Updated: Link added to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions speech at the Marriage Foundation Conference
On 6 December 2013 the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions delivered a speech at the Marriage Foundation Conference, where he announced The Family Stability Review. The DWP is leading this cross Government Review which will assess evidence on measures to support family stability and make recommendations on future policy.
The ‘Social Justice: Transforming Lives’ Strategy, published in March 2012, set out the Government’s vision for supporting the most disadvantaged families and individuals across the UK. The strategy highlighted the crucial role the family plays in providing a foundation for a child’s development and success in later life. This was followed by the Social Justice Outcomes Framework which outlined how the strategy will be put into practice.
The Framework includes a Family Stability Indicator which measures the proportion of children who still live with their birth parents broken down according to the age of the child and household income.
The current status of the indicator reveals the scale of the challenge. By the age of 16 nearly half of all children do not live with both of their birth parents and this trend is predicted to increase if new measures are not taken.
In light of this growth in family instability, a cross government review led by DWP has been put in place to:
- analyse evidence on the drivers and levers around family formation, stability and breakdown
- assess existing interventions
- make recommendations on further policy measures
In order to ensure the evidence analysis is as comprehensive as possible we invited external stakeholders from the analytical community to contribute to the evidence gather by 17 January 2014. The evidence analysis will inform initial policy options which will be presented to Ministers for further consideration.
If you would like further information on the review please email family.stabilityreview@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
There are likely to be further opportunities to contribute to the review, via engagement events. Details of these events will be published on this page.