Getting it Right for Families

Getting it Right for Families is the title of a new publication from the Early Intervention Foundation. The report provides advice on how services for families with young children can be improved, and makes recommendations for both local and national practice.

The full text of the report is available here; an executive summary version is also available.

Family Information Services

A new piece of research from the Family & Childcare Information Trust examines how local authorities around England are supporting families via outreach and childcare services. Under legislation from 2006, local authorities should offer services which provide information about childcare and other related activities to parents , children and young people. But the new report found that some areas do not receive any services at all, and others have cut their provision in recent years.

You can read the full text of the report by clicking here.

Family Matters

Today sees the launch of the Family and Childcare Trust, a new organisation formed out of the merger of the Daycare Trust and the Family & Parenting Institute. To mark the occasion, the organisation has published Family Matters: Understanding Families in an Age of Austerity. This report tracked the lives of a selection of different families, to investigate the effects of cuts to benefits and services over the course of a year. The research identifies four areas which have been placed under pressure in recent times: the cost of childcare, the cost of living, the cost of running a car and credit.

To read the full report, click here.

Children and Families Bill

Today sees the publication of the long-awaited Children and Families Bill. Like most legislation it's a long, complex document, but the main areas it covers include adoption, family justice, special educational needs and childminders.

You can read the full text of the Bill by clicking here. An overview of some of the proposed changes are included in this Community Care article.

Review of 2012

If it’s nearly Christmas, it must be time for the annual round-up of major developments and new research published in the children’s sector during the last year. After all, you might have missed some of these the first time round…

The one thing that all practitioners and students can’t have missed was the introduction of the new EYFS in September. You can get quick links to the new EYFS and supporting documentation from this previous post, while the recent release of the new Profile Handbook and further materials are dealt with here. On a similar note, at the same time a new set of EYPS standards were introduced for those hoping to achieve the status.

The other large story of the year was the Nutbrown Review, which investigated the current system of early education and childcare qualifications. You can read the final report and other supporting documents from this link.

Annual reports from well known organisations are also a handy way of gauging current issues surrounding the sector. Some of the most useful ones from this year include the Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey and the Ofsted Annual Report, while for a more international flavour try UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children 2012 or the OECD’s Education at a Glance.

A few themes seemed to emerge when looking back at publications from the last year: certainly the cost of childcare for families was discussed in a number of reports by different organisations, such as the Resolution Foundation's Counting the Costs of Childcare, CPAG's The Cost of a Child in the Twenty-First Century, and the Family & Parenting Institute's Families on the FrontLine.

Linked to this is the never ending stream of reports into child poverty – just a few that were published this year were Save the Children’s It Shouldn’t Happen Here, CPAG’s Ending Child Poverty by 2020, and UNICEF’s Measuring Child Poverty, which compared the situation in the UK with other developed nations.

Another theme was the growing interest in outdoor play and the benefits which this can have for children. In March the National Trust’s Natural Childhood report made a big contribution to this debate, or you can read this previous post from September which provides links to plenty of the recent research in this area.

And a personal selection of interesting / useful stories and publications from the last year… Back in January the Children’s Society published the Good Childhood Report 2012; in June the Save Childhood movement was launched; also in June the Starting Well: Benchmarking Early Education Across the World report was published; and November saw the publication of Men Working in Childcare, a useful contribution to a topic about which I get a lot of enquiries.

A bit more? For research ideas you could do a lot worse than look at Education on the Web, an excellent research guide from the NFER. Or you could look at this post on Open Access Research for Childhood / Education, which has attracted a lot of site visitors from search engines in recent months. Or you could look at Social Bookmarking: an Essential Tool for Dissertation Students, an article published on Kathy Brodie’s website back in June (you may recognise the author!).

If there’s anything significant from the last 12 months that you think I’ve missed, do leave a comment below to let other site users know about it. If you’re a regular visitor here you’ll know I’m a fan of archive films, so get in the festive spirit by enjoying the short clip below from 1946, which includes sleeping children, toys that come alive, and… oh, just watch it! Merry Christmas…

The Modern British Family

The Centre for the Modern Family is a new think tank which aims to investigate what constitutes a 'family' in Britain today. Today sees the publication of its first report Family: Helping to Understand the Modern British Family, which concludes that the traditional idea of 'married with 2.4 children' is no longer the norm. The report also identifies ten new family types based upon age, the individuals involved and their attitudes.

