The plan, unveiled on 18 December 18 by children's secretary Ed Balls,will provide 60m to 1,500 schools for counselling and peermentoring programmes; allocate 5.5m for local pilot projectsaimed at supporting parents by co-ordinating services such ascounselling, mediation, and practical and legal support; and help trainmore professionals to support new and first-time parents.
The relationship summit was attended by a panel of agony aunts andrelationship experts from newspapers and television to give their viewson what help children need when their parents split up.
It followed a meeting held in October as part of the Kids in the Middlecampaign, launched in July, which highlighted the impact that familybreakdown can have on children (News, 24 July).
A Kids in the Middle advice booklet is to be sent out to children'scentres, citizens' advice bureaus and GPs' surgeries and will be free todownload from the DCSF website.
Mr Balls said, 'When I met with agony aunts I heard from them how everyday, they deal with the heartache that parental separation can causechildren and adults. Together we are pioneering a new approach tosupport this particular group of vulnerable children.'
To coincide with the summit, the Government published Families inBritain: an evidence paper, which investigates how family life inBritain has changed over recent decades. The research found thatstepfamilies are the fastest growing family form, that one quarter offamilies are children with lone parents and that parents are spendingmore time with children than ever before, but often with moreconflict.
- View the research at www.dcsf.gov.uk.
