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LABOUR AND CONSERVATIVES START THEIR ELECTION BATTLE WITH PLANS TO SUPPORT FAMILIES, BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL ARE CUTTING THERE’S.
22 January
2010
With the General Election looming and both Labour and the Conservatives start their election battle, both
have been setting out their plans to support families reported by the BBC Wenesday so why are Birmingham City Council cutting these most needed provisions.
At a redundancy consultation meeting with Birmingham City Council today
GMB trade Union raised concerns about the threat to nursery provision across the city.
Birmingham City Council
has today confirmed that all community day nurseries are under threat as part of a major cost cutting exercise. The GMB has
warned that this will have a major impact on childcare provision affecting families throughout Birmingham apart from the vital childcare
GMB members supply parenting support, mother and baby advice, child protection, safeguarding children, key links into other
child support services etc, all of these services are now at risk.
Community Day Nurseries currently provide
825 childcare places in Birmingham. Many of which are supplied for vulnerable children.
Roger Jenkins GMB
Official said, “Cutting of these services not only affects our members and add to the jobless total but will
put hundreds of children and families at risk. We find it obscene that whilst the council spend millions on consultants and
agency staff essentials frontline services are being desinated.
-
Ends –
Contact:
Roger Jenkins, GMB Regional Organiser on 07957 265302
or Tony Hughes, GMB Birmingham Branch Secretary for Children, Young People and Families 07833 059272, Samantha Jones, GMB
Press Officer
on 0121 550 4888.
Notes to Editors:
- Stragetic Director
of Children, Young People and Families – Tony Howells Human
Recourses 38 -50 Orphanage Road Erdington Birmingham B24 9HW Tel: 0121 303 2410 Fax: 0121 464 7009
Labour says it will change
the law so that if parents split up, grandparents will not have to go to court to apply for contact with grandchildren. They
also say they will give fathers more support in bringing up children. The Conservatives have accused Labour
of stealing their policies - especially on grandparents' rights. Ministers say employers and health and children's
services in England all need to recognise the role fathers have in caring for children. Fathers will
be given more information before a child's birth to encourage them to be responsible parents. 'Custody
battles' Labour's Families and Relationship Green Paper - being released today - sets
out a wide range of measures designed to support "all families". Under Labour's plans, separating couples will
be strongly encouraged to seek mediation rather than going to the family courts to settle problems.
“ What I am not going to say is that if you are a widow or if you are a lone parent because your husband threw
you out in an abusive relationship, you should be disadvantaged ”
Ed Balls, Children's Secretary
On the BBC's Today programme, Children's Secretary Ed Balls clashed
with Conservative Families Spokesman David Willetts over the issue of giving tax breaks to married couples.
Mr Balls said he supported marriage, but did not
believe it should be reflected in the tax system. "The evidence shows that if you are married, children do better, although
once you adjust for the fact that people who are married tend to marry older, be better educated and have higher incomes,
once you adjust for these things, you find that it is not the legal form, it is the strength and stability of the relationship
which is the most important thing," he said. "What I am not going to say is that if you are a widow or if you are
a lone parent because your husband threw you out in an abusive relationship, you should be disadvantaged." Mr Willetts said the Conservatives were committed to looking at the most effective way of "helping marriage
through the tax system", although this was not something which would happen immediately if his party came to power.
“ Strong families provide the stability, warmth and love we need to flourish as
human beings, and the relationships they foster are the bedrock on which society is built ”
David Willetts, Conservatives Families' spokesman He said: "You could have transferable
allowances. You could have married couple allowances. There is a range of ideas and that is what we are looking at. "This is something we are committed to doing in the lifetime
of the next Parliament. "It is not something we are likely to be able to do in the first budget. "That means, if there were a Conservative government, it is something we would
have the time to consider what was the most effective way, given the state of the public finances, for helping marriage through
the tax system." But Mr Balls suggested that the Conservatives would opt for a transferable income
tax allowance for married couples which would cost £4.9 billion and benefit wealthier families while penalising widows,
divorcees and couples where both partners work. Mr Willetts said any attempt to use the tax system to support relationships
outside marriage would be "incredibly complicated and intrusive". Draft
manifesto Later, Mr Willetts launched the family section of the Conservative Party's Draft
Manifesto. The party says it would make Britain more "family-friendly" by reforming the tax and benefits
system, by "taking a new approach to early intervention and by "helping families to balance their lives". Mr Willetts said: "We can't go on ignoring the importance of strong families. "They provide the stability, warmth and love we need to flourish as human beings,
and the relationships they foster are the bedrock on which society is built." The draft manifesto he said outlined "a comprehensive approach to encourage stability and
tackle social breakdown - a new system of flexible parental leave which lets parents share maternity leave, more health visitors
to support new parents, and encouraging commitment by recognising marriage in the tax system". Stability
Liberal Democrat families spokesman David Laws told the Today programme the
key thing was stability - and it would be better to direct funds at helping children through the education system. He said:"We are deluding ourselves as a nation if we think
that some sort of small tax break is really going to make a fundamental difference to parenting or marriage. "The key thing is whether there is stability and whether
there is love and that can often be highly associated with marriage but it is not exclusively associated with marriage."
“ Focusing that money on those children - giving them skills, aspirations, as much
stability as we can and the life skills they need - will do far, far more. ”
David Laws,
Liberal Democrats "The policies Ed Balls is
announcing - the Dads' Guide and the websites - will make very little difference. I would put all of this money into the
education system. "Focusing that money on those children - giving them skills, aspirations, as
much stability as we can and the life skills they need - will do far, far more to promote responsible citizens and good, stable
families." Government plans to involve fathers
more in child-rearing include leaflets targeted at them, which will be distributed from next month. Research suggests fathers who are involved with the birth of a child are more likely
to stay involved in the child's first three years of life. And longer term involvement leads to children having higher self-esteem, educational achievement and fewer behavioural
problems, research says. Recent studies suggest more
and more fathers are sharing and even taking over responsibility for childcare. 'Myth-busting guide' The booklet for new fathers is being drawn up to give tailored
advice and tips to fathers ahead of a new birth. Written
with the Fatherhood Institute, officials say it will be a "myth-busting guide" about how fathers can be just as
good hands-on carers as mothers. It will also offer
advice about legal issues like registering the birth, health issues for both parents, communicating with the baby and keeping
him or her safe, providing financially and maintaining a good relationship with the mother. A spokesman for Families Need Fathers said it had been lobbying to make proper mediation
compulsory before attending court, and that it was encouraged that the government would now consult on this. And the former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith has
renewed his attack on the government over family policy. The
think tank he established - the Centre for Social Justice - issued a dossier claiming that more than 40% of children in the
UK were now born outside marriage and that child abuse had risen 34% over the past four years. The report said: "The peculiarly high levels of family breakdown
found in Britain are at the heart of the social breakdown which is devastating our most deprived communities
and fracturing British society in general. "Strengthening
families is vital, both to the health of Britain and in ensuring a more socially just society.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/education/8469735.stm
Published: 2010/01/20 17:28:11 GMT
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