Background and Services Information
Relate’s vision
Is a future in which healthy relationships form the heart of a thriving society
Our beliefs
 An individual’s physical and emotional well-being and mental health benefit
from a committed relationship.
 Children thrive in families where relationships are free from destructive
conflict.
 People gain from an understanding of their sexuality.
Our mission
Is to develop & support healthy relationships by:
 Helping couples, families & individuals to make relationships work better.
 Delivering inclusive, high quality services that are relevant at every stage of
life.
 Helping both the public and policymakers to improve their understanding of
relationships & what makes them flourish.
Objects
 To educate the public concerning the benefits of secure couple relationships,
marriage and family life, in order to improve the emotional, sexual and
spiritual well being of individuals which is derived from committed
relationships.
 To promote research into all aspects of couple relationships and marriage and
to make the results available to the public.
 To seek to enhance the good health, both mental and physical, of adults and
children by increasing public awareness of the benefit of committed couple
relationships, marriage and family life and working to prevent poverty,
hardship and distress caused by the breakdown of such relationships.
Statement of Common Purpose
Relate's role is to help people build better couple relationships:
 To enhance the quality of couple and parental and family relationships
 To help relationships and marriage withstand the pressures leading to
breakdown
 To limit the damage which commonly accompanies failing relationships,
separation and divorce and increase the prospect of subsequent relationships
succeeding.
Relate aims to deliver its services with cultural sensitivity and without discrimination.
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Relate believes that:
 An individual's physical well-being and emotional and mental health benefit
from a committed relationship
 Children thrive in families where relationships are free from destructive conflict
 People gain from an understanding of their sexuality
 Expressing clear commitment is a helpful contribution to a healthy and secure
couple relationship
Relate’s key messages for 2015
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Relate champions the importance of strong and healthy relationships as the
basis of a thriving society.
Personal and social relationships are important in our everyday lives and are
central to our wellbeing.
Relationships are under increasing pressure – breakdown costs the UK
economy £44billion each year.
Over a million people every year access information, support and counselling
from Relate but it’s clear many more would benefit from our services.
A brief history of Relate
When Relate first opened its doors as the Marriage Guidance Council in 1938, it had
been in response to the rising divorce figures which had convinced a clergyman, Dr
Herbert Gray, that relationships were taking the strain of life in the modern twentieth
century. He had gathered a few colleagues around him in order to carry out
research into marriage and divorce, and to provide an education service. But, as
news of their work spread, many hundreds of requests came flooding in revealing
unforeseen areas of desperate need and unhappiness. Dr Gray later wrote: “We
had no office, no funds, no precedent to guide us; just an inescapable conviction that
this ought to be done, and that nobody else was trying.” Counselling soon became
established as the main service and from a small London office, opened in 1943,
over 8,000 clients were seen by a group of dedicated volunteers in the next five
years.
In the 1950s, as family life began to recover after the traumas of the war years, the
Marriage Guidance Council began to be recognised as a national institution
providing dedicated and valuable work. The work continued to grow, so that by its
Jubilee Year in 1988 the number of Centres across the country had expanded to 160
and the number of client interviews being conducted was nearly a quarter of a million
in a year. However, the number of broken marriages was also rising - 160,000
divorces a year, with an average of 420 children experiencing their parents’ divorce
every day.
Extensive re-evaluation and re-organisation identified that the needs and
expectations of clients had shifted significantly from the early days and on
Valentine’s Day 1988, the Marriage Guidance Council re-launched as Relate in
recognition of a commitment to reach a wider, more culturally diverse audience. The
need to offer impartial, non-judgemental support to all couples in addition to the
traditional married relationship was recognised. Along with the patronage of the late
Diana, Princess of Wales during the early 1990’s, this fundamental shift in () culture
raised Relate’s profile substantially, prompting a specially commissioned report
Relate: promoting equality and diversity, published in 2002, which has become very
much the focus for the future.
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A pioneering trainer of relationship counsellors, Relate expanded its academic
programme in 2006 when it founded the Relate Institute in partnership with
Doncaster College. This training academy now offers a range of professional training
courses, each with a pathway to accreditation and the numbers of students are
growing year on year. This partnership with Doncaster College, together with the
relocation of Relate Central Office from Herbert Gray College in Rugby to Premier
House in Doncaster, cemented South Yorkshire as the national home of relationship
and family support.
