News

Recognising the significance of the Childhood and Families Task Force

The Relationships Foundation, the Cambridge-based independent think tank, has written to David Cameron and Nick Clegg suggesting a broad remit for the new Childhood and Families Task Force.(1) This needs to go beyond identifying a small number of initial policies. It needs to set in train an approach to policy for the duration of the coalition government and maintain a focus on families rather than just children.

Executive Director Michael Trend commented: “The Childhood and Families Task Force represents a great opportunity. The coalition must not make the mistake of the last government by concentrating on children at the expense of families. They must also be clear that this is a big, long-term agenda, which will impact on every area of government. Only by getting the family right can they hope to increase wellbeing, improve social mobility and reduce the fiscal deficit.”

In his June 17th speech on supporting families, Nick Clegg said that the purpose of the Task Force is “to identify and prioritise a small number of specific policy proposals that will make the biggest difference to children and families: the everyday bottlenecks that frustrate family life” and to “explore new thinking on how we can empower families in a meaningful way” (2).

Strengthening families and improving the lives of children is a long-term task, addressing long-term trends. We therefore welcome the Task Force and the potential to ensure that government policy as a whole does enable stronger family relationships and more positive experiences of childhood. We believe that it will need to consider four areas.

1. Clarity of outcomes – While the new government has rightly reduced the number of targets in many areas, there is a need for clarity as to what will constitute progress. The taskforce should focus on those overarching outcomes that cannot be delivered by single departments, and which require policy in several areas to work together in positively reinforcing ways. This will include:

• Broader measures of national progress that include wellbeing.
• A broader measure of child poverty that includes factors affecting life chances such as the home environment.
• Defining and measuring what it would mean to become a more family friendly country.

2. The policymaking process – The Task Force should ensure that policy in all areas contributes positively to the goal of strengthening families and improving children’s lives. The Task force should consider how all policy can be ‘family proofed’ to ensure it positively influences families.

3. Empowering Families – The Task Force should focus on the factors that influence the motivation to form and conduct particular kinds of relationship, the opportunities to do so, and the support that people may require.(3) Key factors to consider for each of these include finance, time, place, social norms, the operation of public services and the availability of the right institutional mechanisms.

4. Specific Measures – Alongside the specific measures that the government has already raised for consideration we also highlight a few indicatives suggestions we have put into the public debate in the recent past. These include:

• Funding for relationships education – to prevent problems arising rather than trying to fix them afterwards.
• Enabling family co-location, for example by relaxing planning laws in favour of granny flats and multi-generational living.
• Supporting a Family Day Bill which would give parents of school aged children the right to have shared day off at weekends.

ENDS
For more information please contact: Peter Lynas:
p.lynas@relationshipsfoundation.org Tel 01223 341286 Mobile 07899 898066


NOTES TO EDITORS: 

1. The Briefing Note sent to David Cameron and Nick Clegg today, ‘Childhood and Families Taskforce – Developing the Agenda’, is available here: http://tiny.cc/Famtaskforce

2. Speech by Nick Clegg 17 June 2010 http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/newsroom/news_releases/2010/100617-children.aspx

3. For our analysis of ‘motivation, opportunity and support’ see When Relationships go Right: http://tiny.cc/GoRight