The Prime Minister David Cameron today set out what he called “one of the biggest changes in our national culture for decades” namely changing from a society “that ignores the power of strong relationships, to one that values them” and “from one that undermines families, to one that strengthens them.” This is important because “no one who wants to tackle some of our deepest social problems – and the massive economic costs they bring – has a hope unless they understand the importance of family.” (1)
The importance attached to the family strengthens the Relationships Foundation’s call for the Government to set out a strategy for the family with clear cabinet level leadership and a commitment to ensure that policy in all areas builds a more supportive environment for families – what we have called ‘Family Proofing’. (2)
Relationships Foundation Executive Director Michael Trend commented, “Only when responsibility for the family is strongly rooted at the working heart of government and family-proofing of policy becomes the norm can we begin to make progress towards becoming the most family-friendly country in Europe.”
“When the coalition government was formed we proposed to the Cabinet Office the core elements of a strategy for doing this. (3) We are delighted that many of these have been taken up.”
In our strategy for the family we called for:
• Family proofing of all policy. The promise that all departments will take a “long hard look at how government action can affect families and relationships” is a welcome step forward. We have set out a framework (4) for doing this and hope that the government will become increasingly relationally literate as well as economically literate.
• New overall measures of national progress that include social, as well as economic and environmental indicators. The new national measure of wellbeing is a good start and should provide clear evidence of the contribution of family relationships to our overall sense of progress.
• Recognition of relational poverty as well as material poverty in life chances. This is acknowledged in Frank Field’s review of poverty and life chances. (5) It is now important that where other specific policy goals are being reviewed these include assessments of the extent to which family relationships are either intrinsic elements of those goals, or important means to achieving them.
• A review of how government can influence the quality of family relationships. We welcome Frank Field’s proposal that the ‘nudge unit’ is tasked to examine “how parenting and nurturing skills can be promoted throughout society.” We recommended that the government should review more systematically how key factors such as time (6), finance (7) and place are affecting families and welcome the acknowledgement of these pressures in the Prime Minister’s speech.
• Address the motivation, opportunity and support for relationships. (8) The two specific areas where we called for intervention – couple relationship education (9) and increased support for the families of vulnerable early years children – are being addressed. (10)
As well as the need to clarify responsibility for the family within the Cabinet, there is one further issue that has not yet been addressed. The Prime Minister noted the importance of families for education, health, employment, welfare and community safety. We recommend that the Government tracks the capacity of family relationships to support desired policy outcomes more systematically, using this data to inform projections about future service demand pressures and outcomes. The future of social care, for example, will be significantly influenced by the family circumstances of older people and the willingness and capacity of family members (as well as friends and local community) to contribute to their care. Social norms about care responsibilities, as well as the opportunity and capacity to exercise them, are as important as tracking demographic changes. The Chancellor will set out a financial budget. Real progress needs a social budget as well. (11)
ENDS
1. PM Speech on families and relationships 10 December 2010 http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/speeches-and-transcripts/2010/12/speech-on-families-and-relationships-58035
2. RelationshipsFoundation Press Release 07 December 2010 ‘It’s now time for a proper family strategy’https://relationshipsfoundation.org/we-need-a-social-budget/
3. Relationships Foundation Press Release 20 May 2010 ‘Family as the bedrock of the Big Society: a strategy for the Cabinet Office’ https://relationshipsfoundation.org/Web/News/News.aspx?News=101
4. ‘Towards a Conceptual Framework for Family Proofing Policy.’ Relationships Foundation, 2010. Available athttps://relationshipsfoundation.org/Web/OnlineStore/Product.aspx?ID=102
5. Relationships Foundation Press Release 03 December 2010 ‘Response to the report of the Independent Review on Poverty and Life Chances by Frank Field https://relationshipsfoundation.org/Web/News/News.aspx?News=99
6. ‘Time: Concepts and Trends – How Attitudes, Personal Choices, Cultural Norms and Public Policies Impact on Relationships and Wellbeing.’ Relationships Foundation, 2010. Available athttps://relationshipsfoundation.org/Web/OnlineStore/Product.aspx?ID=113
7. Finance, relationships and wellbeing https://relationshipsfoundation.org/the-state-of-the-nation/wellbeing/
8. ‘When Relationships Go Right: Enabling thriving lives.’ Relationships Foundation, 2009. Available athttps://relationshipsfoundation.org/when-relationships-go-right-enabling-thriving-lives/
9. Relationships Foundation Press Release 08 February 2010 ‘Built to Last – The case for Couple Relationship Education’https://relationshipsfoundation.org/Web/News/News.aspx?News=32
10. Relationships Foundation Press Release 20 May 2010 ‘Family as the bedrock of the Big Society: a strategy for the Cabinet Office’ https://relationshipsfoundation.org/Web/News/News.aspx?News=101
11. Relationships Foundation Press Release 25 March 2010 ‘When will we have a social budget?’https://relationshipsfoundation.org/Web/News/News.aspx?News=75