Reducing Parental Conflict Programme 2022 to 2025: Local Grant Evaluation
Source: gov.uk (2025-02-20)

This report summarises evaluation findings from an evaluation of the 2022 to 2025 Reducing Parental Conflict programme (RPC) Local Grant, based on research conducted from March 2023 to August 2024.

Research background

The RPC Local Grant began in 2022 and was designed to support local authorities to embed RPC practice and organisation into local services for families and children.

This report provides insight into the process by which English local authorities used Local Grant funding to achieve these aims.

The report covers how local authorities used their Local Grant funding; the process of embedding RPC into local services (including the key enablers and challenges); the experiences of RPC delivery for practitioners; the experiences of RPC interventions for parents, and an exploration of the referral processes.

Contribution to the evidence base

This report is the final evaluation output relating to the RPC Local Grant 2022 to 2025. The publication incorporates findings from the interim report that was published in October 2024.

The interim report can be found here:

Interim report: Reducing Parental Conflict Programme – Local Grant Evaluation - GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reducing-parental-conflict-programme-2022-to-2025-local-grant-evaluation-interim-report)

Both the interim and final evaluation reports contribute to the existing evidence covering the previous RPC programme which ran between 2018 and 2022.

Existing publications linked to RPC include:

Reducing Parental Conflict programme 2018 to 2022: an evaluation of the effects of interventions - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reducing-parental-conflict-programme-2018-to-2022-an-evaluation-of-the-effects-of-interventions). This report shows results of the quantitative evaluations of seven interventions as part of the programme. The results compared relationships dynamics between parents (including conflict) before and after completing an RPC intervention.

Reducing Parental Conflict programme 2018 to 2022: final evaluation report - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reducing-parental-conflict-programme-2018-to-2022-final-evaluation-report). This report focuses mainly on the experiences of parents who accessed RPC interventions. It uses quantitative and qualitative evidence to report on parents’ perceptions on the impact of the programme and local authorities experiences of delivering RPC locally.

Reducing Parental Conflict programme 2018 to 2022: diary research with parents accessing interventions - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reducing-parental-conflict-programme-2018-to-2022-diary-research-with-parents-accessing-interventions). This piece of research draws on diary entries from parents, and provides insight into parents’ experience of interventions, and how participation impacted their family life.

A collection of all reports relating to the RPC Programme 2018 to 2022 evaluation can be found at Reducing Parental Conflict programme: evaluation - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/reducing-parental-conflict-programme-evaluation).

Research value

Findings will be of particular interest to local authorities when planning and integrating RPC into their family services. The findings are useful for central government to ensure learning can shape future policy. It will also be valuable to organisations working with, or on behalf of, families and children.