Discounted sessions on offer to first time parents in Essex

[weezypops]

A new service launched this week to offer first time parents 60% off the full price of couple support sessions in Colchester, Braintree and Harlow, following evidence that 61% of couples experience relationship difficulties after having a baby*.

Ruth Sutherland, Chief Executive Officer of Relate and Annabel Burns, Deputy Director of Family Law and Relationship Support at the Department for Education officially launched the Department for Education backed relationship support service (THE 3 OF US) on Tuesday 18th September at St Anne’s and Castle Children’s Centre in Colchester.

In her speech, Ruth Sutherland said:

“Relate is known for helping couples in crisis, but with this new service we want to move upstream to support young families before they reach rocky waters.”

Annabel Burns said:

“This service will not only have an immediate positive impact on the couple and their child, but will also have a long-term positive impact on their lives, as well as on society as a whole.”

Expecting and new parents with children up to two years old have the choice of face to face and/or online discounted sessions. The aim is to help parents understand the transition their relationship will go through after they have a child and to give them strategies to stay strong as a couple.

A respondent in the 2010 research report “Relationships Matter” summed up the changes in his relationship after the birth of his first baby:

“I remember when my child was born, first one, I felt as if my life had been bombed and all the bits blown up into the air and it was absolute chaos, and they all settled down again to different patterns, but it was a huge change.”

Delivering the sessions are Relate, the Fatherhood Institute and The Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships. Relate is also coordinating the overall project. As well as Braintree, Harlow and Colchester in Essex, the service is also available initially in Plymouth, York, Leeds and the London Boroughs of Hackney, City, Islington and Westminster. Up to £1m has been made available for the trial between September 2012 and March 2014.

Discount vouchers will be distributed by professionals working in early years – for example, Children’s Centres, Midwives and Health Visitors. The discount is also available by accessing the website: www.the3ofus.org.uk