Child Poverty Bill

The noble Lord is quite right. My comments were focused on proposals for a tax allowance related to marriage, which would give people who are married an extra tax benefit. My question was: how would that help the poorest and how would that help child poverty, which is what the Bill is focused on? The amendment requires the Secretary of State, in preparing his child poverty strategy, to consider what, if any, measures ought to be taken in a range of additional areas relating to parental engagement, including guidance on the roles and responsibilities of parents and on the reduction in underage and unwanted pregnancies. We have today debated a number of possible additions to the list of building blocks in Clause 8. As I said in response to the other amendments, it is not necessary or appropriate to specify in the Bill the types of proposal referred to in the amendment. Clause 8 already makes clear the intention of the strategy to look at a range of issues. I reassure noble Lords that the work under way to develop the first child poverty strategy is considering support for parental skills, as required by subsection (5)(c). As I said in response to Amendment 31, support for vulnerable parents and families, including education in parenting skills, is one of many factors that we will consider in preparing our child poverty strategy. The Government are committed to strengthening parental engagement, and there is a range of help available to support parents in developing better parenting skills and stronger relationships. The Government fund a wide range of support for parents that can be accessed in different ways. For example, the significantly expanded parenting and family support offered through the relaunched Family Information Direct programme aims to deliver support to parents when and where they want it, and in a form that suits them. Parents can ring a telephone helpline, go online for personalised advice, join a social network, watch online videos or read articles in newspapers and magazines. Under Family Information Direct, 12 key third and private sector organisations are working to provide a co-ordinated programme of 14 different services, which have supported more than 2.5 million parents since April 2008. Parenting information and support is also available through print and video channels, which have reached more than 20 million adults over the same period. At the same time, we are clear that firm and effective action must be taken to challenge poor or inadequate parenting, which has serious consequences for children and communities. The national roll-out of Think Family is supported by more than £170 million in funding over 2009-11, which will enable local authorities to roll out a programme of targeted interventions that address poor parenting and improve parenting skills, including family intervention projects in every area to support the most chaotic families using whole-family intensive support. As has been acknowledged, last week we published a Green Paper on families and relationships that focuses on enabling families to help themselves through a range of support measures. We believe that this must be pursued in ways that fit with the reality of family life today. This means, for example, that the crucial role that fathers play in their children’s lives must be recognised. The Green Paper specifies that the bounty packs that are given to newly pregnant women will also now include materials that are specifically designed for fathers. This new scheme has been launched to approach fathers at an early stage, which is key to engaging them later on. The dad’s guide, among other issues, will cover birth registration, parental responsibility, key health issues, communicating with and keeping the baby safe, financial advice, keeping a good relationship with mum, and signposting to wider family support services. Another example is the commitment through the 21st Century School Parent Guarantee to involve parents in their children’s learning and to ensure that they are told if something is going wrong. This includes easier access to children’s services when they are needed, such as health and social care; and access to lots of services to help parents as well as their children, including parenting advice, adult learning and training opportunities, access to childcare and help into work. The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, and the noble Lords, Lord Freud, Lord Martin and Lord Northbourne, focused on the importance of parenting. We agree that parents have the biggest influence on their children’s development. Parental involvement and aspiration shape children’s achievements. The noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, absolved me of responsibility when it came to his previous attempts to get a more specific definition of parental responsibility into legislation. I plead guilty because we also debated this when we considered the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill. Let me be clear that we believe it is the parents’ duty to act in the best interests of their children at all times. We know that the home environment and the parents’ influence are the most important factors in determining children’s aspirations and outcomes. The Government expect all parents to provide a stable and nurturing home environment and to be responsive to every physical, emotional and material need. We expect mothers and fathers to act as the primary role models for their children and to instil positive standards of behaviour. Should any of these responsibilities prove to be too burdensome, we reasonably expect parents to seek appropriate advice and to ensure that the problems that some parents face do not affect their children’s well-being and life chances. Section 3 of the Children Act 1989 clearly sets out what is meant by parental responsibility. Parental responsibility means all the rights, responsibilities and authority that a parent of a child has. The concept encapsulates all the legal duties and powers that exist to enable a parent to care for a child and to act on his behalf. These include the duties and powers relating to material needs and healthcare, the manner of a child’s education, his religious upbringing and the administration of his property. Some of the specific responsibilities covered by the section are providing a home for the child, having contact with the child, protecting and maintaining the child, disciplining the child, and determining and providing for the child’s education. We are also clear that these responsibilities apply to fathers as well as to mothers. All evidence demonstrates that their involvement in the lives of their children is vital, whether or not they live with them. We have sought to promote the responsibilities of fathers in several ways and enable them to perform those responsibilities better, from paid paternity leave to the right to request flexible working for parents of disabled children and children under six. The assumption that mothers are the primary carers needs to be updated in favour of an expectation that fathers will play an equivalent role in a parental partnership. The families and relationships Green Paper sets out what we are doing to tackle this assumption and to support fathers to fulfil their parenting responsibilities. The noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, asked why we cannot issue guidance to parents. We are issuing guidance on parental responsibility to local authorities, not to parents. We cannot issue it to each individual; parents have different roles and different views. The noble Lord, Lord Freud, said that we had just woken up to the issue of parents, and that this was all some sort of pre-election gimmick. Let me take him back a few years. We published guidance in 2006 to encourage local authorities to develop a parenting strategy that should set out their intention to plan, to develop, to commission and to deliver parenting and family support that is based on the needs of parents and families locally. The work that we have done includes: the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners, which was established in November 2007 to train and support the practitioners to whom parents turn for advice, training and information on parenting skills so that they can ensure that their work is based on research evidence of what really works; and the Parenting Early Intervention Programme, which aims to support parents of eight to 13 year-olds who are at risk of negative outcomes and to ensure that they receive an earlier co-ordinated package of parenting support and increased parenting provision through the delivery of evidence-based parenting programmes.