Building early help and family support around parental relationships

Reducing Parental Conflict National Conference

Building early help and family support around parental relationships

February 13, 2025

| 10:30 am

| The Eastside Rooms, Birmingham

On Thursday 13 February, Foundations – What Works Centre for Children & Families hosted a national conference on how evidence and practice learning on parental relationships can drive local early help systems and family support services.

This exciting event, with a range of local and national speakers, was an opportunity to consider learning to date from the Reducing Parental Conflict Programme and how national and local government can draw on this in the development of wider family policy and delivery. The conference highlighted local practice and innovation.

This event was aimed at senior local authority leads for early help and family support, for example Assistant Directors, Strategic Leads and Commissioners.

Agenda

Timing	Agenda item	Speaker/facilitator
10:30 – 10:50	Welcome	Ben Lewing, Assistant Director – Local Development, Foundations
10:50 – 11:10	Opening remarks	James Fuller, Department for Work & Pensions
11:10 – 11:45	Vision for children, young people, and families	Flora Wilkie, Local Government Association
11:45 – 12:00	Break	–
12:00 – 13:00	Breakout room 1: Local integration of family support	Monica Hingorani, Anna Freud
12:00 – 13:00	Breakout room 2: Engaging partners in early help & family support	Bethan Le Maistre & Helen Burridge, Foundations
12:00 – 13:00	Breakout room 3: Taking a whole family approach to parental relationships	Kate McKenna, The Staff College
12:00 – 13:00	Breakout room 4: Family support services & equality, diversity, inclusion and equity	Leandra Box & Maryam Chowdhry, Race Equality Foundation
12:00 – 13:00	Breakout room 5: Engaging parents in service and system design	Emma Higgins, Haringey Council & Angela Kenny, Bolton Council
13:00 – 14:00	Lunch	–
14:00 – 15:00	Breakout rooms	As above
15:00 – 15:15	Break	–
15:15 – 15:45	Panel discussion: What next? Early help, family support and parental relationships	Florah Shiringo, Wiltshire Council James Fuller, DWP Leandra Box, Race Equality Foundation Monica Hingorani, Anna Freud
15:45 – 16:00	Closing remarks	Ben Lewing, Foundations

Recordings

Introduction to the Conference

Flora Wilkie – LGA

Presentation slides

Intro presentations

Main slides

Breakout rooms

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Foundations 2023. Foundations, the national What Works Centre for Children & Families is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales with company number 12136703 and charity number 1188350.

Cost ratings:

This rating is based on information that programme providers have supplied about the components and requirements of their programme. Based on this information, EIF rates programmes on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 indicates the least resource-intensive programmes and 5 the most resource-intensive.

1: A rating of 1 indicates that a programmes has a low cost to set up and deliver, compared with other interventions reviewed by EIF. This is equivalent to an estimated unit cost of less than £100.

2: A rating of 2 indicates that a programme has a medium-low cost to set up and deliver, compared with other interventions reviewed by EIF. This is equivalent to an estimated unit cost of £100–£499.

3: A rating of 3 indicates that a programme has a medium cost to set up and deliver, compared with other interventions reviewed by EIF. This is equivalent to an estimated unit cost of £500–£999.

4: A rating of 4 indicates that a programme has a medium-high cost to set up and deliver, compared with other interventions reviewed by EIF. This is equivalent to an estimated unit cost of £1,000–£2,000.

5: A rating of 5 indicates that a programme has a high cost to set up and deliver, compared with other interventions reviewed by EIF. This is equivalent to an estimated unit cost of more than £2,000.

Child Outcomes:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.

Supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient.

Preventing child maltreatment: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient.

Enhancing school achievement & employment: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient.

Preventing crime, violence and antisocial behaviour: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient.

Preventing substance abuse: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient.

Preventing risky sexual behaviour & teen pregnancy: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient.

Preventing obesity and promoting healthy physical development: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient.

Evidence ratings:

The evidence ratings distinguish five levels of strength of evidence. This is not a rating of the scale of impact but of the degree to which a programme has been shown to have a positive, causal impact on specific child outcomes.

Level 2: Recognises programmes with preliminary evidence of improving a child outcome, but where an assumption of causal impact cannot be drawn.

Level 2+: The programme will have observed a significant positive child outcome in an evaluation meeting all of the criteria for a level 2 evaluation, but also involving a treatment and comparison group. There is baseline equivalence between the treatment and comparison‐group participants on key demographic variables of interest to the study and baseline measures of outcomes (when feasible).

Level 3: Recognises programmes with evidence of a short-term positive impact from at least one rigorous evaluation – that is, where a judgment about causality can be made.

Level 3+: The programme will have obtained evidence of a significant positive child outcome through an efficacy study, but may also have additional consistent positive evidence from other evaluations (occurring under ideal circumstances or real world settings) that do not meet this criteria, thus keeping it from receiving an assessment of 4 or higher.

Level 4: Recognises programmes with evidence of a long-term positive impact through multiple rigorous evaluations. At least one of these studies must have evidence of improving a child outcome lasting a year or longer.