An article described the patterns of research activity in child and family health and well-being in 2002-03, in relation to government policies. A limited amount of research activity was addressing government policy priorities: this suggested the need to commission further research to fill gaps in the evidence.
Source: Summer Hawkins and Catherine Law, 'Patterns of research activity related to government policy: a UK web based survey', Archives of Disease in Childhood, Volume 90 Number 11
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Nov
A Commission report considered the relationship between the state and the family in providing children with a humane and caring upbringing. It examined the extent to which the state should intervene in the care and upbringing of children, and what kind of reciprocal responsibility, if any, it had to support families; the extent to which parents should be held responsible for the actions of their children; and whether the role of the state in supporting and intervening in families should be formalized. It called for a less punitive and more supportive approach.
Source: Commission on Families and the Wellbeing of Children, Families and the State: Two-way support and responsibilities, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary | NFPI press release | NSPCC press release
Date: 2005-Nov
An article examined the existence of parallel systems of values in families - where grandparents condemned divorce, yet acted to support their adult children when they faced relationship breakdown.
Source: Carol Smart, 'Textures of family life: further thoughts on change and commitment , Journal of Social Policy, Volume 34 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Oct
Researchers found strong evidence of bonds between teenagers and their grandparents. Grandparents acted as sources of family history, heritage and traditions. They also kept a wider circle of relatives in touch.
Source: Malcolm Hill and Nicola Ross, Grandparents and Teen Grandchildren: Exploring intergenerational relationships, Economic and Social Research Council (01793 413000)
Links: ESRC press release
Date: 2005-Oct
A new book proposed a conceptual framework for understanding families and other relationships. Using the notion of 'boundaries', it said that the key to understanding family life was the process of relationship formation.
Source: Linda McKie and Sarah Cunningham-Burley (eds.), Families in Society: Boundaries and relationships, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Sep
A report set out the results of questions on family matters in the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey 2004. This part of the survey canvassed public views and knowledge on a range of family-related issues including marriage, co-habitation and parenting.
Source: Fran Wasoff and Claudia Martin, Scottish Social Attitudes Survey 2004 Family Module Report, Scottish Executive, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2005-Aug
A report was published of a survey (conducted in 2004 by the Catholic Church) which asked families to talk about what life was like for them. It covered issues such as balancing family, work and home; and changing family structures.
Source: Listening 2004: My Family My Church, Catholic Church in England & Wales (020 7901 4875)
Links: Report
Date: 2005-Jul
A committee of MSPs published a report on the Family Law (Scotland) Bill, designed to update family law to provide legal protection and safeguards for children and adults in the light of modern family structures. It called for relationship support services (for all types of family relationship) to be delivered through a ?one stop shop? approach.
Source: Report on Family Law (Scotland) Bill, 8th Report, 2005 (Session 2), SP Paper 401, Scottish Parliament Justice 1 Committee, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283)
Links: Report
Date: 2005-Jul
A book chapter examined New Labour's family policy.
Source: Fiona Williams, 'New Labour's family policy', Social Policy Review 17: Analysis and debate in social policy, 2005, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Table of contents
Date: 2005-Jun
A new book considered the relationship between family law and family values in the way law was framed, and in the way it was being developed for new kinds of relationships - such as cross-household parenting, same-sex partner relationships, and the obligations of adults to elders.
Source: Mavis Maclean (ed.), Family Law and Family Values, Hart Publishing (01865 245533)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Jun
A study reviewed government policy on children and the family in the context of international human rights commitments. Although international conventions required the government to recognise the rights and needs of children and parents, the needs of different family members were not identical and often competed. This was reflected in inconsistencies between different areas of existing family policy.
Source: Clem Henricson and Andrew Bainham, The Child and Family Policy Divide: Tensions, convergence and rights, York Publishing Services for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from York Publishing Services Ltd (01904 430033)
Links: Report (pdf) | JRF Findings 0255 | JRF press release | Guardian report
Date: 2005-May
A working paper said that the increasing diversity of family structures raised a number of issues around the technical fact of who was a sister or brother. Rising rates of divorce and separation, re-partnering and step-families, meant that children might have full siblings, half siblings and step-siblings. This diversity was rarely picked up when official statistics were collected on children and families.
Source: Rosalind Edwards, Lucy Hadfield, Helen Lucey and Melanie Mauthner, Who is a Sister and a Brother? Biological and social ties, Working Paper 13, Families & Social Capital ESRC Research Group/South Bank University (020 7815 5750)
Links: Working paper (pdf) | ESRC press release
Date: 2005-May
Researchers examined what children felt to be important about their relationships with siblings, through children s own accounts of everyday life.