The full text of the report is available from this link, though further supplementary information is also available from the Centre's website.

Is it Legal? A Families' Guide to the Law

The Family and Parenting Institute has recently published the 4th edition of its booklet Is It Legal? A Families Guide to the Law. This contains simple advice about some of the questions you may have about children's rights and related issues, and is well worth bookmarking as something you may want to refer to in the future.

To access the booklet, click here.

Spotlight on Kinship Care

Children's charity Buttle UK has just published a report entitled Kinship Care, which investigates how many children are being brought up by relatives other than their mother or father. The research is based on data from the 2001 census, and found that many such arrangements between parents and relatives were informal, which meant carers were not entitled to any financial support from social services. The report also explores issues such as the ethnicity of such children, and the areas of the country where kinship is most prevalent.

Both the full version of the report and an executive summary are available from this link.

Men in Families

A new United Nations publication provides an overview of the issues affecting men in modern families. Although the report is international in scope, it contains plenty of useful information on areas such as male carers and fathers in vulnerable families within the UK. You can read the full text of Men in Families and Family Policy in a Changing World by clicking here.

New DfE Research

The end of each month usually sees the publication of a collection of new research reports from the Department of Education (DfE), and October was no exception. Below is a selection of the reports which were published at the end of last week:

• Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents 2009
  
• Improving the Outcomes for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Pupils: Final Report
• The Use of Whole Family Assessment to Identify the Needs of Families with Multiple Problems
• Redesigning Provision for Families with Multiple Problems – an Assessment of the Early
  Impact of Different Local Approaches
• Extended Services Subsidy Pathfinder in Schools: Evaluation
• Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) Programme in Secondary Schools: National Evaluation

Full access to all DfE research reports, as well as those published by the previous Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and Department for Education and Skills (DfES), is available from this link.

Starting a Family Revolution

In April 2009 the Family Commission (set up by the 4Children charity) began work on an in-depth inquiry to investigate all aspects of family life in the UK. The project has examined evidence from a number of sources, including interviews with over 10,000 families, submissions from the public, seminars with high ranking officials and more.

Yesterday saw the publication of the Commission's final report. Some of the findings, such as fears about family finances and closure of Sure Start Centres are highlighted in this Nursery World article. The full report, entitled Starting A Family Revolution: Putting Families in Charge, can be accessed from this link, while a summary version is also available.

Community Family Support Resources

A big welcome to all of the new Community Family Support students at UCB. If you'd like to know about websites which will be invaluable to helping with research during your course then read on...

Sites containing free research information in your subject area are plentiful. I really can't praise the Joseph Rowntree Foundation enough, as their website is packed with news stories, reports and countless other resources on various social issues. Also well worth a look is Social Care Online, a freely accessible database of research that can be either searched or explored through subject headings; this service is provided by the Social Care Institute for Excellence, who are also behind the relatively new Social Care TV.

Other free sources of detailed reports and much besides include the Family and Parenting Institute and the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion, while the Social Policy and Social Work gateway to research contains an impressive collection of links to sites covering all social issues. The website of the Economic and Social Research Council also contains information on both its own research and the projects of other organisations.

Picking out official / government websites is a little tricky at the moment, as the change of government following this year's election means that it is difficult to work out at present which information on government websites represents current policy. However, the Communities and Local Government website is worth bookmarking, and there should also be useful materials available from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Other organisations you may find useful include the the Family Commission, which is carrying out research into family life in the UK, and Family Action, a charity which supports disadvantaged and socially isolated families. Also useful is the Families and Children Study, which provides very detailed statistics on family issues.

If you'd like a couple of sites which will help you keep up to date with your topic then you can read the archives of Community Care online for free. Similarly, all of the new and past content of the Guardian's Society supplement can be accessed from SocietyGuardian; the site also contains additional features which are not available in the print publication.

And finally, here are some recent reports on family-related topics which may be helpful in bringing you up to speed with current topics affecting your subject area. Ten Years of Family policy: 1999–2009 is a useful briefing of government initiatives over the last decade; Impact of Family Breakdown on Children’s Well-Being is an evidence review carried out for the (then) DCSF in 2009; similarly, Families in Britain: an Evidence Paper was published in 2008 - while many of the policy outlines it contains will now have altered, it is full of facts and figures which highlight issues facing families in the UK today. Or for something a little shorter, follow this link to download a copy of When Times Are Tough, a brief insight into how four low-income families manage their daily lives.

