ensuring inclusion and accessibility.
Respond rapidly to Covid-19 by creating an online introductory SFSC course, keeping parents supported and connected during lockdown.
Support good sexual and reproductive health in African and Caribbean communities in London, Lewisham, and Southwark for Public Health teams, with an emphasis on removing stigma and empowering informed choice.
Adapt the model for prison-based delivery, helping fathers maintain and strengthen family bonds while preparing for life beyond custody.
Provide the basis for a youth-focused model for 11–18-year-olds, empowering young people to minimise risk taking whilst building life skills, resilience, and a strong sense of identity.
Deliver specialist programmes for parents of young children in children’s centres and family hubs, often in areas experiencing the greatest deprivation.
Respond to serious violence, radicalisation, and domestic abuse, providing a safe space for parents to talk about trauma and equipping them to advocate for safer communities.

This reach and relevance have helped SFSC secure a place in national and local policy frameworks. It has been referenced in the New Deal for Communities, the Parenting Early Intervention Pathfinders and Family Intervention Projects work, the CANparent trial, the Troubled Families programme, and cited in the 2018 Serious Violence Strategy as an effective violence prevention intervention. These acknowledgements reflect SFSC’s proven ability to engage with poorly served and diverse communities and deliver meaningful change – especially where structural inequalities have created multiple layers of disadvantage.

Adaptability without compromise

A defining strength of SFSC is its adaptability without losing core principles. Whether delivered to parents of toddlers or teenagers, in community halls or prison classrooms, online or face-to-face, SFSC maintains a commitment to cultural competence, inclusivity, and empowerment. Sessions make space for parents to share lived experiences of discrimination and stigma alongside daily parenting challenges, learn from one another, and develop approaches that build relationships, confidence and competence, whilst enhancing children’s wellbeing.

As one facilitator put it:

“SFSC meets families where they are—whoever they are—and helps them move forward together.”

Evidence and impact

The evidence base for SFSC is strong. I am especially proud that we are about to launch the findings of a five year National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded randomised controlled trial at our upcoming conference. But the road to this kind of evidence of impact has been a long one with multiple different evaluations built into this work from day one. In house and independent evaluations have consistently shown measurable improvements in parenting skills, emotional wellbeing, and family relationships, alongside reductions in parental distress and depression. Some studies have even found practical benefits like better sleep for parents and children.

Crucially, we have always worked to ensure that parents’ voices are at the heart of our evaluation and review process. Parents are invited to share feedback during programme observations, through questionnaires, and by joining advisory and lived experience groups whenever we develop something new or carry out an evaluation.

As part of our evaluations, parents often share powerful reflections about their experience:

“It made me feel like I had a voice, and that I could be the parent I wanted to be.”

And from another:

“I’ve done other parenting courses, but this one felt like it understood my culture and my community—it wasn’t trying to change who I am, but to give me tools I can use.”

Sustained support and commitment

Over the years, SFSC has been supported by a diverse range of funders including local authorities, government departments (the Home Office, the Department for Education, the Department of Health and Social Care, Department of Works and Pensions), Prison services, the Youth Endowment Fund, and NIHR. While national investment in parenting support has fluctuated, the programme’s network of trained facilitators and committed partners has ensured that families, especially those facing the greatest barriers, continue to access support that is appropriate, timely, and transformative.

Looking ahead:

Looking ahead, we are continuing to build on SFSC’s 25-year legacy with a series of exciting developments that will strengthen the programme and broaden its impact. We are developing supplementary materials and advanced facilitator training to better support families raising neurodiverse children, ensuring our model continues to meet needs. The forthcoming publication of findings from the TOGETHER Study will improve our understanding of how SFSC impacts parents and communities, while the rollout of our model for young fathers in prisons will extend our reach to those navigating parenting in the most challenging circumstances. Through our collaboration with the Youth Endowment Fund, we hope to support parents whose teenagers are at risk of offending, helping families to build resilience and stay connected. Alongside this, we’re investing in the future of SFSC itself, with a fully updated facilitator manual, parent resources, and training slides, supported by a new practitioner website to strengthen our facilitator community. And as the national conversation on parenting support continues to evolve, we remain committed to ensuring that race equity sits at the heart of any scaling or policy initiatives, championing the voices and needs of minoritised families across the UK.

The SFSC 25th Anniversary Conference

On Friday 19th September 2025, we will gather at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS in London to mark SFSC’s 25th anniversary. The conference will celebrate the programme’s journey while also looking to the future, bringing together policymakers, practitioners, researchers, parents, and community leaders to explore how we can continue to strengthen families and communities for the next 25 years.

The day will feature: