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The Relationships Foundation Newsletter July 2010
Welcome to the Relationships Foundation newsletter July 2010
Relationships Foundation weighs up the new Childhood and Families Task Force
The Government recently announced a new ministerial Task Force on Childhood and Families. The Relationships Foundation responded in two ways.
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1. The Relationships Foundation welcomed, in a press release, the announcement of the Task Force composed of senior ministers and chaired by the Prime Minister. RF has repeatedly said there needs to be “top-level leadership on the family and family policy should have a central role in government.”(1) We have also recently written to senior ministers highlighting the need for a joined up approach to families so we were pleased the government responded by setting up this Task Force. (2) |
Executive Director Michael Trend commented, “We welcome the new Task Force and look forward to working with it. It should set the architecture for the long-term approach of the coalition government to families and avoid becoming a short-lived initiative. We hope it will be able to look at the penumbra of issues where the strength and effectiveness of family relationships both influence and are influenced by a wide range of policy areas. These include education, health and social care, housing, employment, criminal justice, finance and debt, and tax and welfare payments. These areas cannot be dealt with in isolation, without considering the impact on families.(3) The issue is not whether policy should seek to influence family relationships, but whether that inevitable influence is intentional and to what end. ‘Family Proofing’ all policies – ensuring that they support rather than undermine family relationships – is an essential element of progressive politics. The Task Force should move ahead in this way.” (4)
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2. The Relationships Foundation wrote to David Cameron and Nick Clegg suggesting a broad remit for the new Childhood and Families Task Force.(5) 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. RF believes that the Task Force will need to consider four areas:
- consideration of how all policy can be ‘family proofed’ to ensure it positively influences families;
- clarity of outcomes, to include broader measures of nationalprogress that include wellbeing;
- development of a 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;
- bringing in specific measures like more relationships education – to prevent problems arising rather than trying to fix them when it’s too late – and support for a Family Day Bill which would give parents of school aged children the right to have shared day off at weekends.
We shall keep a very close eye on how the Task Force develops. We believe that it should develop a long-term view and a broad remit. In particular we want to ensure that it doesn’t become a token organisation the main purpose of which is to resolve disagreements between the coalition partners about marriage tax policy, as some are beginning to suggest. Clearly, such disagreement needs to be resolved but it should not detract from the fact that the long-term sustained cumulative impact of government policy as a whole will matter much more for families than any one individual policy.
The Big Lunch – Sunday, 18th July
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It’s a one-day get together with your neighbours on Sunday 18th July 2010. It can be anything from a simple lunch to a full-blown street party with DJs and a home cooked feast.
Click here to find out more: www.thebiglunch.com |
Free
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