Making families matter

Families matter, and what the Government does matters to families

Nine steps to make Britain Family Friendly

  1. A national overarching family policy to ensure that families are at the centre of policy development on health, education, childcare, work, the law, tax and benefits, housing, transport, community safety, neighbourhood renewal, culture and media. A policy that welcomes diversity, and supports the full range of family relationships, including families often excluded from support services:

    • Black and minority ethnic families
    • Refugee families
    • Families with disabled parents or children
    • Fathers
    • Grandparents and extended kinships.

  2. A universal, co-ordinated network of family support services, including support for parents of teenagers, so parents have a place to go for help when they need it, and high quality services for parents who are struggling and for vulnerable children.

  3. A family justice system that offers support for parents and children during family relationship difficulties and separation whilst continuing to put children at the centre of every decision.

  4. A continuing commitment to support parents' work-life balance, enabling parents to give their children the time and care they need.

  5. A childcare strategy that provides parents with real choices and high quality affordable childcare.

  6. An ongoing commitment to the fight against child and family poverty.

  7. A legislative framework which encourages businesses, the public and the voluntary sector to make their services family-friendly, and protects the interests of parents and children.

  8. A community regeneration strategy built on the recognition that local neighbourhoods are fundamental to the health and well-being of families.

  9. A commitment to consulting parents about issues which affect their children and families so that they can feel confident that their views reach into local and national government.

1: A National family policy

Most people say that their family is the most important part of their lives. And everyone has a stake in getting the very best for our children. More children and young people (one in ten) suffer mental health problems than previously, contrary to trends in other countries, and more parents say they want support in dealing with the pressures on children.
The State has a duty to create the environment that makes family life flourish so families can enjoy their relationships, care for each other and give their children the time, love and care that they need. But policies develop piecemeal and have contradictory impacts on families and relationships.

  • The Government should develop an overarching family policy to draw together policy threads into a coherent approach
  • All policies across government departments should be 'family proofed'
  • Local and national government should establish cabinet level sub-committees to scrutinise policies, assess their impact on families and family life, weigh up the costs and benefits of new policies, avoid policy contradictions, and prevent random initiatives.
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2: Family support services

Information and practical help, available, if parents want it, at key periods in a child's life, can help build parents' confidence and prevent difficulties in later years. The Government has a key role to play in making sure that there are services for all parents and extra help for those with special needs

  • The first twelve months are a specially anxious and exhausting time for parents and can strain couples' relationships. The early years are vital to children's development. The UK's health visiting and midwifery service is the envy of many countries; it needs to be revitalised with a wider parent and family relationship support role

  • Information for parents on child development, relationships, health, education and finances should be provided through the first 12 months and afterwards at key transition points, like going to school, starting secondary school and for the teenage years, based on Family and Parenting Institute's Parent Information Point Toolkit

  • Children's development checks
    Parents commonly worry about their children's development, often wondering just exactly what is normal for children at different ages and stages. There should be a system of periodic child development and health checks, building on those in the early years, as children grow up, so all children and their parents can have the opportunity to review and discuss their child's health and development with a trained professional

  • Support for nutrition
    The vital importance of nutrition to children's life chances and wellbeing is finally being recognised. School meals should be transformed and children should be provided with milk and appropriate supplements; junk food advertising aimed at children should be banned; support for good nutrition in the home should be provided

  • Family relationships and parenting support
    Most families go through tough times and many get through with the help of their own family and friends. But sometimes, in periods of crisis such as separation and divorce, outside help is needed
    • Parenting and family support should be routinely provided in the extended schools and GP surgeries
    • Adult services that deal with domestic violence, substance misuse, mental health problems, family conflict and breakdown should be required to have a child focus.
    • Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services need to be extended, resourced and waiting lists abolished
    • Relationship support services should be co-ordinated and organised into a directly accessible system of front-line services (through schools and clinics) with high quality back-up providing remedial help for more complex family problems
    • Informal and peer, parent-to-parent networks should be encouraged as the bedrock of family support.

