Reducing parental conflict

As part of our Early Help service we offer help to reduce parental conflict. Parental conflict occurs in every relationship and can sometimes lead to feelings of anger, even extreme anger, between partners or ex-partners.

Parental conflict is generally issue-focused. While the parents may have clear differences or preferences, they are often able to negotiate a solution to the conflict. There might be greater levels of blaming and may include patterns of relating carried over from experiences in their own family. While the intensity of conflict may vary, this will have different impact for each individual child depending on their individual characteristics, background, resilience and vulnerability, and their circumstances.

You can view a further introduction about reducing parental conflict here (PDF).  

Professionals' RPC toolkit 

We have produced a resource folder to support professionals based in the Borough of Bedford to support their families.

The tools shared in this folder are designed to help professionals to support parents and guardians to think about the impact of reducing parental conflict on their children and try to modify their interrelationship styles. This intervention is most appropriate at threshold two and three of the Bedford Thresholds and Pathways document where families are being supported via an Early Help Assessment with team around the family meetings taking place.

In no way are these tools designed to supersede established routes to safeguard children from domestic abuse, where the appropriate course of action remains a referral to Integrated Front Door and where serious cases can be discussed in MARAC with multiagency support plans, from families supported by Children's Social Care in the child protection arena as shared in threshold four of the Bedford Thresholds and Pathways document.

Our belief remains, early intervention is targeted at supporting families to prevent concerns escalating to significant safeguarding concerns. We hope you will find these resources invaluable in your practice and establishment to help support your families.

The toolkit is available to view in the following PDF documents:

"See it Differently" videos