Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect to announce funding allocations for the Reducing Parental Conflict programme following the 2025 Spending Review; and how they are mitigating the impact of any delay on local authority planning and workforce retention.

This government wants to ensure that every child has the best start in life. We know that healthy parental relationships are an important part of this ambition, and the Reducing Parental Conflict (RPC) programme continues to deliver effective relationship support for parents, working closely with local authorities (LAs).

Our 2022-25 evaluation has recognised the value that Local Authority staffing, particularly the role of coordinators as drivers of change, bring to the integration and delivery of RPC within their local areas. That is why we have continued to fund and support the coordinator posts. LAs can vary their staffing levels depending on local priorities and decisions on how to use their individual Local Grant funding, however knowledge and expertise remain due to wider workforce training funded by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The government is keenly aware of the importance of communicating decisions on future funding to LAs, and the impact this has on workforce and delivery of parental support. We appreciate the importance of timely information for the organisations and individuals involved, and we will share updates at the earliest opportunity.

Relationship status is not an outcome measured by the RPC programme. DWP therefore does not routinely collect this information. The programme focuses on reducing the frequency, intensity and impact of parental conflict on children, rather than whether parents remain together or separate.

Wider evaluations of the RPC programme, such as our 2018-2022 evaluation, demonstrated the clear impact of improved parental relationships – whether together or apart – on children’s mental health and wellbeing. The evaluation of the RPC Local Grant (2022–25) showed the importance of embedding relationship support alongside family help services, and within the places and spaces where families access support. This is at the heart of the Government’s approach to supporting families, as creating a more integrated system of support is a central ambition of the Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies Programme, and the roll out of Best Start Family Hubs to every Local Authority in England.

Ensuring families have access to the effective support that they need remains an important shared endeavour across government. DWP are committed to working closely with the Department for Education, and across government, to ensure that families continue to benefit from approaches that improve relationships and support better outcomes for children.