Reducing Parental Conflict: tools for commissioners, managers and leaders
Resources and tools to help commissioners, managers and leaders reduce the impact of damaging parental conflict on children.
Applies to England
The tools on this page provide evidence-based research and practice to help commissioners, managers and leaders reduce parental conflict and improve outcomes for children in their services.
Local services and parental conflict
Local family services often address parent-child relationships when working with families. However, the evidence also shows that the inter-parental relationship is important to consider when working to improve outcomes for children.
It will benefit services working with families to consider how support and evidence-based interventions are made available for any parents or those in a parental role, experiencing relationship difficulties either living together or separated. This support should be available as early as possible and be accessible to parents, in all types of relationships. Particular attention should be given to how to engage fathers and non-resident partners and others in parenting roles, such as step-parents or grandparents.
It is important for leaders and commissioners to understand the evidence around the impact of parental conflict and the potential cost of waiting until conflict has become more serious and requires more expensive and intensive interventions.
Reducing Parental Conflict planning tool
The Reducing Parental Conflict self-assessment planning tool is designed to support local leaders and commissioners to identify local system strengths and areas for development, and to monitor progress over time. It measures how advanced local areas are in creating a system to reduce the impact of parental conflict on children, and guides planning activities to make the local system more effective.
Conflict in relationships is expressed through many different behaviours which can have an impact on families’ lives. When conflict is between parents, it can have negative effects on their children’s mental health and wider development.
Disagreements in relationships are normal and not problematic when both people feel able to handle and resolve them constructively. However, when conflict is frequent, intense and poorly resolved it is likely to have a negative impact on the parents and their children.
Tackling parental conflict depends on effective local arrangements for:
- strategy and planning
- leading change
- delivering effective working
- evaluating progress
These 4 dimensions (Plan, Lead, Deliver, Evaluate) form the Reducing Parental Conflict Planning Tool, which is designed to guide local arrangements to reduce the impact of parental conflict on their children.
Commissioner guide on reducing parental conflict
The Foundations Commissioner Guide gives practical guidance on how commissioners can work across partnerships to understand the needs of their local population and design a response to those needs.
Strategic conversations
You can put Reducing Parental Conflict on the agenda and discuss it at a strategic level, such as a health and wellbeing board and community safety partnerships.