Manifesto > Moral Purpose: Valuing families, rebuilding communities (Introduction) | Families and Children | Policing and Criminal Justice | Population and Migration | Rural Communities

Moral Purpose: Valuing families, rebuilding communities

Governments are limited in what they can do; they cannot replace the family, nor should they seek to do so.  But they can try to help rather than hinder families, many of whom struggle due to the demands of work, housing and other social pressures.

Many children turn up at school lacking any discipline or manners and their disruptive behaviour holds back the children around them. Some education authorities have had to introduce ‘nurture classes’ in which children are given meals (including breakfast) and are taught basic social skills which they are not getting at home. Although we recognise the value of such programmes we believe that the best long term solution for this type of problem will be action focused on strengthening family ties, improving the efficiency of schools and providing better jobs and housing.

Where families break up, we propose an equal parenting policy similar to Florida. Under this system, parents who split up work with a mediation service to determine how parenting duties are to be split. This starts from the assumption that each parent will have an equal role in parenting (unless there is some reason, such as violent behaviour, to decide otherwise). The evidence shows that this approach helps to focus parents on their responsibilities to their children rather than engaging in disputes about custody and access.

We will also establish an independent body to review child protection cases where there is doubt over the evidence provided by social workers or medical staff.

Pre-school education and care

It is recognised that many children who have had pre-school education go on to do better in full time education. The New Party will therefore introduce
measures that will help support working families who need proper childcare provision and parenting support.

We will provide grants to primary schools to provide low-cost under-5 crèche and nursery provision. These facilities will accommodate the reasonable requirements of parents with regard to their working day. However, we will encourage the maximum participation of parents in pre-school care.

In order to encourage the involvement of parents in local schools, school premises receiving public funds will be made available to parenting groups free of charge.

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