Welcome to April's issue of the Family and Parenting Institute's newsletter – Family Focus. To subscribe to this newsletter click here

 

1. News
2. Family Policy Digest
3. Horizon scan
4. Forward look
5. Notice board

1. News

Family justice system

At a speech to Resolution family lawyers at their annual conference in Brighton, High Court Judge, Mr. Justice Coleridge warned that the effects of family breakdown on the lives of ordinary people will be "as marked and as destructive as global warming" if the Government does not introduce fundamental reform.
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Youth Taskforce

The DCSF is to target one thousand of 'the most challenging young people' in the country as part of the Youth Taskforce Action Plan. It will focus on three areas: tough enforcement where behaviour is unacceptable or illegal non-negotiable support to address the underlying causes of poor behaviour and better prevention to tackle problems before they become serious and entrenched, and to prevent problems arising in the first place.
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Families and new technology

Tanya Byron's review into new technologies and the dangers posed to children was released on March 27. Included are her proposals for a national strategy for child internet safety and information and an improvement of the systems in place to help parents restrict children's access to video games not suitable for their age.

Also, Ofcom, the regulatory body of the communication industry, recently released new research on who uses social networking websites as part of its media literacy strategy

The Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) launched the Parent Know How Programme in March. It is designed to give more information and help to parents in England via the web, over the phone and by text and instant messages.

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Families and Place: home is where we start from

On Wednesday April 9 the Family and Parenting Institute and the RSA hosted a debate that explored whether people's quality of life and aspirations as well as family relationships were affected by the people spend time with or by the area in which they live.
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Family Policy Digest

This month's digest includes news on the government's progress in tackling child poverty linked to the Budget statement; two key documents on youth policy; and the updated child health promotion programme.
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Horizon Scan

Looked after Children Select Committee

The Children, Schools and Families Committee is holding a third inquiry into looked after children on Monday April 21.

Our Chief Executive Mary MacLeod attended the second inquiry on March 26 and presented evidence from the Family and Parenting Institute based on the consultation response we submitted in February this year. A transcript of this inquiry can be found here
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Fatherhood Institute campaign about maternity services

Next week the Fatherhood Institute launches a UK-wide campaign pushing for maternity services to engage more effectively with fathers. In a new report, they will highlight a mass of evidence proving the profound extra benefits to child and parents of the father's active and positive involvement from birth.
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Speech and language

The Bercow Review will make its final recommendations in July 2008 on speech, language and communications services for children and young people.

An interim report, released on March 20, found that for some families information is hard to find and services are hard to access.
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Forward look

Check here for upcoming events in the family and parenting world. Please let us know of your forthcoming events so we can include them.
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Notice board

Early Learning Partnership Project

A conference will take place on Wednesday June 25 to highlight the work of the national Early Learning Partnerships Project which supports parents involvement in their young children's learning and will announce the results from the evaluation of the project, carried out by Oxford University.
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Parents' Week 08: Getting it right for families

The ninth annual Parents' Week will take place from Monday 20th October to Sunday 26th October 2008.

In the coming months, there will be a range of resources available to you on these pages to support your Parents' Week activities, as well as the opportunity to register for your free practitioner's guide, the second in the new Parents' Week series. The first - How to help families in trouble, a short guide - is still available to purchase in bulk or download for free through our bookshop (link) and was offered free to practitioners during Parents' Week 07.
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Call for papers – Parent child 2008

We are now inviting offers of papers from researchers, practitioners, policy analysts and voluntary organisations for our "Getting it right for families" conference Thursday 13 and Friday 14 November 2008.

Papers can present the results of research, describe work in progress, good practice or raise issues for social policy debate following the themes of the conference.
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National Academy for Parenting Practitioners – Commissioners' Toolkit

NAPP would welcome any feedback you may have to help us improve the Commissioners' Toolkit further.
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Suzie Peleg Information and Website Manager
www.familyandparenting.org

April 2008
Current subscribers –12062

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Last updated: 8th May 2008 at 02:05:00