Source: Rosalind Edwards, Lucy Hadfield and Melanie Mauthner, Children's Understanding of Their Sibling Relationships, National Children s Bureau (020 7843 6029) for Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Links: JRF Findings 0245
Date: 2005-May
A briefing note examined public spending increases since 1997 aimed at helping families with formal childcare, early education and the work-life balance. It then outlined the key proposals in each of the three main parties' manifestos in this area of policy.
Source: Mike Brewer, Claire Crawford and Lorraine Dearden, Helping Families: Childcare, early education and work life balance, Election Briefing Note 7, Institute for Fiscal Studies (web publication only)
Links: Briefing Note (pdf)
Date: 2005-Apr
An article explored government commitments to include children in social policy decision-making. It said that the participation of children was made difficult by the way representative governments operated in a liberal democracy: but it suggested some ways forward.
Source: Tom Cockburn, 'Children's participation in social policy: inclusion, chimera or authenticity?', Social Policy and Society, Volume 4 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Apr
The Court of Appeal ruled that a lesbian who had been helping to bring up two girls before she split up with their biological mother had a right to share parental responsibility for them.
Source: The Guardian, 5 April 2005
Links: Guardian report
Date: 2005-Apr
The Labour Party published a manifesto for children. It promised a higher standard of school meals, and greater protection against internet pornography and junk food advertising.
Source: Children: Forward not Back, Labour Party (08705 900200)
Links: Manifesto (pdf) | Text of speech | Labour Party press release | CPAG press release | Barnardo's press release | NSPCC press release | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Mar
A new book provided an introduction to the key concepts, issues, policies and practices affecting child welfare, with particular emphasis on the changing nature of the relationship between child welfare and social policy.
Source: Harry Hendrick (ed.), Child Welfare and Social Policy: An essential reader, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Mar
A new book explored ways in which children could be involved as partners in the decision-making processes that affected them - in social work, education, healthcare and politics.
Source: Jan Mason and Toby Fattore (eds.), Children Taken Seriously: In theory, policy and practice, Jessica Kingsley Publishers (020 7833 2307)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Mar
A new book charted social and economic changes and their impact on the family; considered the prevalence and nature of abuse within families; and developed a theory of social change and families.
Source: Linda McKie, Families, Violence and Social Change, Open University Press (01280 823388)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Mar
An article examined the assumptions underlying policy on family support and inclusion, and the notion that socially excluded parents were isolated from the information and assistance that enabled effective parenting. Despite a rhetoric of empowerment and investment, the emphasis on support represented a top-down projection of values and standards on to families, thereby supporting conformity rather than promoting access to parenting resources.
Source: Val Gillies, 'Meeting parents needs? Discourses of support and inclusion in family policy', Critical Social Policy, Volume 25 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Feb
The Scottish Executive published a Bill designed to provide a legal framework to ensure that adults had a clear understanding of their responsibilities and rights in relation to children. Its provisions included establishing parental responsibilities and rights for unmarried fathers who jointly registered the child's birth; reducing separation periods for divorce from five years to two; and legal safeguards for cohabiting couples.
Source: Family Law (Scotland) Bill, Scottish Executive, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283)
Links: Text of Bill (pdf) | Explanatory notes (pdf) | SE press release | CHILDREN 1ST press release
Date: 2005-Feb
An article examined the interplay between the institution of marriage and ideas of obligation within personal relationships. Based on an empirical study of the way people in married and unmarried relationships understood the nature of their personal obligations, it concluded that the moral bases which underpinned people's personal relationships was complex and did not correspond in a simple way with formal, external social categories.
Source: John Eekelaar and Mavis Maclean, 'Marriage and the moral bases of personal relationships', Journal of Law and Society, Volume 31 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Jan
An article examined the problem of childhood in social policy through an examination of the conflicting messages emerging out of family policy and anti-social behaviour policies. Policies relating to children could learn from children's private experience of responsibility in the home, and from the complex and rich ways in which children understood the moral and relational components of responsibility.
Source: Elizabeth Such and Robert Walker, 'Young citizens or policy objects? Children in the "rights and responsibilities" debate', Journal of Social Policy, Volume 34 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Jan
An article drew on material from five advocacy projects for children and young people to examine how advocacy was constructed by those involved in the provision and receipt of services. It argued that there was a danger that the construction of advocacy in an adult, 'proceduralized', way was likely to compromise its potential to challenge the structures that denied young people opportunities to participate in decision-making about their lives.
Source: Jane Dalrymple, 'Constructions of child and youth advocacy: Emerging issues in advocacy practice', Children & Society, Volume 19 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Jan