As the organisation celebrated 75 years of promoting strong relationships, Relate
had evolved into a modern, thriving organisation providing innovative responses to
the needs of the communities it served.
Homelessness prevention for young people, support for separating couples, group
workshops for new parents and counselling in schools via webcam, are just some of
the pioneering services available at the network of Relate Centres. The highly skilled
work-force enables clients to feel better about their relationships; which has an
impact on their ability to work or go to school, to maintain a stable home life and to
get involved in their community. In housing, health, employment and emotional
wellbeing, people who use Relate services see positive outcomes - Relate makes a
difference at the heart of society.
More information is on the national Relate website at www.relate.org.uk
Relate Cambridge
We began offering services in 1945. We cover the whole of Cambridgeshire
excluding Peterborough, and Fenland.
Our main office is at 3, Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge CB2 8BB and counselling is
also offered in our “outposts” –
 Girton
 Huntingdon
 Cambourne
 Ely
 Addenbrookes
 Eaton Socon
 St Ives
 Swavesey
 Melbourn
 Sawston
The Education and Learning service is a growing service offering training courses for
schools, colleges, support staff, individuals and businesses.
The Board of Trustees is responsible for strategic decisions and meets 6 times a
year.
Organisational Structure
Relate Cambridge is an independent local charity and a not-for-profit organisation.
We have a membership agreement with the Relate Federation and abide by the
policies and ethos of the national Relate Federation.
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The Relate Federation (called ‘Relate National’) employs a Chief Executive and
various other staff who offer guidance and support in the fields of Finance, Practice,
Marketing, PR, Public Policy etc and are based in Relate Central Office in London
and Doncaster. There are around 58 Relate Centres throughout the United Kingdom.
Each Centre has a Board of Trustees who have financial and legal responsibility for
the Charity and the development of our Centre.
The Centre Director leads the delivery of the strategy of Relate Cambridge,
manages the budget, seeks contracts with partners, manages the day to day running
of the Centre, acts as the Company Secretary, is principle adviser to the Chair and
Board of Trustees and is line manager for the admin team, counsellors, supervisors,
and Service Coordinators.
The supervisors are responsible for the monitoring and quality assurance of the
counselling services and for the well-being of the counsellors.
Reception staff and administrators work on Reception making appointments and
handling client enquiries and administration duties in the Office.
The team is completed by our volunteers who help us in many ways, with evening
reception work, administration, marketing and fundraising.
Services
We deliver the five Relate core services
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Relationship Counselling
Family Counselling
Psychosexual Therapy
Children and Young People’s Counselling
Education and Learning
Relationship Counselling:
This service is delivered face-to-face or by telephone to individuals or couples. The
focus is always the adult couple relationship.
Family Counselling
Counselling for any family groups with issues around divorce, separation, parenting
responsibilities, stepfamilies, extended families etc to help clients cope with everyday
life and improve family relationships.
Psychosexual Therapy (PST)
Couples and individuals with a sexual dysfunction can attend PST and look at
making changes in their sexual relationship through a behavioural approach.
Therapy starts with an assessment, followed by individual history taking sessions
and a round table session to look at what therapy the counsellor suggests, before
starting the therapy proper.
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Children and Young People’s Counselling
A service for those aged between 5 and 19 to talk to someone who will listen and not
take sides.
Education and Training
Courses are available to voluntary, private and statutory organisations as well as
members of the public run by Relate trained trainers.
We also deliver services in local schools, to Children and young people. We work in
Littlehey prison offering counselling to the prisoners.
Counsellor Training
Relate counsellors are selected, trained and supervised to Relate National
Federation standards. Relate training follows a systemic and psychodynamic
approach. The Relate Institute, based in Doncaster, offers training and CPD courses.
Funding
Relate Cambridge is an independent charity that receives its funds from various
sources. Clients receiving services are asked for a donation towards them which will
help to cover the costs of the service from the charity. The amount of donation
requested is based upon a client’s income and the full cost of delivering the service.
Donations may be gift aided which increases the value of donations. A small amount
is received in grants each year which helps to subsidise the cost and enable our
services to be accessible to a wide range of people. Relate Cambridge also has a
small number of contracts to deliver specific services to certain establishments, such
as a local authority or a prison.
Relate Cambridge made a surplus in funding for the last financial year 2014/5
Please see our website www.relatecambridge.org.uk for further information
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