Publications

When Relationships Go Wrong: Counting the cost of family failure and its flipside, When Relationships Go Right: Enabling thriving lives, have to be read from both ends of this document. We present our material in such a way because our aim is to confront the extent of failure whilst suggesting how to move towards solutions. We are not in the business of spreading doom and gloom, but neither are we naive. There is a cost to relationship breakdown and it is large – £37 billion.

Only when the cost of family failure is taken seriously will people recognise how important relationships are to wellbeing and happiness. In light of this we suggest that policy-makers and implementers can, and should, make informed choices in terms of public motivation, opportunity and support which will lead to more thriving lives and reduce the costs of failure. You can begin at either end of this document but you need both views to see the whole picture.