How effective are child maintenance and associated policies at supporting separated families, encouraging family-based arrangements, reducing conflict and helping children and adults achieve better outcomes? And how does this differ by group?

Background

This encompasses priorities around:
- promoting financial resilience and reducing poverty, including by harnessing the full set of levers available through the Department and its public bodies, other government departments and Local and Combined Authorities
- supporting people to help meet the cost of living and work across government to support the formulation and delivery of effective housing policies, particularly with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC)
- delivering financial security for low-income working adults, and for children in low-income households

Next steps

Send correspondence and further questions to evidence.strategyteam@dwp.gov.uk.

Source

This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:

DWP Areas of Research Interest 2023 GOV UK

Related UKRI funded projects

  • Keeping the Child in Mind? Family Functioning and Experiences of Shared Parenting After Separation

    By age five, 25% of children in the UK will have experienced their parents' separation, a risk factor for emotional and behavioural problems which have long-term personal and societal costs. Alongside managing emotions, ...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project explores shared parenting after separation, which is relevant to the question, but it does not fully address child maintenance and associated policies.

  • The Changing Nature of Lone Parenthood and its Consequences

    The increased number of lone-parent families is one of the most significant social trends to have occurred over the last thirty years. Today one-in-four children live in a lone-parent family compared to just one 1-in-20 ...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project examines the consequences of lone-parenthood, which is relevant to understanding the effectiveness of child maintenance and associated policies in supporting separated families and reducing conflict.

  • A Parenting Team?

    By five years old, 25% of children in the UK will have experienced the separation of their parents (Understanding Society 2018). It has traditionally been assumed by the public and courts of law that mothers should recei...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project explores shared parenting after separation, which is partially relevant to understanding the effectiveness of child maintenance and associated policies in supporting separated families and reducing conflict.

  • Post-separation families and shared residence: setting the interdisciplinary research agenda for the future.

    Fewer children in the UK are being raised by families consisting exclusively of two biologically related parents and their other off-spring. Post-separation family life raises important issues in both law and moral philo...

    Funded by: AHRC

  • Changing Discourses of the Parent-Child Relationship

    In recent years, parents and parenting have featured prominently in policy discourse in the UK and elsewhere. The increasingly prevalent view that social and educational policy must pay specific attention to the role and...

    Funded by: AHRC

  • Family inclusive policy and practice after 'Think Family'

    Although there is a long history of social work and other practitioners involving wider family in trying to resolve difficulties faced by particular family members, the evidence base to support this activity has been rel...

    Funded by: ESRC

  • Scoping longitudinal qualitative studies with seldom-heard families

    Birth cohort studies make a unique contribution to understanding the origins and consequences of inequalities over the life course, but they encounter persistent challenges in recruiting and maintaining the engagement of...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Why might this be relevant?

    Partially relevant as it focuses on conducting research with seldom-heard families, but does not directly address child maintenance policies.

  • 'Troubled Families' and Inter-agency Collaboration: Lessons from Historical Comparative Analysis.

    Many of the challenges associated with implementing the Government's current 'troubled families' programme have their precedent in the past. Conceptualisations of the issues framing family deprivation and need have follo...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Why might this be relevant?

    Partially relevant as it explores historical inter-agency collaboration in supporting families, but does not directly address child maintenance policies.

  • Comparing health outcomes for care experienced children and children in the general population in Scotland using linked administrative data

    Children who are in the care of their local authority (care experienced children, CEC) are one of the most vulnerable groups of people in the society. In 2017 approximately 15,000 children in Scotland were visited by soc...

    Funded by: ESRC

  • Social Policy Support For Families in the UK and South Korea: To What Extent Does Family Support Create Inclusive Growth and Social Cohesion?

    Family friendly social policy has a strong link to the achievement of key social goals, such as those in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including inclusive growth and social cohesion. However, even in high income ...

    Funded by: FIC

Similar ARIs from other organisations

Family security: Keeping children safe Where children cannot live with their birth parents, how do we support and enable others (including wider family networks) to provide good quality care which leads to better life outcomes? • How does this vary for different family types, including both formal and informal kinship carers, foster carers, and children who leave care under an adoption order or special guardianship order? Department for Education, 2025
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