Reducing parental conflict – understanding the Practitioner Training Programme: One minute guide

What is parental conflict?

Parental conflict can range from a lack of warmth and emotional distance, right through to swearing and shouting. It is known to be a risk factor for poor child outcomes, particularly when conflict is frequent, intense and poorly resolved.

There is growing understanding and awareness of the need to address and reduce parental conflict for cases which do not meet domestic abuse threshold.

What are the key messages from the parental conflict evidence base?

The quality of the parental relationship, specifically how parents communicate and relate to one another, is increasingly recognised as a primary influence on effective parenting practices andchildren’s long-term mental health and future life chances.

By only targeting the parent–child relationship where inter-parental conflict is ongoing then this does not lead to sustained positive outcomes for children. Inter-parental conflict can adversely affect both mother–child and father–child relationship. Children of all ages can be affected by parental conflict, with effects evidenced across infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood.

More than 10 per cent of children living with both parents in the same household have at least one parent who reports relationship distress.

Positive involvement from both parents in the child’s life can help address the potential negative impacts of parental separation. We know that around half of children in separated families see their non-parent regularly - that is, at least fortnightly.

Children in workless families where parents are not employed are three times more likely to experience parental conflict than in families where both parents are in work.

What is the aim of the government’s Reducing Parental Conflict Programme?

The overarching aim of the programme is to support local areas to make progress towards an integrated system-wide response to the reducing parental conflict evidence base by end of March 2021. This will help improve child outcomes and reduce the need for costly specialist services in the future. The programme intends to achieve this by:

1. Continuing to build the parental conflict evidence base through ongoing evaluation as part of a test and learn approach and
2. Supporting and enabling local authorities and their partners to understand the evidence base and to agree and adopt a system-wide approach to developing appropriate local service provision.

What is the practitioner training programme?

The Early Help Service was recently successful in applying for a grant Practitioner Training programme. The Practitioner Training programme will support Tower Hamlets to:

1. ensure practitioners across the local authority and our partnership are aware of parental conflict and its impact on children
2. provide local training for frontline practitioners so they have the confidence and knowledge required to identify parental conflict, offer initial support and signpost to appropriate services where relevant
3. build sustainability to deliver future training themselves via a ‘train the trainer’ approach

How will the training be delivered?

The training programme will be for be delivered through various different methods. We are hoping to train 400 members of staff at different levels. The training will be targeted to front line Early Help staff. Depending on your role you would partake in:

1. E-Learning Online Option
2. 2 Day Training Course
3. 1 Day Training Course
4.  ½ day Training Course
5. Train The Trainer 2 Day Course

What next?

We will be going out to providers to deliver the programme and provide greater clarification as to what staff groups are best suited to attend the different options of training listed. Staff will then be able to book via the self-service Learning Hub.

For more information please contact

Kobita Begum Kobita.Begum@towerhamlets.gov.uk