Oliver Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the capability of (a) children's centre workers, (b) GPs, (c) teachers and (d) Jobcentre Plus staff to provide support services to help parents make maintenance arrangements on separation; and if he will make a statement.
Maria Miller: A central part of the vision set out in the Green Paper ""Strengthening families, promoting parental responsibility: the future of child maintenance"" is to make it easier for parents to access the support already available to deal with the effects of separation in a way that recognises their ongoing responsibilities as parents.
During the Green Paper consultation, we have been talking to experts in the voluntary and community sector (VCS) who understand families' needs, including among others the Centre for Separated Families, Relate, and Gingerbread, and they tell us that local support itself could be delivered in a more integrated fashion. We will continue to work with the sector to understand how best to facilitate more joined-up services.
We know from our discussions with VCS organisations that when families encounter problems it is often trusted professionals that parents turn to first. VCS have cited examples such as Sure Start children's centre workers and GPs, though of course the range of professionals who parents may approach first could be wider.
We want to make it easier for the professionals that separating parents first approach to know what support is available and direct parents to that support. We will continue to work with colleagues in the Department for Education and other Government Departments to understand how this would work in practice, recognising the need to avoid placing undue burdens on professionals who are already working hard to support families in a range of different ways.
We need to get this right for the long-term, to take forward the reform of the child maintenance system begun by the previous Government, following the recommendations of Sir David Henshaw, and set the system in the context of the range of support parents may need when they separate.
We aim to publish the Government's response to the consultation shortly