Thank you relate

Relate has circulated information about the Enduring Love? questionnaire through several channels. This support was another boost to the questionnaire responses. 3,734 men and women have now completed the questionnaire in the first 10 weeks! Thank you if you are one of them.

We don't have any results yet but I have just published an article with the title is 'A critical analysis of family and relationships policies in England and Wales (1997-2011)' in the first issue of the academic journal Families, Relationships and Societies.

The article maps out social trends and unravels the development of family and relationship support policies in England and Wales between 1997-2011. I have also tried to make sense of specific shifts by analysing the interplay between governments, policy making and state spending on support policies. I illustrate that relationship support policies have only relatively recently moved to centre stage in the political agenda. Under New Labour, attention had almost exclusively focused on child outcomes and the parent-child relationship in family policy. It is not suggested that the Conservative-led coalition government places any less emphasis upon children's well-being and life experiences, but its concerns are now being approached from a different angle.

I also demonstrate how particular government ministers have pushed relationship support policies up the policy agenda and give examples of Research Reports and Green Papers that have been conceived and produced under one government and that have not been dropped and superseded by a new brand of politics.

In government departments, the 'evidence-based' agenda is becoming stronger than ever before, as initiatives have to 'prove' their worth through measurable outcomes. But how do you measure 'positive' relationship outcomes? And what is a 'positive' relationship outcome anyhow? Perhaps this warrants another article. Watch this space…

This is my sixth blog piost. Thanks in advance for your all your comments and suggestions. You can email me to Martina.Klett-Davies@open.ac.uk.