Family and Parenting Institute

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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 focuses 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.

Contents

History

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]

Values

The institute describes its values [2] as follows:

Current activities

As well as research, policy and public affairs, the Family and Parenting Institute is engaged in the following projects:

Parents’ Week

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]

Family Friendly Scheme

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.

Family Friendly Report Cards

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.

Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood

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.

Families in an Age of Austerity

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 is expected in January 2013.

Family Voice

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.

Family Room

The Family and Parenting Institute coordinates a coalition of 15 leading family charities to attend party political conferences in the autumn.

Associate Parliamentary Group for Parents and Families

This all-parliamentary forum was established to provide impartial and progressive debate between politicians, parents’ groups, charities and researchers.

Notable Previous Activities

Early Home Learning Matters

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.

Parenting Fund

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:

Trustees

[6]

Funding Sources

The Family and Parenting Institute receives funding from a number of sources including trusts, foundations, businesses and state grants. [6]

In the press

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]

Related Research Articles

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Sexualization is to make something sexual in character or quality or to become aware of sexuality, especially in relation to men and women. Sexualization is linked to sexual objectification. According to the American Psychological Association, sexualization occurs when "individuals are regarded as sex objects and evaluated in terms of their physical characteristics and sexiness." "In study after study, findings have indicated that women more often than men are portrayed in a sexual manner and are objectified. In addition, a narrow standard of physical beauty is heavily emphasized. These are the models of femininity presented for young girls to boy study and emulate." According to the Media Education Foundation's, Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising's Image of Women, the sexualization of girls in media and the ways women are portrayed in the dominant culture are detrimental to the development of young girls as they are developing their identities and understanding themselves as sexual beings.

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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.

Buttle UK

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Dilwar Hussain is an independent British consultant working on social policy, Muslim identity and Islamic reform in the modern world. He formerly taught MA courses on Islam and Muslims at the Markfield Institute of Higher Education.

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Credos

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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.

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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.

References

  1. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ERORecords/HO/421/2/acu/sfpages.pdf%5B%5D
  2. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-01. Retrieved 2011-12-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. 1 2 "Sarah Teather to the Family and Parenting Institute". GOV.UK. 18 October 2011.
  4. "UK 'not family friendly': Nation fails the grade on family friendly status" (Press release). Family and Parenting Institute. 11 July 2010. Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 22 December 2011.
  5. "Bailey Review of the Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood: final report published". GOV.UK (Press release). 6 June 2011.
  6. 1 2 http://www.familyandparenting.org/NR/rdonlyres/200EEE74-C03F-4670-89E8-BEBB022F684A/0/FPI_annual_20102011.pdf Archived 2013-08-01 at the Wayback Machine .
  7. Katy Morton (February 2011). "DfE backs new family friendly initiative". Nursery World. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012.
  8. Sarah O’Grady (4 January 2012). "£1,400 raid on family income". Express.
  9. Kirkup, James (4 January 2012). "Families hit by benefits changes". Telegraph. Archived from the original on 13 January 2012.
  10. Chris Buckler (4 Jan 2012). "Tax changes 'hit families hardest'". BBC News.
  1. http://familyandchildcaretrust,org%5B%5D
  2. http://www.familyandparenting.org
  3. http://www.wearefamilyfriendly.org
  4. http://www.parentsweek.org.uk