Foreword

By The Right Honourable Jack Straw MP

Family life is the foundation on which our communities, our society and our country are built. Families are central to this Government's vision of a modern and decent country. They are as important now as they have ever been.

But families are also under considerable stress. As ever it is a hard job to be a parent. More marriages end in divorce. More children are brought up in lone parent families. Government could not turn the clock back even if it wanted to do so. There never was a golden age of the family. Family life has continually changed - and changed for good reasons as well as bad.

But what families - all families - have a right to expect from government is support. This includes a modern National Health Service equipped to meet their needs; local schools to provide good education for their children; safe streets, strong communities; and a welfare system which offers security for those who can't work, and helps those who can into work.

We are striving to deliver this. But families rightly expect more. They do not want to be lectured or hectored, least of all by politicians. But they do want clear advice to be available when they need it on everything from their children's health to their own role as parents. They also want financial support which recognises the extra costs of bringing up children.

This is the first time any government has published a consultation paper on the family. I believe it is long overdue. The Ministerial Group on the Family, which I chair, has been working over the course of this year on a programme of sensible and pragmatic measures which will strengthen the family.

This paper does not set out to cover every possible issue with a bearing on family life. Issues such as enhancing the role and status of carers, long term care of the elderly, adoption, and children in care are being dealt with separately.

Nor is it government interfering in family life. It is not about pressuring people into one type of relationship or forcing them to stay together. Instead, it is about the practical support the Government can provide to help parents do the best they can for their children.
 

The Rt Hon Jack Straw MP

Home Secretary and Chairman of the Ministerial Group on the Family.

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Introduction

2. There is now a widespread recognition that anew approach supporting to the family is needed. Families are under stress. The divorce rate has risen sharply. There are more children being brought up in single parent households, and there is more child poverty, often as a direct consequence of family breakdown. Rising crime and drug abuse are indirect symptoms of problems in the family.

3. Saying that families are a good thing is not enough. Good intentions need to be carried through in practice.

4. But governments have to be wary about intervening in areas of private life and intimate emotion. We in Government need to approach family policy with a strong dose of humility. We must not preach and we must not give the impression that members of the Government are any better than the rest of the population in meeting the challenge of family life. They are not.

5. We also need to acknowledge just how much families have changed. Family structure has become more complicated, with many more children living with step-parents or in single parent households. They may face extra difficulties and we have designed practical support with these parents in mind. Women increasingly want to work and have careers as well as being mothers. Many fathers want more involvement with their children's upbringing.

6. A modern family policy needs to recognise these new realities. It also needs to be founded on clear principles.

7. First, the interests of children must be paramount. The Government's interest in family policy is primarily an interest in ensuring that the next generation gets the best possible start in life.

8. Second, children need stability and security. Many lone parents and unmarried couples raise their children every bit as successfully as married parents. But marriage is still the surest foundation for raising children and remains the choice of the majority of people in Britain. We want to strengthen the institution of marriage to help more marriages to succeed.

9. Third, wherever possible, government should offer support to all parents so that they can better support children, rather than trying to substitute for parents. There needs to be a clear understanding of the rights and responsibilities which fall to families and to government. Parents raise children, and that is how things should remain. More direct intervention should only occur in extreme circumstances, for example in cases of domestic violence or where the welfare of children is at stake.

Supporting families

11. This positive, supporting role is needed now more than ever. And just as the strains on families have increased over the years, so the support provided to help families needs to change too. Neither a 'back to basics' fundamentalism, trying to turn back the clock, nor an 'anything goes' liberalism which denies the fact that how families behave affects us all, is credible any more.

12. Instead, our approach concentrates on five areas where government can make a difference:

• ensuring that all parents have access to the advice and support they need, improving services and strengthening the ways in which the wider family and communities support and nurture family life
• improving family prosperity, reducing child poverty, and ensuring that the tax and benefit system properly acknowledges the costs of bringing up children
• making it easier for parents to spend more time with their children by helping families to balance work and home
• strengthening marriage and reducing the risks of family breakdown
• tackling the more serious problems of family life, including domestic violence and school-age pregnancy.

14. When these proposals have implications for local authorities, appropriate resources will be made available before any new responsibilities are introduced.

15. We make no apology for the fact that this consultation paper is primarily concerned with practical steps that can be taken to support families. In the past, family policy has often suffered from an excess of rhetoric and a lack of practical action.

16. It has also suffered from the misguided view that there are large levers that governments can pull to affect how families behave. The truth is that families are, and will always be, mainly shaped by private choices well beyond the influence of government. That is how it should be. But that is no excuse for government not to do what it can.

17. This consultation paper marks the beginning of a debate. It sets out a major programme of action, some of which is already being implemented, and some of which we are consulting on. We would welcome your views.

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Chapter 1

Better Services and Support for Parents

1.2 All parents need support with their children's health, education and welfare, and many also want advice and guidance on how to bring up their children. However, parents do not want lectures from the state, or to be nagged or nannied. Except in exceptional circumstances, where the well-being of family members is at stake, it must be the decision of the parents when to ask for help or advice. Our priority is to provide better support for parents so that parents can provide better support for their children.

1.3 Currently, the provision of support to parents does not match their needs. Two problems stand out. There is a gap in support in the vital early years between birth and school and there is insufficient information for parents on the more general parenting support available.

1.4 The Government plans to tackle these problems head-on through four new initiatives:

• a new National Family and Parenting Institute, to provide helpful guidance and develop more and better parenting support
• a new national parenting helpline to be developed by ParentLine to offer advice to parents and refer people to local sources of help
• a new enhanced role for health visitors, embracing the whole well-being of parents and children as well as their physical health
• Sure Start, a new £540 million initiative to help children in their early years grow up with the skills they need to make the most of school.

• help parents help their children learn through family literacy and mentoring schemes
• introduce education for parenthood in the school curriculum
• help grandparents and older people offer more support to families
• improve the rules for adoption.

A new National Family and Parenting Institute

Support for parents

1.8 Parenting support takes a variety of forms, including groups, one-to-one support from professionals (such as health visitors, child psychologists or psychiatrists) or from volunteers, and telephone helplines. In groups, parents often learn as much from each other as from the professionals, and bringing people together helps to strengthen local neighbourhoods. For example:

• Parent Network runs courses for parents covering relationship skills - listening, negotiating, setting boundaries and assertiveness. An independent evaluation of Parent Network courses in 1996 found that after completing the course: 93 per cent of parents felt more confident; 72 per cent observed a significant improvement in their children's behaviour; and 95 per cent felt that they had gained new skills.
• Family Service Units work with parents in Britain's most deprived areas to identify their own needs and to develop a programme of practical and therapeutic activities to enable people to improve their parenting skills. Advice and help with benefits, literacy and school liaison is also provided.

1.10 Parenting support is relevant to all parents, regardless of their circumstances. We want to change the culture so that seeking advice and help when it is needed is seen not as failure but the action of concerned and responsible parents. We also want to ensure that parents have a say in identifying what they require and that there is a choice of help available so that individual parents can choose what best suits their needs.
 

The case for an Institute

1.12 The voluntary sector and professional bodies agree that the Government should encourage a stronger national focus on family and parenting issues by establishing a new national body.

Establishing the Institute

1.14 The Institute will be a centre of expertise, it will build on what already exists and will not duplicate the work of established family support organisations. It will not take over or replace existing programmes. The Institute will be a free-standing embracing a wide range of opinion and supported by but independent of government. It will help to change the culture so that parents can feel able to ask for support when they need it. Work has now begun to set up the Institute and to appoint trustees.

What will the National Family and Parenting Institute do?

• provide authoritative advice to government and others on issues relating to family policy, parenting, adult relationships and the needs of children in a way which reflects the needs of our culturally diverse society
• map and disseminate information and good practice: for example, on parenting and relationship support
• help develop parenting support programmes and activities
• influence the agenda for research on family and parenting issues and analyse and disseminate research findings
• raise public awareness of the importance of parenting and the needs of children and promote parenting issues in the media
• work closely with a new national telephone helpline provided by Parent Line offering information and support to parents (see paragraphs 1.20-1.25 below).

Disseminating information helpful to parents

1.18 The new National Family and Parenting Institute might also work with organisations such as Bounty to disseminate information on parenting. Bounty currently provides free samples and some health related information to all parents of new born infants, and has been used, for example, by the Department of Social Security to give out information on benefits. Bounty has access to 95 per cent of all new parents.

