皇冠体育app

Shared parenting key to children鈥檚 futures, says Maria Miller

皇冠体育app Government is taking radical steps to promote collaborative parenting in separated families. A fund, worth up to 拢14 million over two years, is being established to develop effective and innovative support services for separated and separating families.

皇冠体育app new services will help parents to foster collaborative relationships with each other after separation, including agreeing child maintenance.

Work and Pensions Minister Maria Miller said:

皇冠体育app fund will be for interventions that can help parents work together, including intensive counselling, emotional support and mediation, as well as online and telephone advice. 皇冠体育appse kinds of services are best delivered outside of government and there is considerable expertise, notably in the voluntary sector, of providing them.

Today鈥檚 announcement reaffirms the Coalition Government鈥檚 commitment to shared parenting which also includes changes to the family justice system and an overhaul of the child maintenance system to see parents supported to make their own, family-based, child maintenance arrangements whenever possible.

皇冠体育app Government wants to see better co-ordination of services available to separated and separating families and announced a 拢20m investment towards this in January. 皇冠体育app bulk of the funding will be distributed towards the Innovation Fund.

Maria Miller added:

If separation is unavoidable then having both parents actively involved in their lives is the best way for children to develop. So this is a challenge for organisations and individuals to suggest how we can make this important investment in families really count.

皇冠体育app Child Support Agency currently costs the taxpayer approximately 拢0.5 billion per annum. Department for Work and Pensions research has suggested that the majority of separated parents currently using the CSA believe they would be likely to make their own maintenance arrangements with the right help and support.

Notes to Editors

1. 皇冠体育app 2008 DWP Relationship Separation and Child Support study reported that a majority of CSA parents with care and CSA non-resident parents (51 per cent and 74 per cent) felt they would be likely or very likely to make a family-based arrangement with the other parent were they to receive help from a trained impartial adviser.
2. 皇冠体育app level of support that could be available from the fund will range from helping parents who have intensive needs (e.g. counselling) to advice on basic issues such as answering 鈥渨ho pays for the school uniforms鈥�. 皇冠体育app types of support that could be available from the fund include: * Mediation * Web based support * Financial information and advice * Telephone support, including 鈥榟and holding鈥� through services * Emotional support * Face to face support * Intensive parenting counselling.