ianstone
07-10-2010, 11:17 PM
Britain gets low marks for its poor treatment of families
High cost of raising a child pushes many households into poverty, says a report by the Family and Parenting Institute
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[URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/anushkaasthana"]Anushka Asthana (http://topsy.com/tb/www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/11/family-unfriendly-britain-low-grades), policy editor
The Observer (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/), Sunday 11 July 2010
Article history (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/11/family-unfriendly-britain-low-grades#history-link-box)
The spiralling cost of raising children (http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/children), a crisis in elderly care, a lack of affordable homes and the over-commercialisation of childhood are making Britain a deeply unfriendly place for families, it is claimed today.
A report by the Family (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/family) and Parenting Institute awards school-style grades to policy-makers for a range of different factors affecting the lives of parents and children. The lowest mark – a D – was awarded to the cost of childcare (http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/childcare), the treatment of the elderly and the protection of vulnerable children. But the report also criticises maternity and paternity leave, the price of public transport and the numbers of children and pensioners living in poverty.
Overall, it concludes that Britain would gain no more than a C- for family friendliness. The report, to be released on Tuesday at a Westminster conference addressed by the children's minister Sarah Teather, states that:
■ It costs £200,000 to raise a child from birth to the age of 21 – which equates to about £800 a month.
■ The cost of a nursery place in England rose by 5.1% last year.
■ Approximately 60,000 older people pay for a place in a care home every year by selling their own home.
■ Children face a "postcode lottery" in transport. Those in London ride free on buses while others face the steepest rail fares in Europe.
■ 84% of parents believe companies target their children too much. The average child in the UK sees between 20,000 and 40,000 TV ads a year.
■ 2.8 million children and 1.8 million pensioners live in poverty.
The FPI warns that plans to cut back public expenditure could make things worse. Highlighting the government's decisions to abolish child trust funds, cut child tax credits and freeze child benefit, it concludes: "Parents have been left suspecting they are in the frontline for economic cuts."
The only area that scores slightly higher, with a B grade, is work-life balance, but the FPI claims there is still a long way to go and calls on the government to fulfil a promise to "extend the right to request flexible working to all employees" within 12 months.
Dr Katherine Rake, chief executive of the FPI, said: "I think the cost of raising a child has a lot to do with the cost of childcare. The amount of affordable childcare is still limited and as a result people have to significantly adjust their working patterns. So the cost in terms of lost earnings is even bigger, especially for women."
Rake argued that one of the best measures of how supportive policies are of parents is to what extent society shares the cost of raising children. In Britain parents get less support than elsewhere, she said. The report finds that many families are pushed into poverty as a result of having children.
Justine Roberts, founder of the parenting website Mumsnet, said that mothers writing on the blog tended to agree that Britain was not family friendly, but she laid the blame on the culture instead of the policy makers.
"We still see young children as pests," she said. "We constantly see posts where parents say they feel people tutting when they enter a restaurant with children. We could go some way towards improving rights and benefits, but really it is about the culture – how we view families."
A government spokesman said a new childhood and families taskforce would "strip away barriers to a happy childhood and successful family life".
Simply put they are our future we must leave them a decent world to grow in, for their children it is our duty.
High cost of raising a child pushes many households into poverty, says a report by the Family and Parenting Institute
[/URL]
[URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/anushkaasthana"]Anushka Asthana (http://topsy.com/tb/www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/11/family-unfriendly-britain-low-grades), policy editor
The Observer (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/), Sunday 11 July 2010
Article history (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/11/family-unfriendly-britain-low-grades#history-link-box)
The spiralling cost of raising children (http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/children), a crisis in elderly care, a lack of affordable homes and the over-commercialisation of childhood are making Britain a deeply unfriendly place for families, it is claimed today.
A report by the Family (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/family) and Parenting Institute awards school-style grades to policy-makers for a range of different factors affecting the lives of parents and children. The lowest mark – a D – was awarded to the cost of childcare (http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/childcare), the treatment of the elderly and the protection of vulnerable children. But the report also criticises maternity and paternity leave, the price of public transport and the numbers of children and pensioners living in poverty.
Overall, it concludes that Britain would gain no more than a C- for family friendliness. The report, to be released on Tuesday at a Westminster conference addressed by the children's minister Sarah Teather, states that:
■ It costs £200,000 to raise a child from birth to the age of 21 – which equates to about £800 a month.
■ The cost of a nursery place in England rose by 5.1% last year.
■ Approximately 60,000 older people pay for a place in a care home every year by selling their own home.
■ Children face a "postcode lottery" in transport. Those in London ride free on buses while others face the steepest rail fares in Europe.
■ 84% of parents believe companies target their children too much. The average child in the UK sees between 20,000 and 40,000 TV ads a year.
■ 2.8 million children and 1.8 million pensioners live in poverty.
The FPI warns that plans to cut back public expenditure could make things worse. Highlighting the government's decisions to abolish child trust funds, cut child tax credits and freeze child benefit, it concludes: "Parents have been left suspecting they are in the frontline for economic cuts."
The only area that scores slightly higher, with a B grade, is work-life balance, but the FPI claims there is still a long way to go and calls on the government to fulfil a promise to "extend the right to request flexible working to all employees" within 12 months.
Dr Katherine Rake, chief executive of the FPI, said: "I think the cost of raising a child has a lot to do with the cost of childcare. The amount of affordable childcare is still limited and as a result people have to significantly adjust their working patterns. So the cost in terms of lost earnings is even bigger, especially for women."
Rake argued that one of the best measures of how supportive policies are of parents is to what extent society shares the cost of raising children. In Britain parents get less support than elsewhere, she said. The report finds that many families are pushed into poverty as a result of having children.
Justine Roberts, founder of the parenting website Mumsnet, said that mothers writing on the blog tended to agree that Britain was not family friendly, but she laid the blame on the culture instead of the policy makers.
"We still see young children as pests," she said. "We constantly see posts where parents say they feel people tutting when they enter a restaurant with children. We could go some way towards improving rights and benefits, but really it is about the culture – how we view families."
A government spokesman said a new childhood and families taskforce would "strip away barriers to a happy childhood and successful family life".
Simply put they are our future we must leave them a decent world to grow in, for their children it is our duty.