1.19 The Institute could also work with family magazines, and other publications such as supermarkets' in-house magazines, to reach parents with the basic information they want.

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A national helpline for parents

• be available to all through one national freephone number, available seven days a week 365 days a year and open 8am to 10pm,the hours when parents are most likely to call
• provide the first point of contact and support for parents wishing to talk through any issue
• act as the gateway to more specialised services
• develop a robust database of national and local specialist services capable of responding to the very wide range of concerns that parents have, from the point of pregnancy through to parenting adult offspring
• encourage recognition that parenting is an important and complex task, seeking to change the culture so that asking for help and support at an early preventative stage is seen as a sign of responsible parenting.

1.22 ParentLine is well-established, well-regarded by other organisations working with families, and has a broad customer base. The helpline will be staffed by trained volunteers who are parents themselves. They will be available to listen to the concerns which parents raise, offer them advice and information and help them to identify solutions.

1.23 We expect the new National Family and Parenting Institute to build a fruitful relationship with ParentLine. The helpline would draw on guidance produced by the Institute, and provide the Institute with a better picture of the problems parents face and the help they need, while guaranteeing callers' anonymity.

1.24 ParentLine has developed close links with other organisations and has recently absorbed the National Stepfamily Association's helpline. The National Stepfamily Association will help ParentLine with policy development and promotional materials.

1.25 The Government expects the national parenting helpline to co-operate closely with other helplines such as ChildLine, the planned National Childcare Helpline, the National Drugs Helpline, and NHS Direct, the new 24-hour advice service staffed by trained nurses, which will be available nationally from next year.

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An enhanced role for health Visitors

1.27 Health visitors are fully qualified nurses who take additional training, covering child development, public health, psychology, sociology, health promotion and teaching. They are highly respected and their support is much valued by parents and by government alike. They are ideally placed for advising families on all kinds of problems: no one feels they are a bad parent or their family has failed because they take the advice of a health visitor. That is why the Government is attracted to the idea of building on the excellent service already provided by health visitors, by formally extending the focus of their work beyond 'health' in a narrow sense to supporting families more generally.

1.28 There are currently just over 10,000 health visitors in England. It is for health authorities to decide how best to meet the health needs of their local populations, so the number of health visitors, the resources allocated to health visitors and the types of activities they undertake reflect local health priorities and vary from area to area. Health visiting activity also varies considerably. Currently, health visitors are asked to record the number of 'contacts' they make with people who need their services, but this does not reflect the nature or intensity of the contact. It may also mean that health visitors are put under pressure to see as many people as possible, rather than focusing on maximising the improvement in a child's health or behaviour.

Expanding the role of health visitors

1.30 We recognise that health visitors already have a substantial work load and would not be able to take on a new role in supporting parents in addition to their existing duties. We have already announced an Innovation Fund of £1 million to explore new ways of working, new partnerships an expanded role for health visitors. And we will consider allocating further resources for the recruitment and training of new health visitors. Health visitors would, of course, remain part of the NHS.

1.31 The enhanced health visitor service would focus on the critical stages of a child' s early development, when help and support is most needed, including:

• Antenatal classes These classes are run by health visitors or mid-wives and are already available to all parents. Parents are taught about the pregnancy, the labour, and how to bathe, feed, clothe and bond with their new baby. The courses usually consist of six to eight meetings.
• Weekly visits All first-time parents might be offered a weekly visit by the health visitor or midwife from the baby's birth until it is six weeks old. At present midwives often visit daily for the first ten days, after which the health visitor makes just one further visit. A series of visits would enable the midwife or health visitor to spot any problems with the early parent/baby relationship or the child's growth or health, which could then be referred to the general practitioner, and also help parents whose own relationship is under strain because of changes following the birth of their child.
• Infant welfare clinics These clinics are usually used for health checks, but it would be fairly straightforward for health visitors to extend their role to include assisting parents in coping with their children's development and involving fathers wherever possible to support the early development of parenting skills.
• Advice on weaning Early problems in the relationship between parents and children often centre around feeding. Group work could focus on the nutritional aspects of weaning and how to manage problems as they arise.
• 'Sleep clinics' Parents often express concern about the sleep patterns of their children, and some would find it helpful to receive help and hints on the techniques they could use to introduce a regular sleep pattern and avoid disrupted nights.

• Toddler training groups Parents might be given the opportunity to attend a course (of perhaps six weekly sessions) in which they would be encouraged to meet other parents with toddlers and to develop ways to cope with behaviour problems.
• Early relationships groups Early relationships groups might deal with sibling rivalries, use of the extended family, speech development and communication, and developing basic social skills. To maximise their effectiveness, the groups would need to meet for perhaps 20 hours, spread over a number of weeks.
• Advice surgeries Health visitors might be available regularly for advice and support in the early years at family centres.

• 'School-settling groups' Help at this stage might include discussion about control and discipline when the parent is separate from the child for a large part of the day while the child is at school or with childcare, and developing co-operation with teachers on the standards of behaviour which can be expected. It could also cover prevention of abuse, avoidance of accidents, childhood infections, etc, and could be run jointly by health visitors, school nurses, education staff or GPs.
• Teenage years groups During this challenging period of a child's development, parents might have access to groups which help them to deal appropriately with their children's behaviour. Groups could for example help parents to develop techniques in managing conflict, negotiation, and discipline. Such groups can be an effective way of addressing parents' concerns about drug and alcohol misuse.

Information about parenting skills provided by health visitors

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Targeting areas of greatest need: the Sure Start programme

1.37 The early years of a child's life are critical to their future success and happiness. We are determined to invest in better opportunities for our youngest children and to support parents in preparing them to succeed at school and in life.

The need for co-ordinated support

1.39 Over time, not only do children and families gain from high-quality early support, but society as a whole benefits through reductions in a range of social problems including truancy, drug abuse, crime, unemployment, and through improved achievement at school and later in the labour market. Early years services should be better co-ordinated and integrated to address complex individual needs; involve parents (including fathers) and address the needs of the family as a whole; last long enough to make a difference; become more appropriate to a multi-cultural country; and avoid discouraging those who need help from coming forward.

Sure Start

How Sure Start will work

1.42 Sure Start will support parents as much as children. This may include:

• training for work
• help with literacy or numeracy
• help and advice on discipline or other parenting problems (such as help for new fathers and mothers to adjust to their new role)
• more specific support for the families of children with learning difficulties and emotional and behavioural problems.

1.44 Sure Start demonstrates the Government's commitment to the long-term. Some benefits -measured in terms of children's physical, social and intellectual development - will be seen quickly. But the real benefit to society will take longer to feed through. By investing in Sure Start now, we will be able to continue reaping the benefits of improved social adjustment and reduced anti-social behaviour in twenty years time, through better success in employment, better health and reduced crime.

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Other initiatives to support Families

• developing ways to help parents to help children to learn, particularly tackling poor literacy which can be passed from generation to generation
• encouraging mentoring for children, particularly to provide the right role models for boys with absent fathers
• making clear the responsibilities of parents to help ensure their children attend school and behave properly
• better education for future parents, notably by enhancing parenting education in schools, so that young people realise the responsibility of parenthood and are properly prepared for it; we are also planning improvements to the adoption system
• recognising the role of the wider family, and particularly grandparents, and also the contribution that older people can make to individual families and to the community as a whole.

Helping parents to help their children learn

1.47 Children who attend school regularly and complete their education are more likely to find permanent employment or progress to further and higher education. They are also less likely to become involved in crime or drugs, become homeless, or become teenage mothers. Where children are registered at school, parents should be responsible for ensuring that they attend regularly and understand the importance of punctuality. Where a pupil is attending irregularly, parents should support schools and education welfare officers in their efforts to resolve the problem.

New materials for parents to help them improve children's learning

• what their child is hoping to learn and achieve through a particular topic
• how books, videos, CD-roms and other learning aids might be of help to their child
• how local museums, galleries, libraries and other centres could help their child's understanding of the topic.

Family literacy

1.50 The majority of courses are aimed at children age three to six years and their parents. The remaining courses are aimed at children in years four and seven (aged eight and 11) and those from linguistic minority groups. Next year, we will fund courses for thousands of parents and children in England and Wales to improve children's early learning, supporting links between family and school and encouraging parents to re-enter education, training and work.

