Strengthening Family Relationships (SFR)

There is strong evidence that frequent, intense and poorly resolved parental conflict can have a negative impact on children’s mental health and long-term life-chances.

The SFR workshop covers:

• how to identify types of parental conflict
• impact on of parental conflict on the wellbeing of children and parents
• guidance to help parents manage conflict and improve communication

Watch the voice of the child video

Children exposed to frequent conflict are more likely to:

• Experience depression or anxiety
• Have physical health problems
• Develop behaviour problems
• Do worse at school
• Struggle with peer relationships
• Be prone to substance misuse, criminality, homelessness, self-harm and suicidality
• County Lines
• Being at risk of radicalisation
• A survey of over 42,000 children being seen in Children and Young People’s IAPT services has shown that ‘family relationship problems’ are the biggest single presenting factor, being implicated in over 50% of referrals. *

*Wolpert, M (2017) Outcomes for children and young people seen in specialist mental health services.

Referral pathway:

• Identify parents who would benefit from support to reduce parental conflict
• Direct them to the KCC Strengthening Family Relationships website to register for a workshop of their choice or share the SFR workshop flyer (PDF, 436.2 KB) or the QR code below.

For questions email sfr@kent.gov.uk.