Background
Evidence indicates that frequent, intense and poorly resolved parental conflict can have a negative impact on outcomes and life chances for children. At the same time, evidence from the UK about effective interventions to address parental conflict with families is at an early stage and still developing.
CORC recently had the opportunity to work with Foundations to support a number of areas to design and implement evaluation plans to more systematically measure the impact of their work on reducing parental conflict, and to begin to address that evidence gap. We were delighted to have the opportunity to build on this when we were commissioned by The Parenting Apart Programme to carry out an evaluation of the implementation of their programme in two areas.
A number of local authorities in the UK have commissioned support and services from The Parenting Apart Programme to develop their work with families to reduce levels of parental conflict and improve child outcomes. In this evaluation CORC looked at how the programme was being used and embedded in two areas, Hillingdon and North Yorkshire. The evaluation aimed to identify factors that had facilitated implementation of the programme and any barriers and challenges to implementation; and to explore the ways in which the programme has shifted practice and cultures in the two areas.
The approach
In the two areas, Parenting Apart trained practitioners in how to deliver a structured intervention for parents, supported by a manual and access to follow-up reflective group sessions. Local implementation leads also received advice and input to support them to effectively implement the programme locally.
The evaluation drew on interviews and focus groups which our CORC team carried out with about thirty professionals involved in leading, rolling out and delivering the programme, as well as feedback and attendance data that had been routinely collected by Parenting Apart. Data was gathered in summer 2024 and the evaluation report completed October 2024.
Findings
In both of the areas, efforts to implement and to maximise the impact of the programme had been supported by the quality of the training, support offer and intervention design offered by Parenting Apart, and by attention in the localities to partner engagement, manager buy-in and practitioner support.
There are challenges in engaging parents in conflict at an appropriate point in time for this type of work, and the work can be demanding for staff in already-busy roles. However practitioners involved in this study also welcomed the development of their knowledge, skills and confidence in working with parents in conflict, and spoke of its positive impact for families they were working with.
Local leads affirmed their commitment to sustaining work to reduce parental conflict in their area, and the evaluation identified a number of ways in which the approach is already seen to be embedding in ways of working and cultures at individual, organizational and system level.
The full evaluation report can be found here.
You can visit The Parenting Apart Programme website here