Local Family Offer

DWP led the cross-government Family Stability Review in December 2013. The Review analysed the evidence on the drivers and levers around family formation, stability and breakdown and developed evidence-based policy recommendations on how to help current and prospective parents to create and maintain good quality relationships in order to sustain a safe, stable and nurturing family environment for their children.

One of the key policy recommendations from the Review is the need to extend and support front line and local provision — maximising the central role of local authorities in providing family-centred programmes and to test a family offer approach with some local authorities. DWP therefore intends to trial a local family offer with 12 local authorities across England.

The trial will take a life course approach to relationship and family support in a local area, the approach will be tailored to each area but could include improving data collection on the scale of relationship breakdown and it's interaction with other socio-economic factors; supporting relationship skills development in youth services; training frontline staff to spot signs of relationship distress; expanding parenting support; and the role of Children's Centres supporting couple counselling provision and integrating with health services. The proposal is to appoint an organisation to provide a consultation and support service for local authorities in developing a local family offer; and testing the feasibility of this ‘wraparound’ service, building on existing best practice and introducing/testing new approaches/initiatives locally, where appropriate.

The selected organisation will also help local authorities to apply for seed funding from a centrally held pot to support some of these extra activities. We are seeking organisations that can provide these services.

The trial will be evaluated in order to provide an evidence base to inform decisions on spreading best practice and wider implementation. Initially, the trials will be funded for one year in order to assess development and success with a view to spreading best practice approaches.

This contract will be for the use of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), its Executive Agencies and those Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) sponsored by DWP. Further information including a list of such Agencies and Public Bodies can be viewed by selecting ‘Ministerial Departments’ on the Departmental website.