Relationship support for couples is a necessary part of early intervention with families before couple conflict and other difficulties become entrenched.
Family Hubs’ regular contact with parents means they are ideally situated to identify issues within a relationship at an early stage, and the links Hubs have built up with other agencies mean they can facilitate access to wider services where necessary. The key to success in this area is training and supporting staff to recognise potential problems and have conversations about relationships in the right way.
Salford City Council Presentation
At a meeting on Family Hubs held by the APPG for Relationships and Reducing Parental Conflict in May, the team from Salford City Council spoke about how their Family Hubs have helped with couple relationship support. Their presentation, from 16:04-27:15 in the video, covered:
- An introduction to their Family Hubs’ structure, how they link to other services, and their digital offer
- Their relational model of practice, with families at the heart of everything they do
- How work by the DWP on parental conflict has enabled them to realise how important working on parental conflict is
- Support they have had to refine and improve their offer on domestic abuse
- Their work with Rochdale to refine their early help offer, which now includes more on parental conflict. They then explain an example of this.
- Their Greater Manchester Relationship Toolkit
The All Party Parliamentary Group for Supporting Couple Relationships and Reducing Inter-parental Conflict aims to improve relationship skills and support to reduce conflict and family breakdown and support mental health and well-being.
You can see this here: Strengthening Couple Relationships 12th May meeting