The charity Relate has been awarded a grant of £575 by Rickmansworth county councillor Barbara Lamb.

The grant has been allocated to the Dacorum, Watford and Three Rivers branch of the charity from her locality budget.

The funding will go towards the cost of providing a half day Child Protection Training Course for Relate counsellors, staff and volunteers in the local area.

Relate provides a range of services including counselling, relationship education, sex therapy, psychosexual therapy and training to support both family and couple relationships.

It also works with people affected by domestic violence.

Councillor Lamb said: "Family and relationship breakdown can happen for all sorts of reasons, and, sadly, domestic violence can be an issue in a significant proportion of those cases, which makes it doubly important that the safety and welfare of children is brought to the fore in these situations."

She added: "I am very pleased to be able to offer my support for the training needed for the fantastic and very important work they do."

Locality budgets, launched in July 2009, give a total of £10,000 to each member of Hertfordshire County Council to spend on worthy social, economic or environmental causes in Hertfordshire.

For information on how to apply for funding visit www.hertsdirect.org and search locality budgets.