Welcome to the Relationships Foundation newsletter January 2011
Welcome to our first monthly update for 2011. The mission of Relationships Foundation remains to help bring about a more humane and sustainable society by putting a concern for relationships at the heart of public and private life. This year we intend to add to our ongoing work by establishing a newModern Family Policy Project. This clearly branded policy unit will build on our work on how policy can promote wellbeing and our advocacy of a broadly defined family policy at the heart of the government’s agenda. The unit will be based around close and active engagement with organisations and individuals concerned with the family. The overriding objective will be to create a more supportive environment for families – an environment that relieves the pressures on families. We will introduce our new programme manager in next month’s update.
The Family Policy Project will include a number of specific projects, including:
Family Friendly Index
This will reflect our previously published description of the ‘penumbra’ of policies that influence, and are influenced by, families. We are proposing to create an index of pressures on the family which will be updated annually, and will provide the framework for ongoing press and policy comment on policy announcements that may increase or alleviate pressures on the family. This will hold government to account as well as promoting greater awareness of ways in which family can be supported, and may be undermined.
The Cost of Family Breakdown Index
The Foundation has provided an assessment of the cost of family breakdown – now some £40bn – for the past two years. The Modern Family Policy Unit will review the methodology for this assessment and continue to provide an annual update.
The contribution of families to policy outcomes
This flagship report will summarise the extent to which outcomes in health, education, welfare, justice as well as broader policy goals of wellbeing and social mobility depend on the family. It will engage professions and delivery organisations in each of these areas to build a broader constituency support for the family.
Intergenerational relationships and the maturation of young people
Building on a current project that outlines a model of maturation that looks beyond early years to include emerging adults, this element of our work will look at the nature of local responsibility for ensuring that young people successfully transition to adulthood, and how this process can better be supported. Our particular emphasis will be on the continuing significance of the family relationships of teenagers in this process.
Relationships education
Our 2009 report on the case for couple relationship education was an important part of the lobbying process that has resulted in a commitment to fund relationships education in the coalition programme for government. Much pre-marriage education provision remains fragmented and we will continue to support providers of such education in building the infrastructure, improving the quality of delivery, and continuing to promote the benefits of this investment in supporting more stable couple relationships.