Interactive information, advice, exercises and social networking for couples and parents. More +

Some areas of the law treat couples the same, married or not. But in many other areas, there are big differences. More +

Information about how the quality of the relationship between parents matters to their children. More +

Evidence based resources providing support and guidance for practitioners working with parents and families. More +

Inquiring, informing, innovating

One Plus One is a team of researchers, practitioners and information specialists whose aim is to enhance understanding of how family relationships contribute to the well being of adults and children through three key activities:

inquiring - monitoring and evaluating knowledge about relationships and effective support in order to develop key messages for policy and practice;

informing - creating imaginative formats for key messages tailored to different audiences, and raising awareness of the impact of couple relationships on the well being of individuals, families and communities;

innovating - developing innovative ways of getting specialist knowledge and skills about adult family relationships and early intervention to everyone working in the frontline with families, thereby adding value to existing practice.

Through One Plus One's unique "research into practice" approach we gather evidence about couple and family relationships - how they work, why and when they run into difficulties, and how to cope when they do. Our findings about what support benefits families at vulnerable times are used to develop user-friendly and effective services to support couples and families in their communities, and to support those professionals and practitioners working with them.

Working as a psychiatrist in the London borough of Brent in the 1970s - an area of great social deprivation - Dr Jack Dominian, founder of One Plus One, realised that relationship discord and breakdown was at the heart of the distress he encountered daily in families. Among his patients he found a high incidence of maternal post-natal depression, clear links between depression and relationship problems, and the detrimental effects of parental conflict on children. One Plus One was founded in order to understand more about the needs of such families and, with that evidence, to develop effective ways of providing support when it is first needed - to shift relationship support from crisis intervention to prevention.

Bringing knowledge and skills to the frontline of family support

Most families do not use specialist services - relationship counselling - when their relationship is first in difficulty yet they do "turn to" those with whom they have routine contact such as health visitors. This finding was the basis for a programme of work in the past decade in which we have been creating resources for professionals and volunteers working in the frontline of family support.

The centrepiece of this work is the Brief Encounters training - a brief intervention model providing clear guidelines for supporting relationships within families and between families and those they turn to for help. It has been independently evaluated as "a remarkable success"; after training 97% of participants felt more confident in their ability to support people with relationship problems and six months later 94% were using the model, over half daily or weekly.

Extending outreach

Over 2000 frontline practitioners and volunteers have been trained - including GPs, health visitors, midwives, clergy, solicitors, police, teachers, early years workers, volunteers in Home-Start schemes.

With our tried, tested and trusted resources for frontline workers we have achieved outreach to around one million families.

One Plus One is grateful to receive funding from the following organisations:
Department for Children, Schools and Families (formerly the Department for Education and Skills)
The Mulberry Trust
The Nuffield Foundation
The Ministry for Justice (formerly Department for Constitutional Affairs)
Jack Dominian
Dulverton Trust

One Plus One is a Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee, Registered Company number: 4133340 Registered Charity number: 1087994

Director: Penny Mansfield

PA to the Director: Nicola Edwards

Administration Manager: Akua Agyei

Head of Administration: Kate Balston

Administrative Assistant: Papa Owusu

Head of Outreach Development & Marketing: Angela Basoah

Accounts Assistant: Julie Chewe

Head of Research: Dr Lester Coleman

Head of Dissemination and Policy: Justine Devenney

Information Officer: Laura Dimmock

Practice Development and Training Manager: Charmari Downing

Head of Finance: J C Fielding

Research Officer: Fiona Glenn

Head of Practice Development: Jan Mitcheson

Practice Development and Training Coordinator: Liz McIntyre

Outreach Development and Marketing Assistant: Marie Nyangoma

Vacancies: No vacancies at present

Chair : Professor Paul Black
Michael Buerk
Dr Christopher Devereux
Dr Jack Dominian
Louise Dominian
Sarah Forster
Professor Susan Golombok
Gordon Heald
Ruth Kennedy
Professor Kathleen Kiernan
Elizabeth Mills
Bob Mountain
Maggie Rae
Professor Sir Michael Rutter