Mentoring programmes

1.52 Big Brothers & Sisters, a mentoring scheme in Canada, helped raise the proportion of children from lone-parent families graduating from high school from 42 per cent to 82 per cent against an average for all families of 62 per cent. Big Brothers & Sisters of the UK will be launched later in 1998.

1.53 Businesses often provide mentors; and people from the community, students and grandparents can also be effective mentors. The National Mentoring Network includes some 200 school schemes in its membership. Overall, it is thought that there are up to 160,000 mentors supporting young people and we are increasing this number.

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Support for future parents

Developing parenthood education

1.56 Our White Paper Excellence in schools proposed that all secondary schools should teach their pupils about the responsibilities of parenthood. Responses to the consultation have confirmed support from schools and parents for these proposals. Many schools give education about parenthood, although provision is far from universal. We undertook not to change the National Curriculum until the year 2000 to give teachers some essential stability after a long period of change. But we will place greater emphasis in the curriculum on the responsibilities of parenthood at the first opportunity.

Changes to adoption guidelines

1.58 The Government has recently acted to help local authority Social Services Departments and voluntary adoption societies improve the quality of the service they provide. We have issued new guidelines which will ensure that people who have the potential to bring up children are not barred from adopting because of unjustified restrictions on the grounds of race, culture or health. The Government wants to encourage awareness among local authorities and social workers that children who need stable and secure families may be best served by adoption.

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The wider family

1.60 The interests of grandparents, and the contribution that they make, can be marginalised by service providers who, quite naturally, concentrate on dealing with parents. We want to change this and encourage grandparents - and other relatives - to play a positive role in their families:

• Schools. Many schools already involve grandparents and the extended family as part of home/school links or as a source of social and cultural history. Some schools involve older volunteers in helping children with literacy and music.
• Social Services. The Children Act encourages Social Services Departments to work with the extended family when relationships within the nuclear family are under stress. Where children have to be looked after by the local authority, a relative, especially a grandparent, may provide a very effective placement.
• Health. As part of their enhanced role, health visitors would encourage the continuing involvement of the wider family.
• Housing. Guidance on the allocation of housing to be published later this year will advise local housing authorities to give due weight to the housing needs of grandparents and extended families, for example by allocating homes so that wider families, particularly those with dependent children, are wherever possible living near to each other. Such policies would also contribute to an authority's strategy to build stable communities.
• Volunteering. There are many good examples of projects that involve old people in helping families, such as a scheme in Lambeth in which volunteers act as 'grandparents' to contribute their own experience to a local family in a long-term relationship. We plan to launch a programme of action early in 1999involving Government, business and the voluntary sector to establish local pilot schemes to develop different aspects of older volunteering and to produce a good practice guide for organisations on the ways in which they might involve older volunteers. We are also part-funding the cost of a pilot project to extend a grandparent mentoring scheme to secondary schools.

Consultation Questions

Q1: The Government-funded programme of activities proposed for the National Family and Parenting Institute.

Q2: How best to disseminate information helpful to parents.

Q3: The scope of the service which is to be offered by the proposed national helpline.

Q4: Whether it would be helpful for the work of health visitors to have a broader focus on supporting parents and on the possible components for a pilot programme.

Q5: Ways of improving parental involvement in children's education, parental support for schools and schools' support for parents.

Q6: The best way to develop education on parental responsibility in schools.

Q7: The support which might be provided for grandparents including:

• the best way to involve grandparents in children's education and how best to involve older volunteers in schools
• best practice for grandparents as foster carers
• the involvement of the health visitor
• the need to consider wider family needs when allocating housing.

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Chapter 2

Better Financial Support for Families

2.2 The Government inherited a benefits system which provides less help for those families who need it most - those with young children, when there is a cost to families if a parent stays at home, or a cost in childcare if he or she works.

2.3 This is now changing. The tax and benefits systems are being reformed to ensure that families get the help they need. Already, over the last 18 months the Government has made available substantial extra help for families with children:

• the largest-ever uprating of Child Benefit
• introducing the Working Families Tax Credit and its childcare tax credit
• setting up the New Deal for Lone Parents
• planning a pilot Education Maintenance Allowance Scheme
• consulting on reform of child support and the discredited Child Support Agency.

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Child Benefit

2.6 From April 1999, Child Benefit for the eldest child will be raised by more than 20 per cent - £2.50 a week, in addition to the normal uprating for inflation. The Chancellor said in his Budget Statement that if Child Benefit were raised in future their must be a case in principle for higher tax payers paying tax on it. The Government wants to move from general support to all couples to particular support for couples with children, so the Child Benefit increase will be paid for by reducing the value of the married couple's and associated allowances. We will also provide extra help, on top of the Child Benefit increase, for poor families with young children. From November 1998, families on Income Support and Family Credit will get an additional £2.50 a week for each child under 11.

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Working Families Tax Credit

2.8 That is why the Government is introducing from October 1999 a new Working Families Tax Credit for working families with children which will replace Family Credit. A childcare tax credit within the Working Families Tax Credit will offer those in work more help with the costs of childcare, which for many parents are a barrier to work. The Working Families Tax Credit will:

• Support the family. Every family where the main wage earner works at least 16 hours and earns less than £90 a week will receive at least £77.60 each week on top of their earnings in the form of the tax credit and Child Benefit.
• Provide a guaranteed minimum income for working families earning the national minimum wage of over £190 a week.
• Reduce the net tax burden on working families by raising the point at which families begin to pay tax. Families earning below £220 a week will not pay net income tax after the Working Families Tax Credit has been introduced. This will be the highest effective starting point for income tax since the 1960s.
• Ease the poverty trap: the WFTC will cut by two-thirds - around 500,000 families - the number of people who keep less than 30 pence for every extra £1 they earn. This will increase the benefits to people in taking a job, working longer or in getting better paid jobs, and encourage partners of those receiving WFTC to become second earners.
• Cut bureaucracy. 500,000 families currently pay income tax to the Inland Revenue, while receiving Family Credit from the Department of Social Security. This pointless double transfer will end.

2.10 The Working Families Tax Credit will provide help for up to 1.5 million working families, around 400,000 more than currently benefit from Family Credit.

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Childcare tax credit within the Working Families Tax Credit

2.12 We have acted to improve greatly the help with childcare costs available to low- and middle-income working families receiving the WFTC. Any lone parent working 16 hours a week or more and paying for approved childcare will be eligible for the childcare tax credit. Couples will also be eligible where both partners are working for 16 hours or more a week. This will underpin our National Childcare Strategy by ensuring that childcare is affordable for working families.

2.13 The childcare tax credit covers up to 70 percent of the eligible costs of approved childcare up to a maximum of £70 a week for families with one child and £105 for families with two or more children. Eligible costs will include registered childcare, childcare on school premises (e.g. out of school clubs) and at certain other places exempt from registration.

2.14 The 70 per cent contribution is designed to provide substantial support, while still encouraging parents to 'shop around' to find the best value childcare. This package is more generous than under Family Credit (where the maximum support available is £42 a week rising to £70 a week for two children) and the maximum will be available to the lowest paid, unlike Family Credit.

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The New Deal for Lone Parents

2.16 We know that it is often particularly difficult for lone parents to find work. Currently in the UK only 44 per cent of lone mothers are in employment, compared to 68 per cent of mothers in couples. This compares with France where 82 per cent of lone mothers are in work and Sweden where the proportion is 70 per cent. But research carried out for DSS shows that 85 per cent of lone mothers in the UK who were not in employment said they wanted to work.

2.17 We are offering a New Deal for Lone Parents receiving Income Support which will help them to improve their families' lives, by helping them to overcome barriers to work, through advice (including on childcare), training and help with finding a job. The New Deal is primarily aimed at lone parents whose youngest child is of school age, who receive an invitation to an interview at the Job Centre, though parents of younger children are welcome to join if they wish.

2.18 The New Deal for Lone Parents has been piloted in eight areas across the country and has been available in all areas from October 1998. It will cost £190 million over the life of this Parliament, financed by the 'Windfall Tax'. The current pilots show that more than one in four participating lone parents have moved into employment. Independent researchers have been commissioned to evaluate the operation of New Deal for Lone Parents in the pilot areas since they were launched in July 1997.

