Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in seeking views from local authorities on the forthcoming Reducing Interparental Conflict programme and the range of interventions to be made available through it, whether local authorities were made aware that reducing couple conflict, rather than improving parenting, would be the primary goal of that programme.

We have been working closely with a wide range of local authorities to implement our Reducing Parental Conflict programme. The local authorities who will lead the areas where face-to-face interventions will be delivered have been drawn from participants in our Local Family Offer trial. So these areas have a good understanding of the need to address parental conflict, and have been working for some years to embed support for parental conflict into their services for families.

When compiling the list of interventions we plan to test as part of the Reducing Parental Conflict programme, we carefully considered the evidence of their impact on parental conflict. We recognise that variants of some programmes designed to improve parenting have content which is focused on the quality of the parental relationship. If these are delivered with fidelity they can reduce conflict between parents. We have been clear with local authorities that it is these versions that we plan to offer as part of our Reducing Parental Conflict Programme.

The organisations commissioned to deliver support in local areas under these contracts will be under contract to DWP and performance managed by this department. The local authorities hosting the contracts are fully committed to reducing parental conflict by supporting the delivery of the ten chosen interventions. We will be supporting other local areas to recognise the importance of this and embed interventions to reduce parental conflict into their services too.