Family is set to be a major theme of the election campaign. Despite the continual flow of family policy announcements, the parties’ thinking on the family is too small. Arguments about recognising marriage in the tax system risk missing the big picture – families affect everyone and they affect every part of life. That is why the Relationships Foundation, a Cambridge-based think tank, is calling for political parties to commit to ‘family proofing’ all policy. argues that all policy should create an environment that promotes and sustains strong family relationships rather than undermining them.
The issue is not whether policy should seek to influence family relationships, but whether that inevitable influence is intentional and to what end. In our latest report we argue that ‘family proofing’ all policies – ensuring that they support rather than undermine family relationships – is an essential element of progressive politics and the demand to reduce the deficit. We argue that there is a wide penumbra of policies that both impact on the family and are influenced by the family.
Family policy is too often a narrow collection of explicit policies designed to achieve specific goals regarding families. ‘Family proofing’ acknowledges the important role family considerations play in a broad range of policy issues and therefore analyses the consequences of any policy, regardless of whether it is explicitly aimed at families, for its impact on family relationships and wellbeing.
The report notes,
“Ultimately, the long-term aim of family proofing is to inculcate a relationally-literate approach to policy-making to stand alongside an economically- and an environmentally-literate approach. A relationally-literate approach essentially means understanding the importance of relationships and how they are best influenced. When embedded in the culture of institutions and the intuitive awareness of policy-makers over time, a family perspective in policy-making sits in the latent consciousness of the entire policy-making machinery and becomes a natural consideration in any policy debate – even without necessarily requiring formal procedures.”
Executive Director Michael Trend said,
“A commitment to ‘family proofing’ policy is important in signalling a serious commitment to family relationships and ensuring that public policy strengthens those relationships that are essential for wellbeing. In the next few weeks we are launching a further report setting out the a detailed framework for how this is done. Only when family relationships are strengthened and family wellbeing secured can families be agents of progress. And only when we have progressive families can we have a progressive Britain.”