11 July 2010
 I have written to Frank Field in response to his speech about fathers and child poverty. I have copied it to Iain Duncan-Smith and Nick Clegg.
In summary:
- Child poverty is a family function, not just an issue between a child and a “primary carer”. The ability of adults in the family to earn and to care and to cooperate with each other all have a critical influence on the child.
- In the UK, all supports to family assume that a child in poverty has only one parent even in the case where two parents are sharing things 50/50. In Australia a child can have two single parents, both supported in their contribution to the child’s life.
- There are strong aspirations in families to build on – for fathers to be close to their children, for mothers to continue a role outside the home, for parents to live cooperatively.
Dear Frank Field, Continue reading Letter to Frank Field – a family approach to child poverty?
25 June 2010
 Jon Davies is leaving Families Need Fathers. He writes:
After almost four years taking FNF from a little known and often misunderstood charity to something approaching respectability it is time to move! I have been planning this for some time but my Damascene moment came when I saw three and a half out of four of our policy demands in the coalition programme. ‘Leave while they’re still applauding’ as some now long forgotten music hall comedian once said.
As CEO of Families Need Fathers Continue reading Jon Davies, CEO, to leave Families Need Fathers
21 June 2010
So Nick Clegg has confirmed that the Government intends to “encourage shared parenting from the earliest stage of pregnancy”.
A great policy – two thirds of mothers and fathers think parents should share the responsibilities of caring, but only one third of parents report that this actually happens. In other countries where real . . . → Read More: Government declares policy to promote “shared parenting from pregnancy”: for things for their ‘to do’ list
19 January 2010
I was talking to a divorced single father the other day. I know all the theory about the difficulties that single parents face (I lack the direct experience, being neither divorced nor separated) but being faced by the reality of a single case sometimes has more power than the theory. And I was . . . → Read More: The struggles of single parents in UK
16 December 2009
Antenatal education is in trouble. The latest review of the evidence by the Department of Health is discouraging – put simply, there is little evidence that antenatal education works very well. This may be because it has always been given a low priority by the NHS – half-hearted evaluations of half-hearted attempts are . . . → Read More: Community based “New Family Markets” instead of NHS antenatal education?
27 November 2009
I’m back – book written!
Yesterday, at the invitation of the Royal College of Midwives, I debated with the famous French obstetrician, Michel Odent, “should men be at the birth of babies?” The debate was discussed in the national papers, on the BBC TV news (twice), on radio stations (four times on . . . → Read More: Should men be at the birth of babies? What I said in the debate with Michel Odent.
27 July 2009
Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, gave a speech on the family on 8 July at Relate.
He said that it was important to support family relationships of all kinds and in all family formations. He talked about the need at the present time to support relationships under stress from unemployment, repossession . . . → Read More: Nick Clegg gives speech on family and fatherhood
20 July 2009
My last blog is the first blog of mine that has stimulated discussion on-line, with particularly insightful comment by Karen Woodall who leads the Centre for Separated Families. I am so excited about this that all I want to do in my blog this week is recommend that people read the comments on . . . → Read More: Interesting on-line conversation about parental separation and child poverty
10 July 2009
 In an earlier blog, Fathers are a resource in the fight to end child poverty, I wrote an open letter to the Minister for Children. I made three points:
- how fathers work is important to children in poverty; employment offices should engage with men with caring responsibilities as they do with women; at present only women are assumed to have caring responsibilities
- the so-called “non-resident” or “absent” parent (who is often neither) needs support both in delivering a caring role and a financial role; at present he is not designated at all as a parent, except when it comes to enforcing his financial contribution
- I proposed a new way of considering child poverty, looking at the earning and caring role of both parents (whether living together or not)
This week I got a reply from the Minister for Children – here is a copy.
It describes the work to promote engagement with fathers by Local Authority services and Continue reading Fathers are a resource in the fight to end child poverty (again)
8 June 2009
 A father's place is in the home - at least some of the time? So, it’s official. The extension of paternity leave has been ditched. The official reason is the recession, but the decision to delay an increase in paternity leave until after the next general election had been taken well before any recession was in sight.
There are two key points about the current situation that no commentators have pointed out.
First, dumping the change to paternity leave is not going to make much difference to families and children because the system was not going to work anyway. Continue reading It is time for the interests of children to balance the interests of business
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