Family policy has become a pawn in coalition politics

19-Dec-2011

In today’s speech on the nature of an Open Society, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg included a widely-trailed swipe at marriage tax allowances, using cheap debating points not worthy of a sixth former.

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Coherent Family Policy Needed

30-Nov-2011

Commenting on the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement Michael Trend said: “With a £42 billion annual cost to the taxpayer for family breakdown – double the cost of alcohol abuse, quadruple the cost of tobacco abuse, it is time the Government had a real family ...

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Housing: Why won’t Government talk about families?

21-Nov-2011

As Grant Shapps launches the housing strategy, Relationships Foundation asks why the Government is so coy about families. “If the Government talked less about markets and more about families, they might not be having such a rough ride with their planning...

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The Relationships Foundation is calling on the government to set out The Family Deal.  It should formally spell out  what it needs and expects from families if goals are to be achieved. It must also set out a clear strategy for supporting families.

The family deal should be at the heart of the understanding of rights and responsibilities between the government and the general public. It needs to be clearly stated and easily understood. It needs to be written into in departmental plans. But it must also be more than just a political pledge and needs ultimately to be an expression of social consensus.


But first and foremost it requires political leadership – to set out and gain acceptance for a new family deal.


The Relationships Foundation has been making the case for a clear over-arching family policy for a number of years. We begin our days in families, and they care for us in old age. Our families touch every aspect of our development as human beings, and of our lives at work, at home, and in society: as such they offer the greatest potential for social change, for wealth, and wellbeing. Sideline family policy and you court systemic failure.

Follow Sam Barker, Head of Family Policy, on Twitter  . . .

               

 

 
Transforming Capitalism from Within
A Relational approach to the purpose, performance and assessment of companies. “It is now time for a system which allows no reward without responsibility; no investment without involvement; no profit without participation.”
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The Relationships Foundation Family Pressure Gauge
UK families are among the most pressured. "Sideline family policy and you court systemic failure."
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