On this page you can find statements and briefings outlining our position on a range of policy areas key to the work of Family Action. If you would like further information on any of these issues please contact the Policy and Campaigns team.
21 Years of Family Policy
Our CEO Helen Dent contributed to a report (2008) examining 21 years of family support policy for Action for Children's publication, 'As long as it takes: a new politics for children'.
The report highlights some of the strengths and weaknesses of how policy has been made and implemented in relation to families over the past two decades. It draws out a series of tensions lying beneath all policy development and suggests a new approach for the future. Community Care covered the publication with this article.
If you would like to comment on Helen's contribution, or discuss any aspect with us, please contact the Policy and Campaigns team.
Download '21 Years of Family Policy'
Policy Briefing on Parents with Mental Health DifficultiesMental illness is one of the greatest health and social challenges of our age. As many as one in six of the population have a mental health disorder and around 630,000 are in contact with specialised mental health services.1 Of these, it is estimated that up to 30 per cent have dependent children and seven per cent live in lone parent households.2 Unpublished data supplied by the Department of Work and Pensions supports this estimate and suggests that as of May 2005 there were 198,000 parents in receipt of an incapacity benefit3 who had a ‘mental and behavioural disorder’.4
Despite the number of families affected by parents living with mental health difficulties, and the impact it can have on family life, evidence suggests that adult mental health services often fail to consider parenting responsibilities.5 While the situation is now beginning to improve, and there is a growing recognition of parental mental ill health, there remains a mountain to climb to ensure that families are provided with the support they require.
Download the briefing on Families Affected by Parental Mental Health Difficulties.
1 Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health (2007) www.scmh.org.uk
2 Melzer, D. Inequalities in mental health: ‘A systematic review’ in the research findings register, Summary No. 1063. London: Department of Health (2003).
3 The main incapacity benefits are Income Support with a disability premium, Incapacity Benefit and Severe Disablement Allowance.
4 Gould, N. Mental health and child poverty. Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2006).
5 See, for example, Robinson, B and Scott, S. Parents in hospital: how mental health services can best promote family contact when a parent is in hospital. Barnardo’s (2007).
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