  • Supporting families at risk
    Some families face huge and intractable problems that can make life very difficult for themselves and for others in their communities. Policies designed to coerce parents and children into pro-social behaviour must be balanced by intensive and targeted support through greater availability of:
    • Intensive Family Intervention and Child Protection Programmes.
    • Family Group Conferencing to help families in decision making
    • Therapeutic help for vulnerable children and young people
    • Improved Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

  • Services for everyone
    Many parents still feel left out or find there are too few support services for them. Surveys have shown that some groups are less well-catered for, for example, parents of teenagers, young parents, black and ethnic minority parents, fathers, refugee parents, traveller parents and those with struggling and troubled families
    • Models of good practice should be rolled out across the UK
    • All children and families should be included in mainstream services regardless of their immigration status or whether they are part of the settled community
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3: Keeping going through difficult times

Parents' own relationship is fundamentally important to their children's happiness. When parents split up, their children still desperately need both parents in their lives, unless a parent is a risk to their ex-partner's or their child's safety or development. Around one in four children experience separation or divorce in their childhood and each year up around 150,000 parent couples separate. Most (90 per cent) come to agreements about children's care without court involvement. Of the 10 per cent that go to court, a third have issues of family violence and some parents resist court decisions. Proposed reforms for separating families will only succeed if the back-up services are there. We need a family law system and family relationship services that:

  • Put the child at the heart of decision making and involve children and young people appropriately in mediation and decision-making
  • Give sound information and greater access to relationship support services before relationships break down – and more dispute resolution, mediation and family counselling when they do
  • Support fathers, mothers and children to optimise contact with both parents, and, where there are child protection issues, ensure safety and that therapeutic help is available to children and parents
  • Offer support for children and young people when their parents are facing the stress of separation.
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4: Supporting parents' work-life balance

People need both to earn a living and to care for each other. Only the affluent can maintain a good standard of living on one wage. Women, especially, are suffering from role-strain, particularly in the early years of children's lives. There has been real progress over the last five years in helping mothers and fathers balance their work and family commitments, but the Family and Parenting Institute believes that there is still further to go. Only government can take the lead here:

  • All parents, regardless of income, should have a choice to stay at home with their child in the first year. We urge all parties to extend paid maternity leave to one year by 2007. Too many mothers are still forced to return to work earlier than they would wish
  • Statutory Paternity Pay should be earnings-related to allow more men to take advantage of it
  • Parental leave should be paid and the right to take it extended to all parents with dependent children
  • The Family and Parenting Institute strongly welcomes the consultation on extending the right to ask for flexible working and urges all parties to make a commitment to introduce flexible working for all parents with dependent children and those who have caring responsibilities
  • Action needs to be taken to ensure that parents who do not wish to work weekends or unsocial hours are not compelled to do so.
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5: Childcare for all

The Family and Parenting Institute welcomes recent investment in childcare and the growing commitment to childcare across political parties. Families cannot easily manage to have a decent standard of living and save for the future without both parents earning, so we need to make sure that children are safe and well looked after in high quality childcare while parents work. Childcare provision is still patchy and expensive for many parents. The Family and Parenting Institute would like to see:

  • Implementation of the commitment to roll out Children's Centres, ensuring that they become a bedrock of local communities by involving parents and families in the development of services
  • The childcare gaps across the country tackled in areas where parents still face a lack of affordable childcare and childcare costs monitored and reviewed to ensure affordability.
  • Parents able to make informed choices about the childcare that best suits their child
  • A further review of the role of informal carers, including grandparents and extended kinships
  • Children's Trusts ensuring that local childcare services work with other frontline services to improve outcomes for children
  • A separate national childcare strategy for disabled children to supplement the ten year strategy, including free childcare for all disabled parents.
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6: Combating child and family poverty

Children and families who are poor suffer more from ill health and mental health problems, stressed relationships and disadvantage. Poverty and disadvantage make it much harder for people to be the parents they want to be because of depression and stress.

