As part of the Reducing Parental Conflict Programme, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is launching a £2.7m Reducing Parental Conflict Challenge Fund that will provide grant funding to innovative projects, to gather learning on what works to reduce parental conflict.
The RPC Challenge Fund will allocate grants through two strands:
- A Digital Support for Families strand: £1.6m is available to provide grant funding to innovative projects that will test what works digitally to support and maintain engagement with disadvantaged families to reduce parental conflict.
- A Support for Disadvantaged Families Strand:A further £1.1m is available to test what works to support disadvantaged families that are at greater risk of parental conflict, where there is limited existing evidence.
We expect the fund to be very competitive and only the strongest initiatives will be awarded grants.
Eligible bidders for these grant funding opportunities could include local authorities; digital organisations; organisations from the public and private sector; voluntary and community organisations; and social enterprises.
We welcome applications from partnerships which possess the relevant skills and experience.
Initiatives should be well planned and ready to start in April 2019 and be fully delivered by March 2020.
Digital support for families strand (£1.6m available)
Through the RPC Challenge Fund, by providing grant funding for digital innovation, we are seeking to enable more families that are experiencing parental conflict to self-identify and address the conflict they are experiencing earlier.
DWP will provide grant funding for innovative digital projects, to learn more about what engages parents online to help reduce parental conflict. Grant participants will be asked to develop support based on user need which targets digital support at those parents with low digital skills and who live in low income and workless households.
The Challenge Fund will invest in initiatives that best demonstrate how they will test and learn what is most effective in supporting parents to reduce the conflict in their relationship by:
- placing material where disadvantaged families go on line
- developing support material based on users’ needs
- engaging and maintaining engagement
The Challenge Fund should avoid duplicating other online provision and will not fund the development of new apps or websites.
Applicants can be based anywhere in the United Kingdom, with services focused on people in England.
Support for Disadvantaged Families strand (£1.1m available)
Support for Disadvantaged Families initiatives will test and learn from new or emerging approaches to supporting disadvantaged families with an increased risk of parental conflict.
The RPC Challenge Fund will seek learning on what works to support disadvantaged families by funding innovation where there is little current evidence. For example, this might include innovation to promote better integration or join-up of local services, or targeted interventions for families. We are also interested in innovation which explores how supporting parents to reduce their conflict can reduce the number of parents going to court when they separate. As a key aim of this fund is to encourage innovation, we will not fund activity which is already taking place unless there is a strong case for doing so.
Applicants and activity must be based in England. In addition, DWP will only be able to fund projects under the disadvantaged families strand of the Challenge Fund in areas where we are not already funding interventions aimed at reducing parental conflict. This includes the 31 LA areas delivering evidence-based face-to-face interventions as part of the Reducing Parental Conflict Programme, and areas which have made successful bids under the joint DWP and DHSC Children of Alcohol-Dependent Parents Innovation Fund.
Further details on this call can be found at: http://www.reducingparentalconflictfund.co.uk/
If you have an interest in this opportunity please get in touch with the team at reds@uel.ac.uk
UEL Research, Innovation and Impact 