Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any funding from the Reducing Parental Conflict programme will be made available for relationship support services for in-work low-income families in addition to the support for workless families set out in Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families.

There is clear evidence that frequent, intense and poorly-resolved parental conflict can lead to poorer mental health, wellbeing, educational attainment, and employment outcomes for children.

While children in workless families face triple the risk of exposure to parental conflict compared with children in families where at least one of the adults is working, we recognise that children in some other low-income families would also benefit from support to reduce conflict in their parents’ relationships.

Local authorities are best placed to decide which families to support in their areas, and we therefore expect a range of disadvantaged families to be supported through the Reducing Parental Conflict programme.