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As many as 2.87 million people across the UK are living in relationships which would be described within clinical practice as distressed, according a new study by relationship charity Relate. This amounts to 18% of married or cohabiting couples and 1.4 million UK families.

A distressed relationship is one with a severe level of relationship problems, which has a clinically significant negative impact on partner’s wellbeing.

The charity is concerned that these poor quality relationships are having a detrimental impact on people’s physical and mental health, with many struggling to access the support they need and reaching breaking point.

The research, which had a sample size of 20,980, looked at key questions from a validated scale to measure relationship quality. These included how often couples argued, how frequently they considered separation or divorce, the extent of unhappiness in their relationship and how often they regretted being in their relationship.

The research found that:

The latest statistics on divorce from the Office for National Statistics revealed that despite an overall drop in the number of divorces, the numbers divorcing in the over-50 age group have actually risen over the past decade.

The Department for Education has recently published a breakdown of the number of children in care in England.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has given an interesting insight into the legal marital status and living arrangements of people across England and Wales.

The Queen’s Speech has outlined further improvements to the adoption system that aim to benefit children awaiting adoption by enabling them to be placed with a family far quicker.

A High Court judge has ruled that a one-year-old girl should live with her father and his male partner instead of her mother, reports the BBC.

Money is well known to be a common cause of stress within a relationship but, according to a recent survey by the Money Advice Service, many couples are far from honest with their partner about their finances.

It is widely recognised that divorce can have a negative impact on a couple’s finances, but people are possibly less aware of how far reaching this impact can actually be.

New Government proposals will mean that children involved in any type of family case - whether to remove them into care or disputes about child arrangements following divorce or separation - will be able to have their views heard when decisions are made that will affect them.

Researchers at Northumbria University have recently studied the impact of Family Court Advisers on the duration of court cases involving adoption or care proceedings.

Over the past few years there has a rise in adoption to record levels, with an increase of 63% in just three years, charity Adoption UK has said. This means thousands more children have found permanent and loving homes through a faster adoption system.

New national standards designed to raise the quality of expert witness evidence in family court cases and speed up proceedings became law on 1st October 2014.

Family law organisation Resolution has recently highlighted the additional stress that the summer holiday period can place on a couple’s relationship. In some cases, this increased tension can bring a relationship to breaking point.

A recent report by the National Audit Office has found that the Department for Work and Pensions has successfully introduced the first phase of the Child Maintenance 2012 scheme.

The architect of the major reforms which put children at the heart of the family justice system has been reappointed as chair of the Family Justice Board (FJB), the Government has announced.

The Government is currently carrying out a consultation exercise over the operation and future of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 in England and Wales. The consultation is seeking views on civil partnership and its continuing role when all couples – whether they are of the same sex or opposite sex – are now able to marry.

The latest matrimonial survey from Grant Thornton has given some interesting insights into recent trends in divorce and other areas of family law across the UK.

Women’s Aid is calling for a joined-up response to domestic violence from police, schools, and Government in response to the Home Secretary’s demand that police forces improve the way they deal with abuse.