In December 2010, the Prime Minister announced a dedicated fund of £30 million over four years (£7.5 million each year) for relationship support (a significant increase on previous funding levels). This meets the Coalition Government’s commitment to “put funding for relationship support on a stable, long-term footing, and make sure that couples are given greater encouragement to use existing relationship support”.
The majority of this funding will be allocated to voluntary and community sector organisations via grants. A National Prospectus for improving outcomes for children, young people and families was published by the Department for Education in November 2010. Organisations were invited to bid, on a not-for-profit basis, for grant funding for delivering relationship support services of national significance from April 2011. Grants were subsequently awarded to 12 organisations to fund the following projects from 2011-2013:
Asian Family Counselling Service
National Association of Child Contact Centres (NACCC)
Project for Advocacy Counselling and Education (PACE)
Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships
The Department for Education also funds a number of family information services, which include helpline and online information, providing advice and guidance on relationships.
Please see the Family support services - contact details page for further details.
Evaluation
There is little compelling evidence about what type of interventions or services are effective in supporting relationships and marriage in a UK context. Therefore as part of its commitment to relationship support, the Department for Education has commissioned research to test the efficacy of a number of relationship support interventions. This evaluation will be used to inform decisions on the future funding of relationship support.
Relationship support for first-time parents trial
The Department for Education wishes to procure organisations or consortia of organisations to deliver innovative new services to normalise the take up of relationship support by first time parents in up to three local authority trial areas and covering around 6000 couples per year.
The services will provide first-time parents (mothers and fathers in the final trimester of pregnancy up to the second birthday of their child) with access to a one-off subsidised relationship support session, in a new or innovative way that alters people’s perceptions of relationship support. The aim of this trial is to test ways to encourage people to see that investing in relationship support as a preventative measure can be beneficial and to encourage them to access relationship support in the future.
Please see the Relationship support for first time parents trial page for further details.
