Family and Parenting Institute

The institute has run Parents’ Week since 1999 – an annual week-long celebration of parents and families through events and projects throughout the UK. At the launch of the 2011 Parents’ Week, Minister of State for Children and Families, Sarah Teather MP stated that parenting issues were at the “top of the agenda” for the Coalition Government [3]

The Family Friendly scheme was launched by the institute in summer 2011 with the aim of making the UK a more family friendly society. Public, private and charity sector organisations joining in the scheme take a ‘Family Friendly pledge.’ They are then given a framework and resources for putting the pledge into action, focusing on customers, staff and services. Families themselves are given the opportunity to give feedback, via the scheme's website, on the quality of the service they received. Current members include BT Group, easyJet, Barclays, Gatwick Airport, Gingerbread (charity), Fatherhood Institute, Grandparents Plus, Action for Prisoners’ Families, Contact A Family and a number of local Family Information Services.

Since 2010, the Family and Parenting Institute has produced a “report card” on the UK's progress towards becoming a family friendly society. The 2010 report graded the UK on the following factors: costs of raising a child; maternity and paternity leave; elderly care; work-life balance; child and pensioner poverty; childhood commercialisation; neighbourhoods and green spaces and care of vulnerable children.

• In 2010 the UK was graded an overall score of C−.
• However, in 2011, this was downgraded to D+. The economic squeeze on families was cited as the reason for the drop.[4]

The Family and Parenting Institute contributed to the 2011 Bailey Review[5] which examined the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood by advertisers, corporates and the media.

The Family and Parenting Institute is in the process of a two-year research project to track how the UK's economic problems are affecting family life. The project has launched two reports, Families in the Age of Austerity, in January 2011, and The Impact of Austerity Measures on Households with Children, in January 2012, in conjunction with the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Both received widespread coverage in the media. The project's final report is expected in January 2013.

Family Voice is a project that started in 2011. It explores the use of social media to find out how to engage more with families.

The Family and Parenting Institute coordinates a coalition of 15 leading family charities to attend party political conferences in the autumn.

This all-parliamentary forum was established to provide impartial and progressive debate between politicians, parents’ groups, charities and researchers.

This project brought together the evidence focused on the vital role of parents in securing good outcomes for children, providing information on how to plan and deliver effective services to involve parents in their children's early learning.

From March 2004 to March 2011, the Family and Parenting Institute managed the Parenting Fund on behalf of the Department for Education (formerly the Department for Schools and Families). The fund reached hundreds of thousands of the UK's most vulnerable parents through grants made available to grassroots organisations. The impact of the Parenting Fund was assessed and a report published detailing the achievements. In particular:

• Impact was felt to be greatest around parental support, disability, fathers and managing conflict.
• Mothers had a better understanding of the impact of domestic violence on their children as well as themselves, and were able to form supportive relationships with other mothers.
• Separated/divorced parents in conflict were assisted to work better together in order to minimise the impact on their children.