{"id":66245,"date":"2016-01-10T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-10T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=9e779c1884fbae064592568f9cf1e07f"},"modified":"2016-01-10T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-01-10T09:00:00","slug":"press-release-pm-families-are-the-key-to-ending-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=66245","title":{"rendered":"Press release: PM: Families are the key to ending poverty"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<ul>\n<li>government to double funding for relationship support to \u00a370 million<\/li>\n<li>Prime Minister to underline importance of strong families in preventing poverty <\/li>\n<li>Prime Minister: We\u2019ve got to start talking about parenting and taking action to get it right<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Prime Minister will announce a doubling of government funding for relationship support and pledge to take bold action to deal with poor parenting in a speech tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>The Prime Minister will set out the importance of strong families in helping to prevent poverty and give children the best start in life, as he announces a government commitment to double funding for relationship support to \u00a370 million over the next 5 years.<\/p>\n<p>The money, which will fund relationship support and counselling for couples, run by the likes of Relate, Marriage Care and One Plus One, is a doubling of the \u00a335 million commitment over the last Parliament \u2013 which helped 160,000 couples. <\/p>\n<p>With families that break apart twice as likely to experience poverty than families who stay together,  the Prime Minister will say that strengthening families is at the heart of this government\u2019s agenda over the next 5 years. <\/p>\n<p>While there can be circumstances where it is right for a couple to split, this funding provides vital money to those who need it and the opportunity to get support. And it is expected to help at least 300,000 more couples over the next 5 years and train more that 10,000 professionals in providing support and preventing relationship breakdown.<\/p>\n<p>In a wide ranging speech, the Prime Minister is also expected to speak about the importance of strong parenting, saying we must make parenting classes more accessible for all families. He will also announce plans to use the Troubled Families programme so parenting skills and child development become central to how it is delivered.  <\/p>\n<p>On relationship support, the Prime Minister is expected to say:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Families are the best anti-poverty measure ever invented.<\/p>\n<p>They are a welfare, education and counselling system all wrapped up into one.<\/p>\n<p>Children in families that break apart are more than twice as likely to experience poverty as those whose families stay together.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">That\u2019s why strengthening families is at the heart of our agenda.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>He will go onto say:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>In the end, getting parenting and the early years right isn\u2019t just about the hardest-to-reach families, it\u2019s about everyone.<\/p>\n<p>We all have to work at it. And if you don\u2019t have a strong support network \u2013 if you don\u2019t know other mums or dads, having your first child can be enormously isolating.<\/p>\n<p>Of course they don\u2019t come with a manual, but is it right that all of us get so little guidance?<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve made progress. We\u2019ve dramatically expanded the number of health visitors, and that is crucial.<\/p>\n<p>But it deals with one particular part of parenting \u2013 the first few weeks and months.<\/p>\n<p>What about later on, when it comes to good play, communication, behaviour and discipline? We all need more help with this \u2013 the most important job we\u2019ll ever have.<\/p>\n<p>So I believe we now need to think about how to make it normal \u2013 even aspirational  to attend parenting classes\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">\u2026So I can announce today that our Life Chances Strategy will include a plan for significantly expanding parenting provision. It will examine the possible  introduction of a voucher scheme for parenting classes and recommend the best way to incentivise parents to take them up.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Chris Sherwood, Chief Executive at Relate said: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">We are delighted by today\u2019s announcement of increased funding for relationship support, something that Relate has long been calling for. Relationship support can help to reduce family breakdown, which is a key driver of poverty and can result in poor outcomes for children. Relationships are under increasing pressure. Currently over a million people every year access support from Relate, but this is just the tip of the iceberg and we know many more would benefit from our services. This funding could make a real difference to the life chances of thousands of children.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"notes-to-editors\">Notes to editors<\/h2>\n<p>The Troubled Families initiative, launched in 2012 is aimed at helping the hardest to reach families by getting parents into work, ending truancy and cutting anti-social behaviour. The government has pledged to work with a further 400,000 families over the course of the Parliament. <\/p>\n<p>The \u00a370 million relationship support funding will be spread over the course of the Parliament. The funding will be administered through contracts with a range of  organisations, including charities and local authorities. Tenders for some of the relationship support provision were released in November last year. Successful bidders will be notified in the next few weeks. The organisations who have bid to deliver this support are from the family and relationship support sector, most of whom have extensive knowledge and experience in delivering family and couple support. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Cameron will announce a doubling of government funding for relationship support and pledge to take action to deal with poor parenting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66245"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66268,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66245\/revisions\/66268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}