I'm off for a lie-down...

Family Friendly Report Card 2010

Exam season is almost upon us, so the Family and Parenting Institute has entered into the spirit of things by awarding the UK a report card for different areas of family policy. Overall the country gets a C- grade for family friendliness, but the brief report also contains some interesting facts on the cost of raising a child, maternity leave, neighbourhoods and more. To view the card, click here.

Family Wellbeing

With the subject of wellbeing having received much attention in recent months, the Family and Parenting Institute have issued a timely literature review entitled Can Government Measure Family Wellbeing? The review "analyses current definitions, theoretical models, and measurement tools and examines quality issues such as validity and transferability, as well as the conceptual and practical measurement challenges posed by the study of family wellbeing." A summary version is also available.

For further links to information on all aspects of wellbeing, click on the 'Wellbeing' link in the Hot Topics menu in the right-hand column of this page.

Family Information Directory

Today sees the launch of the government's Family Information Directory, a 'one stop shop' for information on schools, childcare and family services in a given area. Simply type a town's name or postcode into the search box, select the type of service you are interested in, and the site will list all of the relevant providers in the area, together with contact details, links to Ofsted reports etc. Very useful!

Support for All: Families and Relationships

A quick politics lesson: a 'Green Paper' is the name given to a document containing proposals which is issued by a government; while it doesn't change the law, it is often the case that after consultation and feedback from relevant bodies and other political parties, a Green Paper is revised and subsequently turned into legislation.

Today sees the launch of Support for All: the Families and Relationships Green Paper, which contains government plans to help prevent family breakdown, support the roles of fathers and grandparents, and improve flexible working options for parents. You can read a summary of the proposals in this BBC article, while the full text of the Paper is available here.

Family Trends and Policy

A new publication from the Family and Parenting Institute says that the nuclear family is breaking down, with relations outside of the family unit increasingly getting involved with parenting tasks. Other findings in the report highlighted the changing role of fathers, the increase in mothers that work, and a rise in the number of cohabiting couples. Although the full report, entitled Family Trends, is not available online, this speech from the Institute's Chief Executive summarises its main conclusions.

This month actually marks the 10th anniversary of the Family and Parenting Institute, which they have marked by releasing Ten years of Family Policy: 1999–2009, an excellent introduction to developments in this area in England over the past decade, with a lengthy references list for further reading. Those of our readers already working in this field may also be interested in the Institute's new booklet Knowing what you do Works: Measuring your Own Effectiveness with Families, Parents and Children: a Short Guide, and it's accompanying briefing sheet: Examples of Effective Measuring Tools.

A Quick Catch Up

Children's rights, mental health issues and family intervention are all covered in today's bumper post, which covers a number of recent publications...

• The parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights has criticised the government's record on protecting children's rights; issues highlighted in their Children's Rights report included the treatment of young offenders and media treatment of children. You can read the full text online now.

• A new publication from the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health claims that up to 80% of crime is committed by individuals who had behavioural problems as a child. The report, entitled The Chance of a Lifetime, argues that the cost of introducing parenting support for problem families at an early age is easily offset by the savings from a reduced crime rate in later years.

• New research into the government's Family Intervention Projects (FIPs) suggests that they are helping to reduce anti-social behaviour and enforced evictions.

• Improving Educational Outcomes for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Pupils What Works? is a new piece of DCSF research which takes a fresh look at a topic which has attracted plenty of attention in recent years.
  

Fathers, Family & Work

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has just published a short report which examines how working fathers attempt to juggle their work-life balance; the study concluded that many fathers would appreciate more flexible working to allow them to spend more time with their children.

The full title of the report is Working Better: Fathers, Family and Work - Contemporary Perspectives and it is online now.

Early Learning Partnerships

A new study by the Family and Parenting Institute examines the impact of the Early Learning Partnership Project (ELPP), a government-funded project which sought to improve early education for children from vulnerable families. One of the surprising conclusions which the researchers had not anticipated was that the project had a positive effect on the way that voluntary organisations work together.

To read the full text of the report, click here.