The Family and Parenting Institute is an independent charity that exists to make the UK a better place for families and children. It works with charities, businesses, and public services to offer practical help to families. Its campaigns and research work focus on building a "family friendly" society by offering insights into current and future family life. It runs the Family Friendly scheme, which aims to help public and private organisations to better understand diverse families and meet their needs. The Family and Parenting Institute merged with the Daycare Trust in January 2013 and is now called the Family and Childcare Trust.
The Family and Parenting Institute was established by the Labour Government as the 'National Family and Parenting Institute' in 1999, in response to a recommendation made in the Supporting Families Green Paper 1998. The Institute modified its operating name and brand to 'Family and Parenting Institute' in 2006, though the registered name remains the National Family and Parenting Institute. [1]
The institute describes its values [2] as follows:
As well as research, policy and public affairs, the Family and Parenting Institute is engaged in the following projects:
The institute has run Parents’ Week since 1999 – an annual week-long celebration of parents and families through events and projects throughout the UK. At the launch of the 2011 Parents’ Week, Minister of State for Children and Families, Sarah Teather MP stated that parenting issues were at the “top of the agenda” for the Coalition Government [3]
The Family Friendly scheme was launched by the institute in summer 2011 with the aim of making the UK a more family friendly society. Public, private and charity sector organisations joining in the scheme take a ‘Family Friendly pledge.’ They are then given a framework and resources for putting the pledge into action, focusing on customers, staff and services. Families themselves are given the opportunity to give feedback, via the scheme's website, on the quality of the service they received. Current members include BT Group, easyJet, Barclays, Gatwick Airport, Gingerbread (charity), Fatherhood Institute, Grandparents Plus, Action for Prisoners’ Families, Contact A Family and a number of local Family Information Services.
Since 2010, the Family and Parenting Institute has produced a “report card” on the UK's progress towards becoming a family friendly society. The 2010 report graded the UK on the following factors: costs of raising a child; maternity and paternity leave; elderly care; work-life balance; child and pensioner poverty; childhood commercialisation; neighbourhoods and green spaces and care of vulnerable children.
The Family and Parenting Institute contributed to the 2011 Bailey Review [5] which examined the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood by advertisers, corporates and the media.
The Family and Parenting Institute is in the process of a two-year research project to track how the UK's economic problems are affecting family life. The project has launched two reports, Families in the Age of Austerity, in January 2011, and The Impact of Austerity Measures on Households with Children, in January 2012, in conjunction with the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Both received widespread coverage in the media. The project's final report was released in January 2013.
This section needs to be updated.(December 2017) |
Family Voice is a project that started in 2011. It explores the use of social media to find out how to engage more with families.
The Family and Parenting Institute coordinates a coalition of 15 leading family charities to attend party political conferences in the autumn.
This all-parliamentary forum was established to provide impartial and progressive debate between politicians, parents’ groups, charities and researchers.
This project brought together the evidence focused on the vital role of parents in securing good outcomes for children, providing information on how to plan and deliver effective services to involve parents in their children's early learning.
From March 2004 to March 2011, the Family and Parenting Institute managed the Parenting Fund on behalf of the Department for Education (formerly the Department for Schools and Families). The fund reached hundreds of thousands of the UK's most vulnerable parents through grants made available to grassroots organisations. The impact of the Parenting Fund was assessed and a report published detailing the achievements. In particular:
The Family and Parenting Institute receives funding from a number of sources including trusts, foundations, businesses and state grants. [6]
The Family and Parenting Institute regularly receives coverage in the media. Its aims and work has been welcomed and supported by the Coalition Government led by Prime Minister David Cameron [3] [7]
Recent coverage has included FPI's claims that the Coalition Government's cuts package will hit families with babies hardest,[ citation needed ] the FPI's focus on the costs of raising a child,[ citation needed ] and its findings on the impact of austerity measures on households with children [8] [9] [10]
This section needs to be updated.(December 2017) |
Sarah Louise Teather is the Director of Jesuit Refugee Service UK and a former British Member of Parliament and Minister. As a Liberal Democrat politician, she founded the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Guantanamo Bay and was chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees. On stepping down as an MP, she joined the Jesuit Refugee Service as an advocacy adviser and was appointed as country director of JRS UK in December 2015.
The National Lottery Community Fund, legally named the Big Lottery Fund, is a non-departmental public body responsible for distributing funds raised by the National Lottery for "good causes".
The Royal Mencap Society is a charity based in the United Kingdom that works with people with learning disabilities.
Sure Start is a UK Government area-based initiative, announced in 1998 by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, applying primarily in England with slightly different versions in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It introduced a network of children's centres and other services to support local families with children under 5, including "health services, parenting support, early learning and childcare, and parental employment support". The initiative originated from HM Treasury, with the aim of "giving children the best possible start in life" through improvement of childcare, early education, health and family support, with an emphasis on outreach and community development.
The Mothers' Union is an international Christian charity that seeks to support families worldwide. Its members are not all mothers or even all women, as there are many parents, men, widows, singles and grandparents involved in its work. Its main aim is to support monogamous marriage and family life, especially through times of adversity.
