Centre for Policy Studies

The family is at the heart of society. Evidence from a wide range of UK and US sources show that children who experience family breakdown or who grow up in fatherless families are at much higher risk of poor outcomes: from educational failure to drink and drug abuse, from crime and teenage pregnancy to unemployment and relationship breakdown.

UK fiscal policy should be reformed to support marriage through the tax system and to remove the welfare penalty on two-parent families. State intervention in family life should focus on protection of vulnerable children; it should not extend to managing their day-to-day lives and removing responsibility and judgment from parents.

Related publications:

• A Step Change In UK Philanthropy by Paul Palmer (2010)
• What Women Want...And How They Can Get It by Cristina Odone (2009)
• Wasted: The betrayal of white working class and black Caribbean boys by Harriet Sergeant (2009)
• Don't Let This Crisis Go To Waste by Michael Johnson (2009)
• Benefit Simplifcation by David Martin (2009)
• A House Divided by Charlie Elphicke (2009)
• The Nationalisation of Childhood by Jill Kirby (2006)
• From Latchkey to Leadership by Ray Lewis and Kathy Gyngell (2006)
• The Price of Parenthood by Jill Kirby (2005)
• No Man’s Land by Shaun Bailey (2005)
• Broken Hearts: family decline and the impact on society by Jill Kirby (2003)

Articles:

• Mummy, they're misleading you about going back to work by Jill Kirby in The Sunday Times (August 2010)
• This retirement age needed pensioning off by Jill Kirby in The Sunday Times (August 2010)
• Should a law force families to care for elderly parents? by Jill Kirby in The Express (February 2010)
• It takes two to mend a broken society by Jill Kirby in The Daily Telegraph (December 2009)
• The worst place to grow up is in care by Jill Kirby in The Daily Telegraph (November 2009)
• ASBOS can’t beat a neighbourhood policeman by Jill Kirby in The Times (September 2009)
• Tories must set parents free to raise children by Jill Kirby in The Daily Telegraph (June 2009)
• We can’t let the family die by Kathy Gyngell in The Daily Telegraph (April 2009)
• From broken families to the broken society by Jill Kirby in The Political Quarterly (April 2009)
• Parents beware – do gooders want to push you aside by Jill Kirby in The Sunday Times (February 2009)

Recent Events:

Earlier this year the Centre for Policy Studies, in association with the Hera Trust, held a series of family policy seminars at which sociologist Geoff Dench presented new evidence from his detailed analysis of British Social Attitudes data relating to women's attitudes and behaviour. See below for details of each seminar:

• Representing women: How the sisterhood fails mothers (March 2010)
• Wider family ties - and grandparents (March 2010)
• A Woman's Work (February 2010)
• The value of a male partner (February 2010)