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Education Maintenance Allowance

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Modernising child support Arrangements

2.21 In July 1998 the Government published plans for a radical reform of child support in the Green Paper Children First: A New Approach to Child Support. The changes proposed will benefit children, their families and the taxpayer. They will ensure that children come first for parents who live apart. The reforms are designed to be cost neutral over five years. In the longer term they should lead to savings as absent parents, rather than the tax-payer, meet more of the costs of raising their children.

2.22 We want to create a system which is simple to understand and to operate. The current formula tries to be fair by taking dozens of factors into account, but the woeful delays it creates are fair to no-one. We will replace it with a radically simpler method of assessment based only on the non-resident parent's net income and the number of children in their first and second families. Liability would be based on a simple slice of net income.

2.23 This will make it easier for parents to understand the system, will improve the accuracy and speed with which cases are processed and will encourage more non-resident fathers to contribute to their children's upbringing. It will mean less time spent assessing maintenance, and more time collecting what is owed and providing a better service for customers.

2.24 We will also introduce a child maintenance premium. The first £10 of maintenance paid will go to the child and will not be deducted from the parent's income support. This will bring real help to children in the poorest families and encourage both parents to co-operate. All children will have tangible evidence of the absent parent's continuing support.

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Chapter 3

Helping Families Balance Work and Home

3.2 It is in all our interests to reconcile better the demands of work and home. Families themselves benefit. Children gain from having more time with their parents. But employers can also benefit from having a more committed workforce, and from being better able to retain and recruit parents. Society as a whole can also benefit, since a better balance between work and family should lead to less reliance for care on the NHS and social services and fewer social problems such as truancy and marital breakdown.

3.3 This is why the Government is supporting those with family commitments who wish to work, for example through the National Childcare Strategy and the Working Families Tax Credit (described in full in Chapter Two) and the forthcoming National Carers' Strategy.

3.4 We also want to support families and businesses to create the best environment to balance work and home. This means:

• Setting a basic, fair framework of family-friendly employee rights on working hours, flexible working arrangements, parental leave, and dealing with family crises.
• Promoting family-friendly employment practices, encouraging firms to go beyond this statutory minimum and take further advantage of the benefits for staff recruitment, retention and productivity. The Government should lead by example in its own employment practice.

Family-friendly employment

3.7 For all of these people flexible family-friendly working arrangements are essential for helping them to balance their family responsibilities with paid employment. The availability of childcare, flexible working arrangements and reasonable time off to deal with family emergencies, all contribute to making it possible for everyone to share in the social and economic benefits of work.

3.8 However, access to family-friendly employment policies is patchy at the moment. It is most readily available in the public sector and some of the larger private sector companies. Other employers are concerned about the additional costs and management burdens that more family-friendly policies may entail. We would like to hear from employers about the difficulties that such policies present and we want to understand what leads some employers to adopt family-friendly working practices despite the obstacles.

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Family-friendly employee employee rights

Promoting sensible working hours

Flexible working arrangements

Parental rights package (including maternity leave)

3.14 Over the years, maternity rights have been criticised by all sides of industry for their complexity. We have stressed that existing rights should be properly integrated with these new rights, and we have undertaken to review the existing maternity rights and pay arrangements to achieve a coherent package that is easier to operate and understand. We propose to:

• extend maternity leave from 14 weeks to 18weeks to match the period over which Statutory Maternity Pay is paid, and
• reduce the qualifying period for extended maternity leave from two years to one year to match the proposed qualifying period for parental leave.

Parental leave

Time off for urgent family reasons

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Promoting family-friendly employment practice

3.18 So we want the benefits of family-friendly employment practices to be more widely understood. We also want to help businesses that do want to take advantage of the potential savings on offer, but are unsure how to do so, with improved advice.

3.19 Family-friendly employment practices can be good for everyone:

• Good for those providing care: extending choice for both mothers and fathers by giving them the chance to spend more time at home, as well as support their children financially. It also allows carers of sick, disabled or elderly relatives to combine their highly valued social role with involvement in the labour market.
• Good for children and people receiving care: people who are able to balance work and caring commitments find it easier to provide quality care within the family and, through good quality childcare, outside the home. Working parents can give their children a higher standard of living and provide role models for adult employment.
• Good for business: businesses with family-friendly employment policies can benefit, through easier and cheaper recruitment, reduced sick leave and absenteeism, and enhanced employee loyalty with improved retention rates. Those with the best policies can also gain a 'first-mover advantage' in competing to recruit and retain skilled staff.
• Good for the economy: family-friendly policies can help to boost the economy by:
• increasing the number of people, including skilled people, in the labour market, and increasing the numbers returning to education and training
• enhancing financial independence, especially in women, both immediately, as they benefit from a higher standard of living, and after retirement as a result of building up a better pension entitlement
• increasing the sustainable level of employment, and improving productivity, leading to an increase in overall living standards.
• Good for society: family-friendly employment policies may bring wider social benefits through more stable families; fewer broken relationships between parents; children who are better supported in their education; reduced delinquent behaviour and criminality among young people; and a better quality of life for sick and disabled relatives. Many firms recognise that better employment practices can strengthen families and communities and help to tackle problems such as crime that affect businesses as well as individuals.

Promotional campaign

• make better information, advice and guidance available to employers particularly smaller and medium sized companies, on family-friendly working practices.
• promote greater public recognition for employers with a good record on family-friendly employment, perhaps through an annual award or accreditation scheme
• offer advice on good practice, case studies and approaches to problem-solving.

3.23 The available information on family-friendly employment is patchy and, to an extent, unreliable. The Government has already commissioned more research on family-friendly employment policies. Further information will become available through the workplace Employee Relations Survey. We will use this to help build up a picture of the extent and types of family-friendly employment, including trends; to assess the expectations of those in work and those seeking work; and to help assess and spread good practice.

Government leading by example.

3.25 The Government will promote further progress within Government departments, Non-Departmental Public Bodies and the public services. The NHS, for example, is now pioneering new ways of offering employees much greater choice as to how they organise their working time. The public sector should look not only at its arrangements for its own employees, but also at the provision of such public services as health, education and local authority services; and pursue ways of making that provision more family-friendly from the customer's point of view. Recent initiatives such as extra support for after-school clubs and keeping the Child Support Agency offices open until 10pm are important moves in this direction, but there is still a long way to go.

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Consultation Questions

Q9: Information from employers about the ways in which they have introduced family-friendly employment policies and their views on what works.

Q10: Views from employees about the main difficulties they experience in balancing work and family life and the family-friendly practices they believe are helpful.

Q11: Views on how best to take forward an awareness and promotional campaign (such as the value and operation of a national award or accreditation scheme for employers); and an effective monitoring and evaluation strategy.

Q12: Views on how to make public services more family friendly.

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Chapter 4

Strengthening Marriage

4.2 Families do not want to be lectured about their behaviour or what kind of relationship they are in. They do not want to be nannied themselves or to be nagged about how they raise their children. But they do want support: advice on relationships; help with overcoming difficulties; support with parenting; and, should the couple's relationship breakdown irretrievably, a system of divorce which avoids aggravating conflict within the family.

4.3 This Government believes that marriage provides a strong foundation for stable relationships. This does not mean trying to make people marry, or criticising or penalising people who choose not to. We do not believe that Government should interfere in people's lives in that way. But we do share the belief of the majority of people that marriage provides the most reliable framework for raising children.

4.4 We are therefore proposing:

• measures to strengthen the institution of marriage, including an enhanced role for marriage registrars
• support for all families, including better advice on adult relationships.

Support for marriage

4.7 Governments have to be very careful in devising policies that affect our most intimate relationships. It is not for the state to decide whether people marry or stay together. There are strong and mutually supportive families and relationships outside marriage and many unmarried couples remain together throughout their children's upbringing and raise their children every bit as successfully as married parents. Our proposals, announced in July, following public consultation earlier in the year, to grant parental responsibility automatically to unmarried parents who jointly register their children's birth and to streamline the arrangements for establishing paternity will support them. Also many lone parents bring up their children successfully with little or no help from the other parent.

4.8 Nevertheless, marriage does provide a strong foundation for stability for the care of children. It also sets out rights and responsibilities for all concerned. It remains the choice of the majority of people in Britain. For all these reasons, it makes sense for the Government to do what it can to strengthen marriage.

