Parents and carers play a key role in encouraging and supporting their child to take part, succeed and have fun when playing sport.
It's good practice for sport and activity providers to communicate regularly with parents so that everyone works towards the same goals.
Parents no longer expect to be side-lined in their child's experience of sport. The more involved a parent or carer is, and the more aligned with their child's sports coach, the better the experience for the child.
Parents and carers offer both emotional and practical support to their child, and it is key that they feel equipped to support their child's sporting journey. Positive parental involvement can lead to:
Enhanced enjoyment – When parents provide emotional support and encouragement, children are more likely to enjoy their sports activities. This positive reinforcement helps them feel valued and motivated. Recognising and celebrating children's achievements, no matter how small, also boosts their self-esteem and confidence.
Improved performance – Offering constructive feedback rather than criticism helps children improve their skills and performance. This approach fosters a growth mindset and resilience. Positive reinforcement helps reduce stress and anxiety, and encourages them to continue participating and striving for success.
Creating a Safe Environment - Parents who are actively engaged can ensure that their child's sporting environment adheres to safeguarding and safety standards and that any issues are promptly addressed.
Encouraging Healthy Relationships - Parents who model good sportsmanship and positive behaviour set a strong example for their children. This helps children build healthy relationships with their parents, teammates and coaches, creating a sense of community and belonging, which is vital for a child's social development and overall wellbeing.
To help staff and volunteers understand why parents matter in sport, we have a range of podcasts, webinars and training resources that delve into topics such as grass-root sport, how involvement has changed over the years and what the evidence tells us about how parent involvement links to performance and participation.
There are a number of ways you can encourage parent and carer involvement in a way that benefits their child, as well as your club or activity.
These are just some ways you can get parents and carers involved:
Every year we run a Keep Your Child Safe In Sport campaign aimed at shining a light on the importance of parents and carers' role in youth sport and the positive impact this can have. Each year hundreds of sports get involved and it's a great way to share important messages with your parents and show you value their involvement in your sport.
The next campaign focus week is 17-23 May 2027.
Note: there are no requirements for how much time or energy a coach must commit to communicating with parents, and while engagement with parents is recommended, coaches also need time off and time dedicated to delivery. It’s just as important for sports to implement boundaries and help manage parents’ expectations.
You can use this presentation for parents in sport, as part of a face-to-face session with parents to show them how they can be a positive influence on their child's involvement in sport. Feel free to adapt it for your own use.
Meeting with parents and showing this presentation or having a more informal chat can help parents feel valued and involved in their child's sport and helps parents to support their child.
You can also share our videos for sport parents, which offer parents inspiring stories and research-backed advice to help them navigate the world of being a sport parent.
On the rare occasions you may face situations where you need to deal more directly with problematic parental behaviour, we’ve developed some pointers to help your club or activity to address and manage this.
We've created a number of scenarios of poor parental behaviour as an aid to discussion.
Use these examples of negative parental behaviour and the correlating responses to help staff in your organisation manage any situations which may arise in your sport.
When all of the above has not worked, sanctions should be identified and agreed by the management committee and communicated to all parties. If poor behaviour persists, sanctions may include:
Every effort should be made to ensure that the behaviour of a parent does not result in either parent or their child being unable to participate, although in some extreme cases this may be the final resort.
Every year we run a campaign aimed at shining a light on the importance of parents and carers' role in youth sport and the positive impact this can have.
Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport (formerly Parents in Sport) is a year-round campaign, with an annual awareness week, when we launch new information, advice and guidance for parents and carers and ask the sport and physical activity sector to support us in sharing our message.
Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport week will be taking place 17-23 May 2027.
Through the campaign, we aim to inspire behaviour change, raise awareness of the risks of negative parental behaviour, empower parents to support their children and change the culture in sport’s clubs and groups.
By behaving positively, parents not only enhance their child's enjoyment and development in sports but also contribute to a safer and more supportive sporting environment.
We have a number of campaign assets planned that you will be able to use in your own organisation and sport to drive the key messages of positive parental involvement.
Visit our main campaign pages for more information.
We started our Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport campaign in October 2016 (previously known as Parents in Sport Week). Over the years we have had a number of different key messages, but the central one will always be how parents and carers can support their children in sport and how to keep them safe.
For help in encouraging the positive involvement of parents and other spectators, youth sports clubs and organisations may wish to take a look at the following resources.
If you're a parent, find out what you can do to support your child on our information for sports parents pages on the main NSPCC website.
