Parents feeling involved in their child's schooling has fallen from 80% to 59% in three years
What happened
A large survey of parents has found a sharp drop in how connected they feel to their children's education. The research comes from Parentkind, a charity that works with parent teacher associations and runs what it describes as the UK's largest annual parent poll. The fieldwork was carried out by YouGov, which surveyed 6,053 parents and weighted the results to be nationally representative. The findings were reported on 15 September 2026. In 2023, 80 per cent of parents said they felt involved in their child's education. This year that figure is 59 per cent. That is a fall of roughly a fifth in three years. The number saying they did not feel involved has risen even more steeply, from 9 per cent in 2023 to 23 per cent now. Almost one in four. The survey also found sharp differences between families. Among parents in the most affluent households, 74 per cent felt involved. Among those in the poorest households, it was 46 per cent. By region, London recorded 76 per cent while Yorkshire and the Humber recorded 54 per cent. Primary school parents felt more involved than secondary parents, at 65 per cent. Notably, this does not look like parents losing interest. Eighty-five per cent said they wanted to be more involved but ran into barriers. The most common barrier, cited by 44 per cent, was simply not having enough time.
Why this matters
Parental involvement is one of the better-evidenced ideas in education. Decades of research suggest that what happens at home, and how well home and school work together, makes a real difference to how children do. So a fall this size is worth taking seriously, especially because of the shape of it. The gap between richer and poorer households is the part that should worry people most. A 28 percentage point difference in whether parents feel involved is not a small thing. It maps onto the attainment gap that schools spend a great deal of effort trying to close. Parents in lower income households are more likely to be working shifts, holding down more than one job, or juggling childcare without support. Parents' evenings at six o'clock on a Tuesday are not equally accessible to everyone. The survey also picked up something related. A quarter of children took part in no enrichment activities at all, and 38 per cent had not been on a school trip in the past year. Those are the things that often get cut first when budgets are tight, and they are exactly the experiences that better-off families can replace at home and poorer families usually cannot. It is also worth saying that this is a story about capacity, not willingness. Eighty-five per cent of parents said they wanted to be more involved. That is not apathy. It is people running out of hours.
What the evidence actually says
A survey measures how people feel, and that needs holding carefully. 'Feeling involved' is subjective. A parent might be doing exactly as much as they did in 2023 but feel less connected because the school communicates differently now, or because their child moved from primary to secondary, where contact naturally reduces. The survey cannot separate a real drop in involvement from a drop in the feeling of it. That said, this is a solid piece of polling. A sample of 6,053 is large, YouGov is an established pollster, and weighting to be nationally representative is the right approach. Comparing the same question across years is the most useful thing a repeated survey can do. The survey also points to a concrete, fixable issue rather than just a mood. Nineteen per cent of parents said their school did not give clear guidance on how to support learning at home, and 60 per cent said they did receive clear information. That is a gap a school can actually do something about, unlike a parent's working hours. Parentkind said it would continue to work with the Department for Education on parental engagement leads in schools. One more honest caveat. This is a charity that campaigns on parental engagement publishing research about parental engagement. That does not make the numbers wrong, and YouGov's involvement is a reasonable safeguard, but it is fair to know who commissioned the work.
Practical advice
If you are a parent who feels out of the loop, the evidence points towards a few things that genuinely help and do not require large amounts of time. Ask the school one specific question rather than a general one. 'How can I help?' is hard to answer. 'What should we be practising at home in maths this half term?' gets a useful reply. Nineteen per cent of parents in this survey said they had not been given clear guidance, and most schools will happily give it if asked directly. Protect the small daily habits. Reading together, asking about the day, checking homework is done. These are consistently associated with better outcomes and take minutes, not evenings. Use whatever contact suits your hours. If you cannot make a six o'clock parents' evening, say so and ask for a phone call. Many schools now offer phone or video appointments and simply do not advertise it. If you cannot make school events, tell the school why. Schools often read absence as disinterest. A short message correcting that impression changes how they respond. If cost is the barrier for trips or activities, ask. Schools have hardship funds and pupil premium money, and many will quietly cover costs if a family asks. Very few advertise this. And if you are able to give time, the PTA and governing body are always short of parents, particularly from less well-off households whose perspective is most often missing from those rooms.
What to know
A YouGov survey of 6,053 parents for the charity Parentkind, reported on 15 September 2026, found the proportion of parents who feel involved in their child's education has fallen from 80 per cent in 2023 to 59 per cent in 2026. The proportion who feel uninvolved has risen from 9 per cent to 23 per cent. The gap between rich and poor is stark: 74 per cent of the most affluent parents felt involved, against 46 per cent of the poorest. This is not disengagement. Eighty-five per cent of parents said they wanted to be more involved but faced barriers, most often a lack of time. One in five said their school had not given clear guidance on supporting learning at home, which is the most fixable part of the problem. Sources: Schools Week, 'Parents now less likely to feel involved in their children's education', 15 September 2026, https://schoolsweek.co.uk/parents-now-less-likely-to-feel-involved-in-their-childrens-education/. Parentkind National Parent Survey 2026, conducted by YouGov with 6,053 parents, https://www.parentkind.org.uk/. Schools Week, 'Parental engagement is falling. Here's how to make it work', September 2026, https://schoolsweek.co.uk/parental-engagement-is-falling-heres-how-to-make-it-work/. This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional. If you are worried about your child's wellbeing or development, speak to your school, your GP or your health visitor.
Related articles
£54.53: what parents actually spent on school uniform this year
Parents spent noticeably less on school uniform this year, and the figures show how they did it. Average spend per shopper on school uniform was £54.53, accord…
Twenty hours outdoors: the new natural history GCSE has a teacher problem
England is getting a new GCSE in natural history, and experts have raised concerns about whether schools will be able to staff it. The qualification has been i…
Locked away all day: more secondaries are putting pupils' phones in pouches
Secondary schools in England are increasingly locking pupils' phones away for the school day, and the trend is accelerating. The reason is a change in the law.…