Marriages under strain

4.10 The Government wants to encourage people to take a responsible approach to marriage and to improve the quality of the support and counselling which married people receive in times of difficulty. Government also has a role in mitigating the impact of separation and divorce on children, and in ensuring wherever possible (and where it is in the children's best interests) that their contact with both parents is maintained.

4.11 We must not overlook the fact that adults who are preoccupied by problems within their own relationships may well have difficulty in dealing with the needs of their children. Problems between parents can affect and distress children so that they may develop problems of their own. Similarly, the job of raising children - and especially the arrival of a first child - can put adult relationships to the test.

Our proposals

• Provide couples intending to marry with a clear statement of what their new status means in terms of extra rights and also extra responsibilities.
• Make 'pre-nuptial' written agreements about the distribution of money and property legally binding, for those who wish to use them.
• Improve arrangements to help people prepare for marriage. This will include a wider role for registrars to give better support to marrying couples; allowing couples more time to reflect before they marry; and requiring both partners to attend the register office to make the first arrangements before marriage.
• Enhance and modernise the service provided by registrars, who now perform the majority of marriages in Britain.
• Help to support marriages in difficulty, including strengthening the availability of marriage counselling before divorce.
• Reform information meetings before divorce to increase the chance of saving more marriages.

A statement of rights and responsibilities in marriage

4.14 We envisage that such a guide would cover the position of married people in relation to income, property, the tax and benefit systems, and rights and responsibilities towards their children. It could form part of wider advice we envisage being available for those thinking of marrying and to newly-married couples.

4.15 Couples who co-habit also take on legal rights and responsibilities, though they are often unaware of them. It might therefore be worthwhile to produce a similar guide for co-habitees, perhaps made available through Citizens Advice Bureaux, libraries etc.

Preparation for marriage

4.17 The purpose of marriage preparation is to ensure that couples planning to marry have considered, and reached an understanding on, the major issues that affect married life. Couples may consider how their finances should be organised; where they will live; whether they will have children; and what arrangements they might make, for example, for one or other parent to reduce or stop work when the children are born.

4.18 In 1997/98 the Government supported thirteen marriage support pilot projects, some of which included marriage preparation. There was a limited take-up of the marriage preparation offered, perhaps because of the limited duration of the pilots. However, those who did participate in marriage preparation in the pilot projects generally thought it beneficial.

4.19 Drawing on this experience, the Government will improve the provision of marriage preparation and encourage more people to make use of it, but we judge it should remain entirely voluntary. We will continue to provide funding for organisations which provide marriage preparation, including Relate, Marriage Care, the Jewish Marriage Council and the Family Welfare Association.

Agreements about property

4.21 The Government is considering whether there would be advantage in allowing couples, either before or during their marriage, to make written agreements dealing with their financial affairs which would be legally binding on divorce. This could give people more choice and allow them to take more responsibility for ordering their own lives. It could help them to build a solid foundation for their marriage by encouraging them to look at the financial issues they may face as husband and wife and reach agreement before they get married.

4.22 Providing greater security on property matters in this way could make it more likely that some people would marry, rather than simply live together. It might also give couples in a shaky marriage a little greater assurance about their future than they might otherwise have had. Nuptial agreements could also have the effect of protecting the children of first marriages, who can often be overlooked at the time of a second marriage - or a second divorce.

4.23 There would be no question of written agreements being made mandatory for couples intending to marry. Also, we would protect the interests of a party to the agreement who is economically weaker and the interests of children through six safeguards. If one or more of the following circumstances was found to apply, the written agreement would not be legally binding:

• where there is a child of the family, whether or not that child was alive or a child of the family at the time the agreement was made
• where under the general law of contract the agreement is unenforceable, including if the contract attempted to lay an obligation on a third party who had not agreed in advance
• where one or both of the couple did not receive independent legal advice before entering into the agreement
• where the court considers that the enforcement of the agreement would cause significant injustice (to one or both of the couple or a child of the marriage)
• where one or both of the couple have failed to give full disclosure of assets and property before the agreement was made
• where the agreement is made fewer than 21 days prior to the marriage (this would prevent a nuptial agreement being forced on people shortly before their wedding day, when they may not feel able to resist).

Support from registrars

4.25 Under current legislation, the role of registrars is restricted to establishing that the couple are legally free to marry and to the provision of advice on the legalities and practicalities of the ceremony. Registrars are independent statutory officers. appointed by the local authority, but accountable to the Registrar General. Their duties are set out in, and limited by, the Marriage and Registration Acts, which are outdated. We propose that a review of this legislation should be commissioned by the Registrar General to identify any further changes needed to the legal status of registrars or the duties they are asked to perform.

4.26 The Government can see advantage in registrars offering more support on a voluntary basis to marrying couples. Possible voluntary changes in registrars' practice might include the following:

• Registrars could make available information about marriage which could be in the form of a marriage preparation pack and might be produced by experts in the field such as One plus One or Relate. This would allow time for thought and discussion by the couple before the ceremony itself. The same material could be made available on the new National Family and Parenting Institute's website.
• Registrars might inform couples about pre-marriage support services.

• Requiring both partners to attend the register office to give notice of marriage. This would test the willingness of each partner to enter into the marriage contract and would enable the registrar to provide information on available guidance and to refer both partners to pre-marriage support at the earliest possible stage. We would also welcome views on the need for notice of marriage to continue to be given to the registrar of the district(s) where the couple live, or whether the law should be changed to allow notice to be given to any registrar. We are also considering giving registrars a statutory power to ask for supporting documentation to assist in verifying the couple's identity and marital status.
• Giving notice of intention to marry. Since October 1997, couples have been able to inform registrars of their intention to marry12 months in advance, instead of the previous three months. This gives couples more time to reflect on their marriage plans and prepare for the ceremony. We now propose to require couples to give a minimum of 15 days' notice of their intention to marry with a discretion to reduce the waiting period in exceptional circumstances. This would allow couples more time to reflect on the nature of the commitment they are entering into and to take up marriage preparation, if they wished to do so. This would mean that couples could no longer marry by licence only one clear day after notice has been given.

Information meetings to help save Marriages

4.30 It is clear from the pilots so far undertaken(which have now been attended by just over 5,000people) that it may be unrealistic and inconsistent to try to deal with both issues at the same meeting. It may make it harder for couples to focus on how their marriage might be saved, and so reduce the chance of saving it.

4.31 We are attracted to the idea of requiring couples to attend an individual information meeting at least three months before divorce or separation proceedings start, as at present, but to concentrate on:

• information which would help parties to consider whether their marriage really is finally over
• marriage support services available to help
• help for survivors of, or those fearful of, domestic violence
• the decisions which have to be made, the consequences which have to be faced, and the impact of divorce on the families, especially children, if the decision to divorce is finally taken.

4.33 A new, separate group presentation to give couples information about children finance and property issues and to explain the helpfulness of mediation would take place later, at the time people need this information. This meeting would apply not only to married couples getting divorced, but also to unmarried parents who split up, if one of them applies for a court order, for example, for residence or contact, for their children. This would ensure that people in both circumstances are able to take the decisions that are in the best interests of their children. There would be no requirement for both partners to attend the same group meeting; and safeguards for those fearful of violence would ensure they were not forced into unwelcome contact with their partners.

4.34 Education programmes might also be introduced for couples who have already split up, if one partner is frustrating the other in obtaining the contact with their children which the courts have decided is in their children's best interests. In theory, courts can fine or even send to prison those who deliberately obstruct contact: but these remedies are frequently inneffective, if not counterproductive, and the courts use them only as a last resort. These programmes, in contrast, would be positive and constructive, showing how continuing contact with both parents is normally in a child's best interests.(Safeguards and exemptions would again be needed in cases where violence was or had been an issue.)

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Supporting adult relationships

• help with relationship problems at the birth of a child
• secular baby-naming ceremonies.

Help with relationship problems at the birth of a child

4.38 A recent project run by One Plus One in London showed how health professionals can identify problems early and offer help to prevent relationships from deteriorating. The help of health visitors was accepted by parents and valued by them. One in four mothers taking part in the project revealed problems in need of attention and in one in16 cases these problems were serious. The Government therefore sees advantage in asking midwives and health visitors to identify and offer help with relationship problems during the post-natal period.

