Welcomes New Childhood and Families Task Force – now make children and families a priority locally too

National charity 4Children today welcomed the establishment of a new Childhood and Families Task Force, to be chaired by the Prime Minister.

4Children launched The Family Commission, a national inquiry into family life, in April 2009. The charity says that many of the priorities of the new taskforce will be welcomed by parents, in particular those intended to help families in crisis, improve flexibility in the workplace and support dads in taking a more hands-on role in bringing up their children.

Anne Longfield OBE, Chief Executive of 4Children said: “We welcome and look forward to informing the work of the new Childhood and Families Task Force.  The welfare of children and families will be crucial to the country’s long term economic recovery and the government is right to make these issues a top priority.

“It is right that careful consideration is being given to ensuring that the most vulnerable families do not bear the brunt of spending cuts. However, it is important that the principle of careful and sensible spending decisions is also applied locally.  We are worried about cuts that are happening now outside the context of a strategic review and would urge the Task Force to work closely with Department for Communities and Local Government to ensure sure that local authorities make children and families a top priority too .”

The work of the new taskforce will be completed over the autumn and the proposals will be developed in the context of the upcoming Spending Review.

Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, has today written to Professor Eileen Munro to invite her to conduct an independent review of children’s social work and frontline child protection practice.

The Family Commission – Happy Families for Today and Tomorrow is a major 18 month inquiry into the extended family in the 21st Century. Launched in April 2009, It  aims to untangle some of the complex realities of families in the UK, to understand how families manage in the changing world, what the state can and should be doing to help them do so, and to explore some of the tensions which people still feel.  It seek to identify key aspects of support needed – from housing, financial support, child and eldercare, and social services.

The final Family Commission report will be released in autumn 2010. People who would like to take part in The Family Commission inquiry and have their say on family life can also do so online via the Family Commission website, http://www.thefamilycommission.org.uk/survey.html.

Shout out for a sure start
4Children launched a new campaign in February 2010, ‘shout out for a sure start’.  It is a non-party political campaign set up to celebrate and promote the value that Sure Start Children’s Centres bring to communities by supporting families, and helping mums, dads and grandparents to share the joys and challenges of raising children. Visit www.shoutoutforasurestart.org.uk for more information.