Support for All

The demographic and social changes of the last 30 or 40 years have been profound and have led to much greater diversity in family patterns. But the evidence is clear that it is strong, stable relationships between adults in the home - parents, grandparents and other caring adults - and among all these adults and the children in a family, that have the biggest impact on children's happiness and healthy development. This Green Paper sets out a wide range of measures to support all families as they bring up their children and to help families cope with times of stress and difficulty. The Paper's proposals aim to influence factors that can strengthen or weaken family life, such as the choices available about balancing employment with bringing up children; and how welcoming and accessible public services are to families of all kinds. It focuses mostly on supporting family relationships by enabling families to help themselves. It also considers the position of children and other family members when family relationships have broken down. Chapters include: Introduction; families today; what government is already doing to support families and family relationships; bringing up children; building strong family relationships and dealing with relationship pressures and breakdown; family relationships and employment; the role of public services; consultation questions and conclusions.