Children and families

We believe the laws and institutions governing family life in the UK should operate in the best interests of children and families.

For example we fund research to examine whether vulnerable children are adequately protected in the court system, or to discover more about how parents’ work patterns and childcare arrangements affect family life.

We also fund work about the welfare of children who are growing up in adverse conditions. We want to know how well their needs are met by the social services designed to help them, and to identify areas for improvement to protection and placement services (adoption and fostering).

We are also interested in cross-cutting work between child development and education, for young children and in teenagers.

Further information
You can see our current research projects in each of the three main areas in the Our work in this area section on this page. If you are looking for funding for a research project, find out whether you are eligible by reading about our areas of interest in children and families.