A report set out the broad principles that should guide family policy, focusing on lone parents. Policy needed to avoid 'one size fits all' approaches that worked for only one type of family, and language that stigmatized or stereotyped particular family types.
Source: Single Parents, Equal Families: Family policy for the next decade, Gingerbread
Links: Report | Gingerbread press release
Date: 2009-Dec
A think-tank report said that the government had 'consistently undermined' the institution of marriage and the importance of two-parent families. Married two-parent families produced the best outcomes for both adults and children: but the government had actively sought to disincentivize marriage and disadvantage married couples, including through the tax system.
Source: Why Is the Government Anti-Marriage? Family policy derived from strong evidence would lead to policies which supported marriage, Centre for Social Justice
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Dec
The government published a report on the progress made in implementing the Children's Plan, two years after its launch.
Source: Children's Plan: Two Years On – A progress report, Department for Children, Schools and Families
Links: Report | Hansard | DCSF press release | PSLA press release
Date: 2009-Dec
A new book examined the tensions between rights-based and welfare-based approaches in family law. Rights-based discourses might come to dominate family law, at least in respect of the way that social policy and legislation responded to calls for equality of rights between mothers and fathers: but rights could not be given centre-stage without thinking through the ramifications for gendered power relations, and for the welfare of children.
Source: Julie Wallbank, Shazia Choudhry and Jonathan Herring (eds.), Rights, Gender and Family Law, Routledge (01264 343071)
Links: Summary
Date: 2009-Nov
The government began consultation on new rules aimed at ensuring that wherever possible births were registered by both parents. It said that it wanted to promote parental responsibility from the very beginning by requiring both parents to register.
Source: The Registration of Births (Parents Not Married And Not Acting Together) Regulations 2010, Department for Children, Schools and Families (0845 602 2260)
Links: Consultation document | DCSF press release
Date: 2009-Nov
A report by a committee of the National Assembly for Wales called for greater transparency over budget setting on issues that affected children and young people.
Source: Children's Budgeting in Wales, Children and Young People Committee/National Assembly for Wales (029 2082 5111)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Oct
A report said that the United Kingdom had the poorest record in Europe for almost every preventable social problem, due to a failure to invest in preventive services. Investing in early intervention and universal services for children and families could save the economy £486 billion over a 20-year period, as well as improving child well-being, by reducing problems such as crime, mental illness, family breakdown, and drug abuse.
Source: Jody Aked, Nicola Steuer, Eilis Lawlor and Stephen Spratt, Backing the Future: Why investing in children is good for us all, Action for Children (020 7704 7000) and New Economics Foundation
Links: Report | Action for Children press release | Drug Education Forum press release | Community Care report
Date: 2009-Sep
A new book examined children's lives at both national and international levels, with a focus on the interplay between theory and practice. Contributors looked at issues such as young people and the law, children's rights, child protection, sexuality, participation, politics, and family life.
Source: Heather Montgomery and Mary Kellett (eds.), Children and Young People's Worlds: Developing frameworks for integrated practice, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2009-Jul
The government published a strategy designed to help Britain prepare for an ageing society. It said that a review of the default retirement age would be brought forward from 2011 to 2010. More needed to be done to respond to changing families as a result of the ageing society – with grandparents playing a stronger role, and more people caring for elderly relatives.
Source: Building A Society For All Ages, Cm 7655, Department for Work and Pensions, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Strategy | Hansard | DWP press release | TUC press release | CBI press release | CIPD press release | REC press release | NIACE press release | Community Care report | Personnel Today report | Guardian report | People Management report | Professional Pensions report
Date: 2009-Jul
A new book examined the politics of children's communication – how children communicated and engaged, how they organized themselves and their lives, and how they dealt with conflict in their relationships and the world around them. It considered how adults could interact with children and young people in ways that were sensitive to children's feelings, and empowering and supportive of their attempts to be autonomous.
Source: Nigel Thomas (ed.), Children, Politics and Communication: Participation at the margins, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2009-May
An article examined the development of the opposition Conservative party's 'broken society' narrative. It considered relevant social trends over the period since 1970; summarized the Conservative party's attitude to family policy in government between 1979 and 1997; and showed how the Conservatives in opposition from 1997 onwards had became more focused on support for the marriage-based family.
Source: Jill Kirby, 'From broken families to the broken society', Political Quarterly, Volume 80 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Apr
A report examined the evidence on the influence of financial incentives in benefits and tax credit systems on union formation and dissolution, and on childbearing. Although some studies had found significant impacts, these effects tended to be small and were countered by studies finding no relationship or the opposite effect.