Baby-naming ceremonies

4.40 New legislation would be required to introduce additional duties for registrars before formal pilots could take place. We expect that the enlargement of registrars' duties to allow them to perform baby-naming ceremonies would be cost neutral: local authorities could recover their costs through fees. In the meantime, the Government is exploring ways of publicising further the benefits of such ceremonies and the role they can play in strengthening the role of the extended family.

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Reducing conflict on relationship breakdown

4.42 The new divorce process in the Family Law Act, which will enter into force in 2000, will no longer require couples to make acrimonious allegations of fault about each other. The proposed information meetings on divorce and how to handle disputes over children will also help. In addition, the Family Law Act will enable people eligible for non-contributory legal aid to receive free marriage counselling, if they want it, while they are considering whether they really want to get divorced.

4.43 The Government is already consulting, through our paper Support Services in Family Proceedings - Future Organisation of Court Welfare Services, on measures to improve court welfare services through a new integrated service which will provide better advice and support for families and children who are involved in family proceedings.

The division of property on divorce

4.45 Currently, the courts have almost unfettered discretion to allocate matrimonial property between spouses. Many couples who make an application to the court for 'ancillary relief' (the legal term for how their assets are to be divided on divorce) settle before a full court hearing. But even these couples may have experienced conflict which may damage the relationship between them and their children.

4.46 We need to consider whether resolution of disputes on the division of property is taking too long, even for those who settle out of court. Those disputes which do go to court are subject to the usual adversarial trial process including the cross-examination of witnesses before a judge. The court's discretion to allocate property means that the outcome of the case is hard to forecast, even with the advice of experienced lawyers. It is not possible, from the existing legislation, for the lay person to get a clear view of what they can expect to receive on divorce.

4.47 Following recent advice from judges and members of all the main family law professional bodies, the Government is considering measures which would offer divorcing couples greater certainty and clarity as to what they might expect to receive on divorce. This should lead to less litigation and, therefore, offer a reduction in costs both for the couple themselves and the tax payer (who helps to pay for the courts and legal aid).

4.48 We are considering the benefits of amending the law to add an over-arching objective and a set of guiding principles which could make clear the process a judge now follows in determining the allocation of property on divorce. This could provide greater certainty and clarity but unlike, for example, a rigid formula, could be flexible enough to take account of individual circumstances.

4.49 The proposed objective is that the court should 'exercise its powers so as to endeavour to do that which is fair and reasonable between the parties and any child of the family'. The proposed set of guiding principles would set out, in order of precedence, the aims or actions which the court must pursue in reaching a decision on the division of property between a divorcing couple. The court would continue to take into account the existing factors set out in the law in seeking to achieve the following aims:

• First, to promote the welfare of any child of the family under the age of eighteen, by meeting the housing needs of any children and the primary carer, and of the secondary carer; both to facilitate contact and to recognise the continuing importance of the secondary carer's role.
• Second, the court would take into account the existence and content of any written agreement about financial arrangements, reached before or during marriage, which has not been enforced owing to one or more of the safeguards having not been met (see paragraph 4.23 above).
• Third, having dealt with the needs of children and the housing needs of the couple, and having taken into account a nuptial agreement, the court would then divide any surplus so as to achieve a fair result, recognising that fairness will generally require the value of the assets to be divided equally between the parties.
• Fourth, the court would try to terminate financial relationships between the parties at the earliest date practicable.

Consultation Questions

Q13: The idea of introducing a statement of rights and responsibilities to be given to all people planning to marry; and providing a similar statement to those who co-habit.

Q14: What sort of advice might be provided for couples before marriage and how the availability of this advice might best be promoted.

Q15: The desirability of allowing couples to make written agreements dealing with their financial affairs on divorce and as to the safeguards which would lead to an agreement not being legally binding.

Q16: The proposals for changes in practice at register offices and whether changes to the law on these issues would be appropriate :

• superintendent registrars providing more information and support to couples in preparing for marriage (including providing information in register offices in the form of marriage preparation packs, and giving couples information on pre-marriage support services)
• requiring both partners in a couple to attend the register office to give notice of marriage
• requiring a minimum of 15 days' notice of intention to marry (except in exceptional circumstances)
• issuing guidance to registrars to encourage greater flexibility in the form of marriage ceremonies couples may choose.

Q18: The proposals to strengthen the services available to support adult relationships including:

• promoting and developing the availability of counselling services for couples and providing particular help to couples at potential stress points
• introducing support for couples when they have a child by asking health visitors, midwives and other health professionals to identify and offer help with relationship problems experienced by parents in the period following a birth
• promoting baby-naming ceremonies and enlarging the role of registrars to enable them to conduct such ceremonies.

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Chapter 5

Better Support for Serious Family Problems

5.2 A modern family policy must be based on a realistic picture of the more severe pressures facing families today. Too many children live in poverty. Poor housing, social exclusion and lack of opportunity are at the root of many serious family problems. Every year thousands of families in difficulty receive help from Social Services Departments and voluntary organisations. Our broader strategies on social exclusion address these serious underlying problems. In a minority of families there are more acute problems such as youth offending, teenage pregnancy, domestic violence and problems with children's education which also need action.

5.3 This chapter sets out what we are doing to tackle:

• problems with children's learning such as truancy, exclusions and underperformance, through our £500 million Pupil Support Grant, a programme to cut truancy, unruly classroom behaviour and unnecessary exclusions; and by spelling out the rights and responsibilities of parents, children and schools
• youth offending, including parenting and child safety orders to help parents with their children's offending behaviour and to protect children at risk of offending by improved supervision
• teenage pregnancy, looking at ways to improve education and support services to reduce teenage pregnancy rates which are higher than any other country in the European Union.
• domestic violence, including better reporting, a tougher attitude by the police and courts, the first national survey of refuges for survivors of violence and a new national publicity campaign.

Problems with children's Learning

Truancy and exclusions

Home-school agreements

5.6 From September 1999, all schools will be required to have a written home-school agreement drawn up in consultation with parents. The agreement will explain the responsibilities of the school and of parents, and what the school expects of its pupils. Parents of pupils of compulsory school age will be asked to sign a declaration in support of the agreement. All agreements will set out the standard of education the school will provide; the ethos of the school; the need for regular and punctual attendance; discipline; homework; and the information which schools and parents will give one another.

Children with behavioural problems

Children with special educational educational needs

Discipline in the home

5.10 The use of this defence has been challenged at the European Court of Human Rights, and the Government has accepted that the law needs to be clarified to ensure that it protects children better. However, we do not consider that the right way to do this is to ban all physical punishment.

The Government will issue a consultation paper on how the law could be improved in order to protect children better.

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Youth offending

5.12 The Government has introduced several key measures in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to tackle juvenile offending, in part to speed up the time between arrest and sentencing to bring the crime home to offenders sooner; but also through initiatives to bring together everyone - particularly parents and local agencies - who can help young people avoid crime altogether, or reform their behaviour. These include parenting orders, child safety orders, local child curfews and final warnings.

5.13 The Government is also encouraging innovative schemes such as encouraging young people themselves to become part of the solution to crime through Youth Action Groups - over 1,600 are already running in secondary schools and youth clubs - and breaking the chain of criminality between the generations through parenting education in prisons. We are also taking strong action to deal with drug misuse among young people.

Parenting order

5.15 The parenting order will help parents to change offending behaviour by their children. The order is intended to be used where the court is satisfied that action by one or both parents, through a parenting order, will help to prevent the child or young person from committing further offences. The order will include a requirement that parents attend counselling and guidance sessions where they will receive help in dealing with their children, for example to help parents to set and enforce consistent standards of behaviour from the young person.

5.16 The court may also impose a requirement to exercise control over a child's behaviour where firmer direction to the parents is judged to be necessary and appropriate. For example, the parent could be required to ensure that the child is home between certain hours or ensure that he or she is escorted to and from school by a responsible adult.

Child safety order

Local child curfews

Final warnings

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Tackling teenage parenthood

5.21 Many young teenagers show a worrying level of ignorance about the 'facts of life', contraception and contraceptive services. Young teenagers are also often acutely embarrassed about talking about sexual matters and are concerned about the confidentiality of the services provided and the advice given. Most people believe that contraception should be the joint responsibility of both men and women, yet most contraceptive services are targeted only at women.

5.22 The prevention of unintended pregnancy is highly cost-effective because all outcomes of unwanted pregnancy cost substantially more than prevention. It is also beneficial if we can, through preventive measures, help young people to avoid having abortions.

