The Childhood and Families Taskforce was announced by Nick Clegg in June 2010, and was due to report around the end of 2010. It was in part a response to organisations looking for detail on the government pledge to make the UK the most family friendly country in Europe.
It is now nearly Spring, and the taskforce has made no public statements. In the only question answered by the Prime Minister during the Parliamentary Recess, he reveals that he will say neither when it has met, which Ministers have attended, whether any specialists have attended, nor when he expects it to report.
He also suggests this is because it is a Cabinet Committee, but it does not appear on the cabinet office’s list of official cabinet committees.
When is was launched, the media reported that the taskforce would be chaired by David Cameron, and be attended by Nick Clegg, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, children’s minister Sarah Teather, science and universities minister David Willetts, public health minister Anne Milton and economic secretary to the Treasury Justine Greening.
However, the taskforce only appears on the ‘Departmental Structural Reform Plans’ of two departments: the Department for Education, and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The SRP reveals BIS has completed its work into extending parental leave. The DfE is ‘working closely alongside the Ministerial Taskforce’ as it sets out “how we will ensure all children have the fairest start in life”.
Michael Trend, the Executive Director of the Relationships Foundation said:
“When we and others asked the coalition government shortly after the election to put family at the heart of policy – they told us this taskforce would do that. They have now delayed for months the question of how Britain will become the most family friendly country in Europe.”
“Family stability has a huge impact on children, parents and on wider social issues. Until the coalition realises that getting family life right delivers the biggest reform in almost every area of public life, it cannot hope to achieve its goals. This should be a national debate, not a secretive discussion behind closed doors.”
“A cross-government approach is needed, but only two departments are involved. Leadership is needed, but no-one knows who is in charge of family policy. This is a Macavity committee. When will the Government put flesh on the bones of their promises for family and children?”
Gavin Shuker MP, who tabled the question, said:
“The Government are in danger of giving false hope to family and children’s organisations up and down the country. This taskforce was announced with great fanfare. But coming up for three months after it was supposed to report, we still hear nothing.”
“Stable families are in all our interests – that is why Ed Miliband has launched the ‘Family Life: what helps’ policy group. If the taskforce does not promote a national debate, it is little more than a talking shop for the Tories and the Lib Dems to argue about their differences.
“What has the Prime Minister got to hide?”
Notes to Editors
• During a speech to Barnados in June 2010, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg revealed that David Cameron would be chairing a Childhood and Families Taskforce. Nick Clegg said the ‘work will be completed over the autumn, and the proposals will be developed in the context of the upcoming Spending Review’. The Guardian reported that it would ‘report its conclusions around the end of the year’
www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jun/17/nick-clegg-family-task-force
http://www.libdems.org.uk/latest_news_detail.aspx?title=Nick_Clegg’s_speech_on_supporting_families_and_children&pPK=6d739b75-08a1-4262-9309-39b0fc8fc45c
http://www.cypnow.co.uk/news/1010700/Childhood-taskforce-review-wide-range-childrens-policies/
• The PQ reponse was to a question tabled by Gavin Shuker MP:
o Gavin Shuker: To ask the Prime Minister (1) on which dates the Childhood and Families Taskforce has met; which Ministers were in attendance on each such occasion; and who else attended; [41866] (2) if he will place in the Library a copy of the terms of reference of the Childhood and Families Taskforce; [41867] (3) when he expects the Childhood and Families Taskforce to report; [41868] (4) whether the Childhood and Families Taskforce will be taking (a) oral and (b) written evidence in the course of its work. [41869]
The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Hemsworth (Jon Trickett) on 8 November 2010, Official Report, column 24W.
28 Feb 2011 : Column 17W
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm110228/text/110228w0001.htm#11022824000682
o Jon Trickett’s PQ is:
Jon Trickett: To ask the Prime Minister on how many occasions the Childhood and Family Task Force has met to date; and who attended each such meeting. [22371]
The Prime Minister: The Childhood and Families Task Force was created in June 2010. The role of this group is to identify and prioritise a small number of specific policy proposals that will make the biggest difference to children and families. It is longstanding Government practice not to disclose information relating to ministerial meetings, including the proceedings of Cabinet and Cabinet committees, as to do so would put at risk the public interest in the full and frank discussion of policy by Ministers.
8 Nov 2010 : Column 24W
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm101108/text/101108w0001.htm#10110825000048
• The list of Cabinet Office Committees is here
www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/cabinet-committees-system-and-list-cabinet-committees
• A search through Departmental Structural Reform plans shows that only two departments are apparently involved: BIS is doing “work with the Prime Minister’s Childhood and Families Taskforce to develop proposals for a new system of shared parental leave” www.number10.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/SRP-BIS.pdf, which, according to their monthly update, completed in October 2010 www.number10.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/October-BIS-Monthly-Update-FINAL-No10.pdf. The DfE structural plan says ‘In the coming months we will also set out how we will ensure all children have the fairest start in life, working closely alongside the Ministerial Taskforce on Childhood and Families’ www.number10.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/dfe-srps.pdf
• The Centre for Social Justice, in its report on family breakdown, found that:
o ‘The ongoing rise in family breakdown affecting young children has been driven by the dissolution of cohabiting partnerships. The majority of these are less stable than marriage (European data shows that by a child’s fifth birthday less than 1 in 12 (8%) married parents have split up compared to almost 1 in 2 (43%) cohabiting parents).
o ‘The intergenerational transmission of family breakdown and its associated disadvantages is seen in the way children who have been neglected or un-nurtured are highly likely to go on to create dysfunctional families subject to further breakdown. Similarly there is an overrepresentation in teen pregnancy statistics of girls from fatherless and broken homes.
o ‘Crime is strongly correlated with family breakdown – 70% of young offenders are from lone parent families and one third of prisoners were in local authority care (yet only 0.6% of the nation’s children are in care at any one time).
• Polling for the Centre for Social Justice’s Breakdown Britain (2006) found that if you are not brought up in a two-parent family you are:
o 75% more likely to fail at school
o 70% more likely to be a drug addict
o 50% more likely to have an alcohol problem
o 40% more likely to have serious debt problems
o 35% more likely to experience unemployment/welfare dependency