Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what research they have funded or plan to fund to investigate the effectiveness of non-court dispute resolution support services for families, including non-legal options such as separated parenting programmes and Voice of the Child, to promote evidence-led outcomes for the benefit of children.

The Government recognises the importance of supporting separating families, and where appropriate, helping them resolve their issues quickly and without the need to come to court.

The Family Mediation Voucher Scheme continues to provide £500 towards the cost of mediation. To date, over £16 million of vouchers have helped 33,000 separating parents to access mediation. Analysis of the first 7,200 completed under the scheme suggests that 69% of participants reached whole or partial agreement and did not need to go on to court.

The Department for Work and Pensions runs the Reducing Parental Conflict (RPC) programme which aims to address frequent, intense and poorly resolved conflict between parents and improve outcomes for children.

The programme, funds grants to Local Authorities in England who work in partnership with multi-agency stakeholders, commissioning relationship support for parents in conflict. Evidence of the impact of these innovative services to increase access for diverse families can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/reducing-parental-conflict-programme-evaluation.