Pictured with the Amity Collective Excellence Award are, left to right, Charlotte Maher–Butler, Delivery Manager, David Clinton, Family Learning Worker, Nicola Shelton, Delivery Manager, Lisa Raghunanan, Service Manager, and Julie Baker, Family Learning Co-ordinator
Staff from the City of Wolverhampton Council have been recognised by training provider Amity for going ‘above and beyond to embed meaningful, sustainable change for relationships’.
The Reducing Parental Conflict Team and Family Learning Team received the Amity Collective Excellence Award for their work around reducing parental conflict.
Lisa Raghunanan, Service Manager for Children’s Services, collected the award on behalf of colleagues including Julie Baker, Nicola Shelton, David Clinton, Charlotte Maher-Butler, Glenn Evans and Adele Aldred recently.
Judges said that, under their leadership, the council has implemented a ‘robust, multi agency strategy’ which has trained over 180 professionals in reducing parental conflict awareness. A further 150 have been trained in the Amity Relationship Toolkit, a resource for frontline professionals who work with families.
They added that the teams have ‘secured lasting change through major city wide events, including engagement sessions with over 100 professionals from across voluntary, health, education, social care and law enforcement sectors – each attendee making a personal pledge to address parental conflict in their role’.
They have also ‘embedded clear pathways of support, ensuring that over 300 parents have accessed online resources – helping families find guidance and professionals build confidence in their interventions’.
Judges concluded: “Their collective energy, people skills and drive have motivated countless others to take action, leading to more secure family relationships, improved child outcomes, and stronger multi agency collaboration.”
Councillor Jacqui Coogan, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Education, said: “Parental conflict is unsurprisingly a cause of poor outcomes for children, particularly when that conflict is frequent, intense and poorly resolved.
“There is growing awareness of the need to tackle this and, as a council, we were successful in a bid for funding from the Government’s Reducing Parental Conflict Programme.
“We have used this to raise, enhance and embed awareness of this issue within the council and within our partner organisations to create a skilled workforce that is confident in supporting and addressing issues relating to parental conflict with families at the earliest opportunity.
“This work is having a profound impact on outcomes for children, young people and their families, and this recognition from Amity is richly deserved for everyone involved in this important piece of work.”
Amity provides relationship training, support and resources for professionals working with children, adults and families.