Research and analysis

Reducing Parental Conflict Programme evaluation: report on early implementation – research summary

Updated 17 April 2023

Applies to England

Authors

Lorna Adams – IFF
Helen Greevy – IFF
Rachel Hastings-Caplan – The Tavistock Institute
Helen Rossiter – IFF

Overview

Parents play a critical role in giving children the experiences and skills they need to succeed. However, studies have found that children who are exposed to parental conflict can be negatively affected in the short and longer terms.^{[footnote 1]} It can impact on children’s early emotional and social development, their educational attainment and later employability - limiting their chances to lead fulfilling, happy lives.

The Reducing Parental Conflict (RPC) programme aims to help avoid the damage that parental conflict causes to children through the provision of evidence-based parental conflict support, training for practitioners working with families and enhancing local authority and partner services. The programme seeks to address conflict below the threshold of domestic abuse.

The key aim of the RPC programme evaluation is to understand what support works to reduce parental conflict in disadvantaged families. The evaluation consists of 3 strands which correspond to 3 programme elements:

• face-to-face intervention delivery: To assess how the face-to-face^{[footnote 2]} provision of evidence-based interventions in 31 local authorities, clustered in 4 geographical areas, is implemented and delivered and the impact of the interventions in reducing parental conflict and improving child outcomes
• training: To study whether and how the training of practitioners and relationship support professionals has influenced practice on the ground. Focusing on the identification of parents in conflict, building the skills and confidence to work with, or refer, parents in conflict and the overall support available
• local integration: To examine whether and how local authorities across England have integrated elements of parental conflict support into mainstream services for families and with what success

Research context

The government wants every child to have the best start in life and reducing harmful levels of conflict between parents – whether they are together or separated – can contribute to this. Sometimes separation can be the best option for a couple, but even then, co-operation and good communication between parents is essential for their children. This is why the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) introduced the RPC programme. Backed by up to £39 million, the programme is encouraging local authorities across England to integrate services and approaches which address parental conflict into their local provision for families.

Evaluation is central to the RPC programme. Findings from this evaluation will contribute to the wider evidence base on what works for families to reduce parental conflict and will support local authorities and their partners to embed the parental conflict agenda into their services.

This report offers early insight on the implementation phase of the RPC programme, providing initial findings on delivery, based on research covering training and local integration.

Emerging findings

• prior awareness of the parental conflict agenda within local authorities varied considerably and the programme has raised its status
• in many areas parental conflict had not historically been seen as a policy area or priority. The few notable exceptions tended to have experience of the Local Family offer^{[footnote 3]}
• identifying when conflict is harmful has been a key challenge; in the past domestic abuse and parental conflict have been conflated into a single issue
• the Regional Integration Lead (RIL)^{[footnote 4]} role has been valuable in persuading local authorities to engage with the programme
• RILs have also been crucial in supporting local authorities through the grant applications process
• most local authority lead contacts were positive about the potential of the RPC programme to improve outcomes for children in their area and reduce the strain on more resource-intensive services
• although modest, the Strategic Leadership Support (SLS) and Practitioner Training (PT) grants have been effective in encouraging initial engagement with the RPC programme
• it is anticipated that the SLS grant will have a positive impact on local area awareness and strategic buy-in across partner agencies
• the PT grant is also anticipated to have a positive impact on the recognition of parental conflict as a concept, early identification, early intervention and practitioner confidence in discussing conflict with parents
• the training focus of the programme was central to its appeal in offering a route to address parental conflict early, before it escalated to a level requiring more intensive intervention
• it is clear that the training was covering new ground for the majority of those practitioners attending
• views on the content of the training were positive although there are some signs that Module 4, on supervisors’ roles in relation to parental conflict, and the Train the Trainer workshop, could be improved
• the majority of practitioners reported leaving the training believing that they would be able to make use of what they learnt in their day-to-day job roles
• some local authorities reported that ongoing resource pressures meant they were concerned about the priority they could give to the RPC programme going forwards

Fieldwork

The following elements of the evaluation were completed in 2019 and are reported here:

• six in-depth interviews with RILs on the types of activities they had undertaken and the responses of different local authorities
• an online survey of local authorities (81 respondents) and 10 case study visits focused on awareness of, and provision for parents in conflict, prior to launch of the programme, as well as perceptions of the value of the RPC programme. These also covered which elements of the programme local authorities were involved with and what the local area aspirations were in relation to parental conflict
• thirty manager and commissioner interviews to discuss how the SLS and PT grants had been spent and their impacts so far
• three months’ survey data from wave 1 of the practitioner training longitudinal survey (121 respondents) exploring experiences of the training and perceived impacts on practitioners’ ability to identify and support parents

Evidence on the delivery of interventions has not yet been gathered.