Progress has been made in lifting families out of poverty. But up to 3.6 million children still live in poverty. Two million children go without adequate clothing, meals, toys and out-of-school activities; two million children live in households where there is no adult in paid work; over half of lone parents live in poverty and nearly half of poor children live in a lone-parent family. Child and family poverty affects hard working families too – half of children living in poverty in the UK today have parents in work. The fight against child and family poverty needs to be renewed, increased and sustained. Family and Parenting Institute supports the aims of the Child Poverty Action Group and End Child Poverty "Ten for a Million" Charter.

  • Increased tax credits thresholds for families and for childcare. Rates for existing tax credits and benefits need to be linked to average incomes
  • No child should be poor in the UK, regardless of their immigration status
  • The National Minimum Wage should provide a living wage through annual increases
  • An increase in Child Benefit that pays equal rates for all children and Child Benefit for pregnant women
  • Reform the Social Fund to include more grants for essential items and at times of key transitions, and introduce school uniform grants and school activity funds
  • Reform school funding, targeting resources to compensate for inequalities in children's home lives, with an emphasis on better support for parents
  • Increase financial support for young people in higher education and their families
  • Include credits for caring duties as well as employment in pensions for women.
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7: Making the UK family friendly

Families cannot go it alone in keeping their children safe, secure and healthy in a world dominated by new technologies, enormous commercial pressure, irresponsible marketing and media, and bigotry and discrimination. The Government can directly support or hinder making life better for Britain's families, through policy, law, funding and leadership.

Government has an important role to play in promoting tolerance, welcoming diversity and outlawing discrimination, and in encouraging business and the private sector to become more family friendly. Setting the tone with positive endorsements of the family friendly concept will influence business – ensuring that Government buildings and services operate a family friendly policy will help to lead the way.

Government should:

  • Ensure children and young people are protected from commercial exploitation through risk-based systems of regulation for the media, marketing and technology, based on the most up-to-date knowledge on impacts on children
  • Provide information on keeping children safe while they use the internet, mobile phones and new technology
  • Encourage transport, retailers, sports, arts and leisure facilities, restaurants and services to have facilities that enable families to access and enjoy them
  • Work to ensure that schools and streets are safe from bullying and harassment.
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8: Investing in local neighbourhoods and housing

Investment in neighbourhood regeneration can make a real difference to the lives of families, particularly in poor areas. Over one million children live in bad housing with serious negative impacts on their health and wellbeing. Funding for schemes such as Sure Start must remain secure, but more needs to be done:

  • Housing quality should be improved; landlords should be more effectively regulated; more new homes should be provided within communities; new housing developments should be required to use family friendly design which would ensure space for growing children and family visits
  • Neighbourhood renewal programmes should consult parents and young people about what needs to be done in their communities
  • Parents are crying out for more after-school clubs and activities for children and young people. Local authorities should maintain and expand places for children to play, provide teenagers with places to meet and develop teams of park rangers in parks and open spaces to foster confidence and use
  • Schools that welcome parents and make themselves the centre of local communities bring communities together and do better for children. The extended schools initiative should be rolled out and resourced
  • Policy on traffic in residential areas should reflect the needs of local communities; home zones and lower speed limits should be encouraged.
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9: Listening to parents

Parents who use services have ideas and knowledge about what they need from services. No business would last long without doing market research. Public services need to have a clear user-focus:

  • Parents' views should be sought at all levels of local and national government both to inform policy and to push service reform
  • Parents should be able to influence not just family policy but the wide range of policy areas – housing, transport, the environment, local government – of vital importance to families
  • Black, minority ethnic and minority faith families should be involved in the planning and development of family policy and family services to make services more responsive to their needs.

March 2005
©Family and Parenting Institute Registered charity no. 1077444

Last updated: 25th February 2008 at 11:02:04