Under-age and teenage mothers

5.24 Under 16 year olds are often very ignorant about sexual matters and this is a crucial risk factor for early teenage pregnancy. It is also true that children growing up in families which find it difficult to discuss sex and relationships are more likely to be at risk of a teenage birth and that those at greatest risk of unwanted pregnancies are those who have few aspirations and little sense of control over their lives.

Under-age and teenage fathers

5.26 Boys often feel left out of family sex education. Fathers rarely talk to their sons on sexual and personal matters. Mothers may not know enough about boys' development. Many boys complain that sex education does not address their need to talk about sex in the context of relationships and emotions. Where services are designed specifically for young people and aimed at both sexes, only a small proportion of the clients are young men. Some boys present themselves as 'knowing it all' and mask their ignorance, vulnerabilities and their need for help, advice and support.

Effective interventions to prevent under-age and teenage pregnancy

5.28 Because of the links between teenage pregnancy and social exclusion, the Prime Minister has asked the Social Exclusion Unit to work on this as its next priority. Its remit is to devise an integrated strategy to cut rates of teenage parenthood, particularly under-age parenthood, towards the European Union average, and propose better solutions to combat the risk of social exclusion for vulnerable teenage parents and their children. The unit is consulting widely and will build on work already done by the Department of Health and the Health Education Authority.

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Domestic violence

5.30 Domestic violence continues to be the most common violent crime against women in England and Wales: an estimated 835,000 incidences in 1997 (1998 British Crime Survey). Recent research published by Crime Concern suggests that, in some parts of Britain, one woman in nine is subjected to severe beatings by her partner each year.

5.31 Violence against a partner is often linked to wider family problems. In three out of five cases where children suffer, neglect, physical or emotional abuse, their mothers were also subject to abuse from their male partners. Domestic violence can cause severe emotional and behavioural problems for children, who are often able to give detailed accounts of domestic violence and are traumatised by what they have seen and heard.

Publicity campaigns

• first, to survivors of domestic violence, to make sure that they understand they do not have to suffer in silence, have information about the options which are open to them, and know how to seek help and advice
• second, to give guidance to different professionals in the fields of health education, and the police, in particular to encourage sensitivity to the signs of difficulty and in offering help or advice
• third, to perpetrators of domestic violence, to let them know that it is a serious crime and will be treated as such
• fourth, to communities, to raise awareness of the issues and encourage a change of attitude towards domestic violence so that quick and effective action is taken to stop situations from escalating to crisis point.

• schools can raise awareness of the problem, promote tolerance and peaceful resolution of conflict, and equip pupils to deal with the issues raised by domestic violence. The National Advisory Group on Personal, Social and Health Education will provide advice to schools about the development of interpersonal and relationship skills and how to encourage children, particularly boys, to resolve differences without resorting to violence
• voluntary organisations have a key role to play in providing information and support
• Social Services Departments, health professionals or schools may be the first point to which survivors turn for support and must be trained and equipped to give appropriate advice and information.

Recording domestic violence

The criminal justice agencies

Government action on violence against women

Accommodation and support Services

5.39 At the moment there are just over 400 refuges in England and 45 refuges in Wales. We have commissioned research to establish for the first time a comprehensive database of existing provision and to assess the most appropriate use of accommodation and support provided by local authorities for women who have to flee a violent partner. This research will inform work to improve the services for survivors of domestic violence.

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Consultation Question

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Chapter6

The Next Steps - Your Views

• provide better support to parents to ensure that every parent has access to the advice, support and services they need
• give better financial support to families to improve family prosperity and reduce child poverty
• help families balance work and home so that it is easier for parents to spend time with their children
• strengthen marriage to help protect the interests of children and reduce the risks of family breakdown
• tackle the more serious problems of family life, including domestic violence and teenage pregnancy.

6.3 Parallel work is underway across Government, including the Social Exclusion Unit's work on teenage parenthood.

6.4 We recognise that the future of families lies primarily in the hands of families themselves. But a start has already been made to put right a long period when families have not been given the attention they deserve in public policy making.

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Future work

6.6 Increasingly, boys and young men seem to have difficulty maturing into responsible citizens and fathers. Declining educational performance, loss of traditional 'male' jobs, the growth of a 'laddish' anti-social culture, greater use of drugs, irresponsible teenage fatherhood, and the rising suicide rate may all show rising insecurity and uncertainty among young men. This has worrying implications for the stability of family life and wider society. For example, recent research suggests that young men may not grow out of crime in their late teens as they were once assumed to do.

6.7 Fathers have a crucial role to play in their children's upbringing, and their involvement can be particularly important to their sons. Most voluntary and professional organisations currently working with parents acknowledge that it is much more difficult to encourage fathers to participate in parenting support than mothers. Some organisations have already developed programmes which specifically target fathers. The Ministerial Group on the Family will be looking at ways of encouraging the development of more widespread support for fathers.

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Your views

6.9 Written or taped comments on this consultation paper should be sent, by 31 January 1999 to:
 

6.10 To help us analyse all the responses fully in the time available, please keep responses as succinct as possible and indicate clearly the question to which you are responding. If you want to respond in more general terms, please indicate nonetheless the areas or issues which you are addressing. It is not necessary to respond to every question.

6.11 It would be helpful if respondents would make it clear whether they are responding as individuals or on behalf of an organisation. Responses will not be acknowledged unless this is requested.

6.12 The Government may be asked to publish the responses to this consultation document. Respondents should make it clear if they do not wish their response to be published.

6.13 Copies of this consultation document are being sent to local education authorities and relevant professional organisations, relevant health and social services bodies and professional organisations, local authorities, national voluntary and community organisations involved in family support, and relevant criminal justice professionals. This consultation does not extend to Scotland.

6.14 Further copies of this publication can be obtained from The Stationery Office and its agents(for details, see the back cover).

6.15 The consultation document is also available on the internet. The address is:http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/

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Consultation Questions

The Government would welcome views on:

Q2: How best to disseminate information helpful to parents.

Q3: The scope of the service which is to be offered by the proposed national helpline.

Q4: Whether it would be helpful for the work of health visitors to have a broader focus on supporting parents and on the possible components for a pilot programme.

Q5: Ways of improving parental involvement in children's education, parental support for schools and schools' support for parents.

Q6: The best way to develop education on parental responsibility in schools.

Q7: The support which might be provided for grandparents including:

• the best way to involve grandparents in children's education and how best to involve older volunteers in schools
• best practice for grandparents as foster carers
• the involvement of the health visitor
• the need to consider wider family needs when allocating housing.

Q9: Ways in which they have introduced family-friendly employment policies and their views on what works, from employers.

Q10: The main difficulties they experience in balancing work and family life and the family-friendly practices they believe are helpful, from employees.

Q11: How best to take forward an awareness and promotional campaign (such as the value and operation of a national award or accreditation scheme for employers); and an effective monitoring and evaluation strategy.

Q12: Views on how to make public services more family friendly.

Q13: The idea of introducing a statement of rights and responsibilities to be given to all people planning to marry.

Q14: What sort of advice might be provided for couples before marriage and how the availability of this advice might best be promoted.

Q15: The desirability of allowing couples to make written agreements dealing with their financial affairs on divorce and as to the safeguards which would lead to an agreement not being legally binding.

Q16: The proposals for changes in practice at register offices and whether changes to the law on these issues would be appropriate:

• superintendent registrars providing more information and support to couples in preparing for marriage (including providing information in register offices in the form of marriage preparation packs, and giving couples information on pre-marriage support services)
• requiring both partners in a couple to attend the register office to give notice of marriage
• requiring a minimum of 15 days' notice of intention to marry (except in exceptional circumstances)
• issuing guidance to registrars to encourage greater flexibility in the form of marriage ceremonies couples may choose.

Q18: The proposals to strengthen the services available to support adult relationships including:

• promoting and developing the availability of counselling services for couples and providing particular help to couples at potential stress points
• introducing support for couples when they have a child by asking health visitors, midwives and other health professionals to identify and offer help with relationship problems experienced by parents in the period following a birth
• promoting baby-naming ceremonies and enlarging the role of registrars to enable them to conduct such ceremonies.

Q20: Further ways to tackle more serious family problems and in particular on how local and national awareness campaigns on domestic violence might best be developed.

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Summary

1. Families are at the heart of our society and the basis of our future as a country. That is why this Government is so committed to strengthening family life.