End Child Poverty coalition was set up in 2001 by a group of UK children's charities, social justice groups, faith-groups, trade unions and others concerned about what they considered the unacceptably high levels of child poverty in the UK.
Gingerbread says it is the leading British charity working with single parent families. The National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child, founded in 1918, changed its name to the National Council for One Parent Families in the early 1970s and in 2007 merged with Gingerbread, a self-help organisation founded in 1970. After briefly being known as One Parent Families|Gingerbread, it relaunched as Gingerbread in January 2009.
Daycare Trust is the UK's national childcare charity, campaigning for quality, accessible, affordable childcare for all, and raising the voices of children, parents and carers. Daycare Trust advises parents and carers, providers, employers, trade unions and policymakers on childcare issues. The Family and Childcare Trust was formed from the merger of the Daycare Trust and Family and Parenting Institute in 2013. The Daycare Trust was established in 1986 and is headquartered in London. It is a registered charity and company.
Credos is an advertising think-tank established in early 2010 by the Advertising Association, as part of their mission to re-build public trust in advertising and maintain the freedom to advertise responsibly in the UK. It is funded by the advertising industry and overseen by an advisory board to assure the quality of its work. Credos' mission is to 'understand advertising': its role, how it works, how it is perceived and its value to UK society and the economy.
The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) was set up in 2008 under the Brown Government charged with bringing together government departments, law enforcement agencies, academia, private industry and third-sector representatives such as charities and voluntary groups to collaborate on strategies to ensure child internet safety. It is a group made up of more than 200 constituent organisations with a board chaired by ministers. It collates internet safety research, conducts its own consultations, gives advice to industry providers and publishes a code of practice. The remit of the Council began with the Byron Review and the group has subsequently drawn on diverse sources including the Bailey Review and the work of Professor Sonia Livingstone.
Revolving Doors is a charitable organisation in the United Kingdom which works across England and Wales. Through research, policy and campaigning work, the organisation aims to improve services for people with multiple needs who are in repeat contact with the criminal justice system.
Carole Easton OBE is chief executive of Young Women's Trust, a charity supporting and representing disadvantaged young women. She is a previous Chair of Young Minds, a charity committed to improving the emotional well-being and mental health of children and young people, and Chief Executive at Young Women’s Trust, a charity supporting and representing young women at risk of lifelong financial and emotional insecurity. Easton is also Trustee at Depaul UK, the youth homelessness charity.
The United Kingdom government austerity programme was a fiscal policy that was adopted for a period in the early 21st century following the era of the Great Recession. Coalition and Conservative governments in office from 2010 to 2019 used the term, and it was applied again by many observers to describe Conservative Party policies from 2021 to 2024, during the cost of living crisis. With the exception of the Truss ministry, the governments in power over the second period did not formally re-adopt the term. The two austerity periods are separated by increased spending during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first period was one of the most extensive deficit reduction programmes seen in any advanced economy since the Second World War, with emphasis placed on shrinking the state, rather than consolidating fiscally as was more common elsewhere in Europe.
Autism Cymru was Wales' national charity for autism with offices in Cardiff, Wrexham, and Aberystwyth. The charity was established in May 2001 through an initial 3-year grant provided by The Shirley Foundation. The founder chair of the Trustees was Dame Stephanie Shirley of the Shirley Foundation.
The Bailey Review was an inquiry into what was described as "the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood". It was commissioned by the UK Coalition government in response to the manifesto commitments of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties in the 2010 general election. The Coalition believed that children in the UK were "being pressured to grow up too quickly", and sought recommendations on how to address what they perceived as public concern about this. On 6 December 2010 Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, appointed Reg Bailey CBE, Chief Executive of the Mothers’ Union to lead the Review. The results were published on 6 June 2011.
Storybook Dads is a non-profit charity in the UK founded by Sharon Berry and first launched in HM Prison Dartmoor in 2003. The charity enables serving prisoners and detainees to record bed time stories which can then be sent home to their children, and aims to maintain connections between serving prisoners and their families. In women's institutions the project operates under the name Storybook Mums.
The 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours were awarded as part of the Queen's Official Birthday celebrations during the month of June. The Queen's Birthday Honours for the United Kingdom were announced on 16 June; the honours for New Zealand were announced on 5 June and for Australia on 12 June.
David Robinson OBE is the co-founder of Community Links, founder and co-leader of the Relationships Project, chair of the Early Action Task Force, and Honorary Practitioner in Residence at the London School of Economics Marshall Institute, developing new work on tackling social isolation.
The 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as part of the Queen's Official Birthday celebrations during the month of June. The Queen's Birthday Honours for the United Kingdom were announced on 9 June; the honours for New Zealand were announced on 4 June and for Australia on 11 June.
The 2020 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrations at the start of January and were officially announced in The London Gazette on 27 December 2019. Australia, an independent Realm, has a separate honours system and its first honours of the year, the 2020 Australia Day Honours, coincide with Australia Day on 26 January.
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