NCWGB in conference assembled notes with concern the increasing pressures on parents of young children in managing the use of electronic tablets and other digital devices. While these technologies can offer educational benefits, their overuse can negatively affect children’s wellbeing and development, and place additional strain on parents seeking to set healthy boundaries.

We affirm the importance of relationship-based parenting skills as the foundation for children’s emotional, social, and cognitive development, and recognise that many parents need accessible, timely, and skilled support to meet these challenges.

The Government wants more children to reach their developmental and educational goals and it wants to reduce tension in schools and within communities. Relationship-based support for parents in the vital early years can positively contribute to this goal and contribute to reduced school exclusions and poor behaviour.

We welcome the Government’s recent funding for Family Hubs as a step in the right direction, but note that this provision does not go far enough to ensure that all families, especially those most at risk, receive the specialist, well-trained, and adequately resourced support they require.

We therefore call on the Government to:

1. Expand funding beyond Family Hubs to ensure nationwide, equitable access to family support services.
2. Invest in the training and retention of skilled staff able to deliver evidence-based, relationship-focused parenting support.
3. Provide public information and guidance to help parents navigate the challenges of children’s screen use in a balanced, developmentally informed way.

Proposer: Jilly Rogers, NCWGB Management Committee
Seconder: Adele Gardner, Health and Wellness Coach and Visiting Lecturer, North Sedgemoor Primary Care Network and Visiting Lecturer Marjon Truro University

Proposer Speech – Jilly Rogers

Rationale

We recognise the pressures on parents in raising children but were shocked to discover the extent of use of electronic tablets among parents of young children.

In a study published last year and based on field work conducted in 2023, Ofcom reports that half of all 3-4 year-olds use messaging or voice video apps (51%) and 32% of parents of 5-7s who use social media say their child uses it independently. The study also found that one third of parents of 3-4 year olds (34%) already struggle to control screen time. It becomes even more difficult to control screen time as children get older with 49% of parents struggling with 16 and 17 year olds. (OFCOM, 2024)

Some 6 years ago WHO recommended there should be no screen time for infants and no more than one hour a day for 2-4 year olds, stressing that less than this is even better (WHO, 2019).

The American Academy of Pediatrics also recommended recently that digital content should be avoided entirely up to the age of 18 months (AAP, 2025). For children aged 18-24 months parents should choose only high quality content and should view with their children. They went off to recommend that for children aged 2-5, the limit should be 1 hour a day of high-quality content, and again children should only watch with their carers and not be left to watch content on tablets on their own.

There is research to show that the early use of tablets and other electronic devices can have a detrimental effect on the development of the brain. Social skills and attention and responsiveness can be particularly adversely affected.

Multiple studies associate higher mobile device and screen use in toddlers with poorer expressive language outcomes (e.g., data from infants around 18 months) (Paediatric Child Health 2023)

A 2024 experimental study found that use of tablets for play reduced toddlers’ attention compared with real toy play, and toddlers were less responsive to behavioural prompts during tablet play. (News Medical and Life Sciences, 2024).

Higher parenting stress is linked to greater reliance on screens as digital pacifiers across early childhood; parental guilt about screen-time also exacerbates stress. (Science Direct, Computers in Human Behaviour 2024)

Why relationship-based support and trained staff?

Compared with this detrimental use of tablets with young children, evidence from numerous sources shows that relationship-based parenting is of great value in enabling young children to develop social skills and achieve their developmental goals.

Relationship-based, evidence-informed support developed and delivered by trained personnel reduces parental stress and improves early child outcomes.

Research shows that parenting courses contribute to better regulated, prosocial children and less stressed and anxious adults and, it can be argued, to better life chances for children. (Douglas and Johnson, 2019)

A recent evaluation conducted by the National Children’s Bureau of Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs found 74% of participating settings made practice changes and 88% expected improved child outcomes especially in their language and communication skills and personal and social skills. This reinforces the value of embedding trained support for parents in local systems. (National Children’s Bureau, 2025)

Specialist parent-infant relationship teams show reductions in the anxiety felt by caregivers, depression and stress, and improvements in babies’ social emotional development. These teams also strengthened the wider workforce through consultation and training. (Parent Infant Foundation, 2023)

We welcome the Government’s new Best Start Family Hubs plan pledges over £500m to create up to 1,000 hubs across England by 2028, with a hub in every local authority by April 2026, aiming to support 500,000 children. But current funding for Family Hubs is not yet sufficient to guarantee equitable access. That is why we urge the government to expand funding and to invest in trained staff who can support parents and children.

There is a real economic benefit to making sure that children get the best start in life and can develop their social and relationship skills.

For example, The Royal Foundation Business Taskforce for Early Childhood has concluded that a greater focus on early childhood could generate significant social and economic return, by improving early childhood experiences and increasing support for the adults around them. Investing in early childhood in the UK could generate at least: £45.5 billion a year in value added for the national economy each year. This includes £27.5 billion in additional earning for the UK’s workforce, £11.8 billion in additional profits for businesses and £6.2 billion in additional tax revenue for Government.

So providing support for parents and children in the early years and limiting the use of tablets and other electronic devices is a win-win for society and parents alike.

Seconder’s speech – Adele Gardner

I take pleasure in seconding this resolution because helping parents to understand what relationship-based parenting is and how to implement it, is likely in turn to empower them to feel confident about supporting children to engage positively with technology. In seconding this resolution, I stand with NCWGBs call to Government to fund family support services to levels which enable services to be rolled out nationally and effectively. Our children and those who parent them deserve nothing less.

References

American Academy of Pediatrics, Centre of Excellence Social Media and Youth Mental Health, (2025) Screen time guidelines

Douglas H and Johnson R (2019) The Solihull Approach 10-week programme: a randomised controlled trail. Community Practitioner, September 2019, pp45-47

National Children’s Bureau (2025) Independent Evaluation of the Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs programme.

News Medical and Life Sciences, (2024) Tablet use disrupts toddlers’ joint attention and language development, Dr Liji Thomas. Review of study in JAMA Network Open

OFCOM (2024) Children and Parents: media use and attitudes (Fieldwork 2023)

Paediatric Child Health (2023) 16; 28 (3): 184-192 Screen time and preschool children: promoting health and development in a digital world. Michelle Ponti
Parent Infant Foundation (2023) The impact of parent-infant relationship teams. A summary of the evidence

Science Direct, Computers in Human Behaviour, (March 2024) Vol 152 108057. Are screen media the new pacifiers? The role of parenting stress and parental attitudes for children’s screen time in early childhood.
WHO (2019) Guidelines on Physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for children under 5 years of age.