2. But they are under stress, and although most families do not want interference, they do want advice and support to be there when they need it.

3. Our family policy is based on three simple principles:

• Children must come first. We should aim to ensure that the next generation gets the best possible start in life.
• Children need stability. There are many successful kinds of relationship outside marriage, but we share the belief of the majority of people that marriage is the surest way for couples to bring up their children.
• Families raise children. The role of governments should be to help and support, not to try to substitute for parents. The state should only intervene in extreme circumstances, for example, where the welfare of family members is at stake.

5. Our approach concentrates on five areas where government can make a difference:

• ensuring all families have access to the advice and support they need
• improving family prosperity and reducing child poverty through the tax and benefit system
• making it easier for families to balance work and home
• strengthening marriage and reducing the risks of family breakdown
• tackling the more serious problems of family life, such as domestic violence, truancy and school-age pregnancy.

Advice and Support

7. A new National Family and Parenting Institute, which will provide the best possible advice and information on all aspects of family life -particularly the role of parents - to government and to dozens of groups working to help families across the country.

8. A new national parent helpline, available throughout the year from 8am to 10pm, to answer parents' questions and refer them to specialist advice when necessary. This will be based on the existing service provided by ParentLine, and will operate alongside other helplines including ChildLine and the new NHS Direct.

9. An expanded role for health visitors, to cover support for families as a whole and offer visits not just immediately after the birth but through the early and pre-school years and beyond.

10. A new £540m programme called Sure Start, to co-ordinate help for families in greatest need to ensure their children get the best possible start in life. Sure Start services will vary according to local need but will include childcare, primary healthcare, early education and play, and family support. It will help the whole family.

11. We want to provide better support and education for current and future parents, including looking at new ways of getting information to all parents, improving parenting education in school, and helping parents to help their children to learn. We must also ensure that the wider family, and particularly grandparents, can contribute to the full.

Better Financial Support for Families

13. The largest-ever uprating of Child Benefit: from this November, all families on Income Support or Family Credit will get an extra £2.50 per week per child under 11; and from April next year, Child Benefit will go up by £2.50 a week in addition to the usual uprating for inflation.

14. A new Working Families Tax Credit, providing help for up to 1.5 million families on low incomes. It will ease the poverty trap, support working families with more generous benefits, guarantee a minimum income of £190 a week for families earning the national minimum wage, take 500,000 families out of income tax, and provide a generous childcare tax credit of up to 70 per cent of the costs of childcare: up to £70 for one child and £105 for two or more children.

15. The £190m New Deal for lone parents, with personal advisers providing advice, training and help to find work, tailored to each lone parent's individual circumstances.

16. Pilots for a new Educational Maintenance Allowance to increase participation in education by 16-18 year olds, particularly those from low-income families.

17. Reform of the Child Support Agency, with anew and much more simple formula for assessing maintenance so that the CSA can concentrate on improving its service and ensuring absent parents make a fair contribution to their children's upbringing.

18. Taking all the March 1998 Budget measures together, including changes to Child Benefit, the 7.5 million households with children in the UK will gain an average of £250 a year. Families on low incomes will on average gain the most. The 20 per cent of poorest households with children - 3.8 million children in all - will gain an average of £500 a year.

Helping families to balance work and home

20. Achieving that balance benefits us all. Parents and carers can continue to work alongside their other roles. Businesses benefit because their staff are committed and motivated, and because keeping experienced staff is usually far more cost-effective than recruiting and training new people. Firms can also call on a wider pool of skilled staff, for example by making working hours more flexible to suit those with young children. The economy benefits from having more people able to get a job. And society benefits from having fewer people unemployed and more children growing up in families with one or more parent in work and also providing love, care and support to the children.

21. We are pursuing this aim in two ways.

• First, we are setting a basic, fair framework of family-friendly employee rights on working hours, flexible working arrangements, parental leave, and dealing with family crises.

• The Working Time Directive now limits the hours any employee has to work to an average of 48 hours a week, and also provides for annual paid leave, rest periods and restrictions on night working. But it also allows workers who want to work longer to do so. By April 2000, the Part-time Work Directive will end discrimination against part-time workers.
• Parental rights will be enhanced and also simplified: all parents will be entitled to three months parental leave. Maternity leave and statutory maternity pay will be aligned at 18 weeks; the qualifying period for maternity leave will be lowered from two to one year, in line with the new parental leave qualifying period. And workers will be allowed to take time off for a family crisis, for example when a child or elderly relative falls ill.
• Second, we are promoting family-friendly employment practices beyond this statutory minimum. We will demonstrate to businesses how they can reduce the costs of employing and training staff, and put something back into society, by adopting family-friendly practices such as allowing staff to work flexible hours, to job-share, and to work more from home. Leading employers such as Boots, the NHS and the Midland Bank are already doing this. Government can also lead by example.

Strengthening marriage

23. The Government believes that marriage provides a strong foundation for stable relationships. This does not mean trying to make people marry, or criticising or penalising people who choose not to. We do not believe that Government should interfere in people's lives in that way. But we do share the belief of the majority of people that marriage provides the most reliable framework for raising children.

24. We plan to strengthen the institution of marriage, including an enhanced role for marriage registrars, and to improve support for all families, including better advice on adult relationships. We are also considering changes to the current system for handling divorces and establishing custody and parental responsibility.

25. The Government is realistic about how much can be achieved. Family matters are essentially private matters, and individuals must live their own lives. What we in Government must do is provide the best support that we can, and setout the rights and responsibilities of families clearly.

26. Our specific proposals are:

• Provide couples intending to marry with a clear statement of what their new status means in terms of extra rights and also extra responsibilities.
• We would also make "pre-nuptial" written agreements about property legally binding for those who wish to make them.
• Improve arrangements to help people prepare for marriage. This will include a wider role for registrars to give better support to marrying couples; allowing couples more time to reflect before they marry; and requiring both partners to attend the register office to make the first arrangements before marriage.
• Enhance and modernise the service provided by registrars, who now perform the majority of marriages in Britain.
• Help to support marriages in difficulty, including strengthening marriage counselling before divorce.
• Reform information meetings before divorce to increase the chance of saving more marriages.
• Help with relationship problems at the birth of a child
• Encourage baby-naming ceremonies to help parents make a public, long-term commitment to their children and bring together friends and the wider family.

Better support for serious family problems

• Problems with children's learning such as truancy, exclusions and underperformance, through our £500 million Pupil Support Grant, a programme to cut truancy, unruly classroom behaviour and unnecessary exclusions; and by spelling out the rights and responsibilities of parents, children and schools.
• Juvenile offending, including parenting and child safety orders to help parents with their children's offending behaviour and to protect children at risk of offending by improved supervision.
• Teenage pregnancy, looking at ways to improve education and support services for all, and to encourage boys to take more responsibility for their actions.
• Domestic violence, including better reporting, a tougher attitude by the police and courts, the first national survey of refuges for survivors of violence, and a new publicity campaign.

RELATED GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS

Budget speech - 17 March 1998
Hansard Volume 308, from column 1097
ISBN 0-10-291-898-8

Budget Report
The Stationery Office
ISBN 0-10-291 898-8

Green Paper - Better Health, Better Wales
The Stationery Office Cm 3922
ISBN 0-10-139222-2

British Crime Survey 1998
Home Office Statistical Bulletin 21/98

Green Paper - Children First - A New Approach to Child Support
The Stationery Office Cm 3992
ISBN 0-10-139922-7

White Paper - Excellence in schools
The Stationery Office Cm 3681
ISBN 0-10-136812-7

White Paper - Fairness at Work
The Stationery Office Cm 3968
ISBN 0-10-139682-1

Meeting the Childcare Challenge- A Framework and Consultation Document
The Stationery Office Cm 3959
ISBN 0-10-139592-2

National Childcare Strategy in Wales- A Consultation Document
The Stationery Office Cm 3974
ISBN 0-10-139742-9

Green Paper - New Ambitions for Our Country: A New Contract for Welfare
The Stationery Office Cm 3805
ISBN 0-10-138052-6

Truancy and School Exclusion Report by the Social Exclusion Unit
The Stationery Office Cm 3957
ISBN 0-10-139572-8

Support Services in Family Proceedings - Future Organisation of Court Welfare Services.
Department of Health Publications LASSL(98)11

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