Source: Bruce Stafford and Simon Roberts, The Impact of Financial Incentives in Welfare Systems on Family Structure, Research Report 569, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Date: 2009-Apr
A think-tank report examined public attitudes towards government action to support family life. 50 per cent of people thought that anybody with a child should get some government help towards the cost of raising it: but 40 per cent believed that only low-income parents should get government help.
Source: Sarah Jenkins, Isabella Pereira and Natalie Evans, Families in Britain: The impact of changing family structures and what the public think, Policy Exchange (020 7340 2650) and Ipsos MORI
Links: Report | Policy Exchange press release
Date: 2009-Apr
A collection of essays explored the nature and limits of individual autonomy in law, policy, and the work of regulatory agencies. It considered the nature and scope of the regulation of 'private' lives – from intimacies, personal relationships, and domestic lives to reproduction.
Source: Shelley Day Sclater, Fatemeh Ebtehaj, Emily Jackson and Martin Richards (eds.), Regulating Autonomy: Sex, reproduction and family, Hart Publishing (01865 517530)
Links: Summary
Date: 2009-Mar
A report examined the tax paid in 2007-08 by one-earner married couples with two children on an average wage, and compared this with the tax comparable families paid in other developed countries. The families concerned paid on average 44 per cent more tax than in other countries: by contrast, the tax burden on other family types was broadly comparable with that elsewhere.
Source: Don Draper and Leonard Beighton, The Taxation of Families 2007/08: A review examining how the UK compares internationally, Christian Action, Research and Education (020 7233 0455)
Links: CARE press release | Church Times report
Date: 2009-Feb
A new book (based on the 'Good Childhood' inquiry) examined the main stresses and influences to which children were exposed – family, friends, youth culture, values, and schooling – and made recommendations for improving the upbringing of children. Children's lives were more difficult than in the past, despite better education, health, and more possessions. Excessive individualism in society was to blame for many of the problems children faced.
Source: Richard Layard and Judy Dunn, A Good Childhood: Searching for values in a competitive age, Penguin Allen Lane (Fax: 0870 850 1115)
Links: Summary | Childrens Society press release | LSE press release | Fatherhood Institute press release | BBC report | Telegraph report | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2)
Date: 2009-Feb
A report for the equal rights watchdog outlined the ethnic composition of families using the Labour Force Survey household data. It explored whether adults from different ethnic groups were living with someone from the same ethnic group, with someone from a different ethnic group, or on their own. It also looked at the experience of children living with parents of the same or different ethnic groups (relative to each other and to the child). In the light of the growth in the number of those defining themselves as having mixed or multiple ethnicities, the prevalence of adults and children of mixed ethnicity was also summarized. There was a new and growing diversity among young people that made the concepts of 'black' and 'white' increasingly hard to define.
Source: Lucinda Platt, Ethnicity and Family: Relationships within and between ethnic groups – An analysis using the Labour Force Survey, Equality and Human Rights Commission (web publication only)
Links: Report | EHRC press release | Observer report | Telegraph report
Date: 2009-Jan
Two reports were published from a longitudinal study following a national sample of Scotland's children from infancy through to their teens. The first examined issues relating to food and activity: it was found that children in the lowest income group and those living in deprived areas were much less likely to eat four or more types of fruit and vegetables per day, and more likely to eat sugary snacks and drinks, than were children from affluent backgrounds. The second examined non-resident parenthood: it was found that step-families' household incomes, though higher than those of lone-parent families, were lower on average than couple families consisting of both natural parents.
Source: Louise Marryat, Valeria Skafida and Catriona Webster, Growing Up In Scotland: Sweep 3 Food and Activity Report, Scottish Government (web publication only) | Louise Marryat, Susan Reid and Fran Wasoff, Growing Up In Scotland: Sweep 3 Non-resident Parent Report, Scottish Government
Links: Report (1) | Report (2) | SG press release
Date: 2009-Jan
A report said that being a parent seemed to have an effect on people's attitudes and values, no matter how long ago their children had been born. Among older age groups, parents tended to have more 'modern' views than non-parents of the same age – they were less likely to think that family life suffered when the woman had a full-time job. Among younger age groups, parents tend to have more 'traditional' views than non-parents of the same age – they were less likely to think that a mother should work full-time after the youngest child started school.
Source: Geoff Dench, 'Exploring parents' views', in Alison Park, John Curtice, Katarina Thomson, Miranda Phillips and Elizabeth Clery (eds.), British Social Attitudes: The 25th Report, SAGE Publications Ltd (020 7324 8500)
Links: Summary | NatCen press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2009-Jan