social policy and the family

• conservative government

  preference for the traditional nuclear family

  encouraging mothers to stay at home

  encouraging individual and parental responsibility
• who were the conservative government influenced by?

  the new right perspective
• conservative policies

  the children act - improving children's rights

  the child support agency - ensured all absent fathers paid maintenance

  proposed changes to divorce rules - planned to have a 'cooling off' period between separation and divorce
• new labour government

  1997 - 2010

  cuts to lone parent benefits - wanted to promote mothers doing more work and children receiving more professional childcare
• new labour policies


  paid paternity leave

  civil partnership act

  adoption and children's act
• civil partnership act

  2004

  allowed same sex couples to be legally recognised
• adoption and children's act

  allowed same sex couples to adopt children
• evaluation of new labour government

  critics argue that it is just an approach to cutting public spending on welfare

  it did improve gay rights through their reforms
• evaluation of conservative government

  marxists argue that their policies benefit the ruling class and capitalism
• coalition government


  2010-2015

  conservative - maintaining the new right approach just with more modern attitudes

  liberal democrats - more liberal approach that accepts alternative family types
• who influenced the new labour government

  late modernist perspective - anthony giddens
• coalition government policies


  shared parental leave - men and women having the same amount of paternity and maternity leave

  equal marriage - same sex marriages
• evaluation of coalition government policies

  very few fathers are actually taking advantage of the shared parental leave - only 2%

  inequalities in UK law due to the equal marriage and civil partnership act
• social policy today

  married couples tax allowance - only one member pays tax and this applies to all married couples

  child tax credits restricted to two children - discourages people from having more than two children