Local authorities offer 'relationships toolkit' to manage conflict and support families

All ten local authorities in Greater Manchester – Rochdale, Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan – have collaborated to create a 'relationships toolkit' which is being rolled out across staff who work with families in councils, health, education, police, community, and voluntary sectors.

The toolkit aims to ensure that everyone across the region who receives relationship support – be a housing officer, social worker or health visitor – receives clear and consistent messages about the importance of strong, conflict-free family relationships.

The toolkit is a collection of best practice approaches and is for use with individuals and couples; it will help them think about the quality of their close relationships and learn new strategies to manage unhelpful and damaging conflict.

It is designed to give practitioners confidence to have conversations with people about the relationships in their life, not to ‘fix them’ but to give them the tools and knowledge for them to make their own relationships healthier.

Since Rochdale started its relationship revolution, almost 700 multi-agency professionals have been trained as ‘Relationship Champions’, including 120 staff in all the borough’s children’s centres, so that support is right there in the community where families need it.

Deputy Mayor for Police and Crime Bev Hughes said: “It’s been a difficult and uncertain time for us all as we continue to navigate through the ongoing pandemic whilst taking care of ourselves and our loved ones. We recognise that the challenges of the last few months may have led to increased tensions and conflict in the family home, and organisations across Greater Manchester have been working together to address this and make sure the right support is in place.

“The rollout of healthy relationship training and the toolkit to frontline staff across the city-region will bolster this work, helping to support families earlier and prevent conflict from escalating and causing lasting damage to children, young people and parents.”

Since lockdown there has been an increase in incidents of domestic abuse right across Greater Manchester, proving it’s more important now than ever that families are supported to learn the essential ingredients needed for constructive and respectful communication.

As many as one in four women, and one in six men, will suffer domestic abuse at some time in their lives: it can happen to anyone, regardless of age, background, gender, religion, sexuality or ethnicity.

Supporting people to make small changes to how they communicate can have a big impact on their relationships, their wellbeing and their children’s wellbeing.

Councillor Kieran Heakin, cabinet member for children’s services, said: “We see good quality relationships as a right rather than a privilege. I can strongly recommend this approach as it is having a positive impact for those residents in Rochdale who have been involved in the work.

“I’m delighted to see this wide commitment to support people with strong and conflict-free relationships, it’s something all of us in Greater Manchester should be proud of. People need support at the best of times, they now need us more than ever in these most challenging of times.”

By encouraging practitioners to use this innovative toolkit across all Greater Manchester services hope to help as many couples, families and individuals as they can so that collaboratively all services can start a relationships revolution that can benefit our communities for many years to come.

If you are concerned about your relationships please contact your local authority’s early help service.

Conflict and abuse are not the same. Conflict can be part of a normal relationship and the toolkit focuses on how conflict can be constructive rather than destructive.

If you are in an abusive relationship, there is lots of support available to you that is fully operational during Covid-19 restrictions:

• Contact Refuge on 0808 2000 247
• Contact your local authority’s early help service - www.rochdale.gov.uk/earlyhelp / early.help@rochdale.gov.uk
• Early help service contact:
  01706 925200 Rochdale locality team 
  01706 927500 Heywood locality team 
  01706 922600 Pennine locality team 
  0161 662 5100 Middleton locality team

If your life is in immediate danger please phone 999, you can also press ‘55’ when prompted if you cannot speak.