Asked by: Baroness Tyler of Enfield (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to deliver the outcomes of the Family Stability Review including doubling the funding for relationship counselling in 2015–16, as announced by the Prime Minister in his speech to the Relationships Alliance on 18 August 2014.
Answered by Lord Freud
The Prime Minister announced increased support for families and guaranteed that spend for relationship support would be at least £7.5m for 2015/16 and I can confirm this will be the case.
We are in the process of finalising the details of contracting for relationship support services for 2015/16. As well as the continuation of a wide range of existing support services, we will include new provision for providing training and guidance for Health Visitors to recognise and respond to the signs of relationship distress, and the launching of a new pilot to test the inclusion of relationship education in peri-natal classes in 8 areas of the country.
In conjunction we will also be offering a 6 month extension to all of the 16 Help and Support for Separated Families Innovation Fund pilots, which focus on helping parents going through separation to resolve conflict and work together in the interests of their children.
This support comes alongside the government’s wider commitment to families through the introduction of the Family Test and the Troubled Families programme which aims to turn around the lives of 120,000 of the most troubled families in England by the end of this Parliament.