Findings explained

Awareness of parental conflict and its impact

Prior to being approached by the RPC programme, it was common for local authorities not to have thought about tackling parental conflict below levels amounting to domestic abuse.

Surveyed before the programme only one local authority felt they were progressing the reducing parental conflict agenda well. Key barriers were a lack of common understanding of what constituted parental conflict, reported by 57% of LAs, and a lack of key-worker confidence reported by 53%.

The programme has raised the profile of the agenda through highlighting the evidence of parental conflict on children’s outcomes and providing a common language to communicate and record parental conflict.

A significant challenge local authorities were experiencing was working out at what point conflict in a relationship becomes destructive. Local authorities appreciated that conflict in relationships was very common and were struggling to find mechanisms to help distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable conflict.

The value of the Regional Integration Lead role

Contact between the 6 Regional Integration Leads, who were seconded from local authorities to DWP to assist with embedding the programme, and local authorities has been fairly frequent. Just under half of local authorities (45%) reported having contact with their RIL at least fortnightly with a further third (31%) reporting monthly contact.

RILs backgrounds, working in local authority settings, has enabled them to talk credibly about how the programme could fit in to other local authority activities and contribute towards tackling local priorities.

RILs were instrumental in helping local authorities to complete their applications for the SLS and PT grants (74% of local authorities agreed). Support included providing guidance on how to complete the forms, examples of what other local authorities had done and making suggestions for other local authorities to link with.

Perceptions of RPC programme potential

Local authorities were positive about the potential of the programme to:

• improve outcomes for children in their area
• reduce the strain on more resource-intensive services through early intervention in parental conflict

However, resource constraints and the necessary focus of local authorities on delivering statutory services led some to question whether inroads made by the programme are sustainable, particularly when the dedicated funding ends.

The Strategic Leadership Support grant

The Strategic Leadership Support (SLS) grant was made available for local authorities and their partners to use in ways that best suited them and their aspirations in respect of reducing parental conflict. As such it was very well received and seen as extremely flexible.

The SLS funding was most commonly intended to be used, at least in part, to pay for multi-agency working groups focused on reducing parental conflict (63%), to fund events and conferences (58%), for needs assessments or data analysis (44%) and staffing, both internal (44%) and external (22%).

Impacts of the SLS grant were yet to be realised but there was emerging evidence that the grant-funded activities were helping to drive awareness of parental conflict among practitioners and at a strategic level.

The Practitioner Training grant

Local authorities were provided with a PT grant to purchase training for frontline practitioners and their supervisors. The training was developed specifically for the programme by a contracted provider and consists of 4 modules and a workshop.

The PT grant was widely welcomed and the training focus of the programme was central to its appeal as a possible pathway to reducing resourcing pressure in the longer term.

Nearly 9 in 10 (86%) local authorities reported that practitioner training was important in helping them to embed the RPC programme into their service.

However, some managers and commissioners found it too rigid and wished that they had been able to choose their own training provider, trainers and/or use the grant to purchase venue space. Some reported difficulties with booking the training whilst others were overwhelmingly positive about this.

The RPCP training

Findings relating to the delegate experience of the training are indicative, being based on approximately 3 months of survey data, with the survey remaining live for a further 8 months to build the evidence.

Most delegates (70%) had never received training on parental conflict before, either specifically or as part of broader development activity, and views on the content of the training were positive.

Three-quarters (74%) of respondents said the training was very relevant to the situations they face at work and the parents they work with and three-quarters (76%) believed that they will be able to make use of what they have learnt through the training in their day-to-day roles.

Practitioners were most positive about Modules 1 (understanding parental conflict), 2 (recognising parental conflict) and 3 (working with parents in conflict). They felt these modules were useful and on average gave them a score of 4.4 out of 5. Practitioners were slightly less positive about Module 4 (the role of supervisors) and Train the Trainer, which both scored an average of 3.9 out of 5. Results for Module 4 and Train the Trainer are based on small numbers of surveys so this will be an area of future monitoring.

Among delegates and wider stakeholders, the anticipated longer term impacts of the practitioner training were:

• improved recognition of parental conflict as a concept
• early intervention in cases of parental conflict
• increased confidence among practitioners in addressing parental conflict

1. Harold et al. (2016) What works to Enhance Inter-Parental Relationships and Improve Outcomes for Children. London: Department for Work and Pensions. ↩

2. The programme was designed to test face to face intervention delivery and this report covers a period prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary switch to remote delivery. ↩

3. The Local Family Offer was piloted in 12 local authorities in England and developed innovative local strategies to support families to sustain a safe and nurturing environment for their children. The findings from the Local Family Offer informed the development of the RPC programme. ↩

4. Six individuals were seconded from local authorities into the RIL role. Their role is to provide expert advice and support to local authorities and their partners and maximise the opportunities that the programme presents. ↩