Mending our broken society: The family

On Monday, we published our plans for school reform. Yesterday, we published our plans to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour.  Today, we are publishing our proposals to make Britain more family friendly.

We can’t go on ignoring the importance of strong families.  They provide the stability, warmth and love we need to flourish as human beings, and the relationships they foster are the bedrock on which society is built.  But under Labour, Britain is one of the least family-friendly countries in the developed world.  They have ignored families for 12 years, and even today they have no new ideas for how to support families. Their one headline today – greater rights for grandparents – was first suggested by David Willetts at our Party Conference.

This will change with a Conservative government – Britain’s families will get our full backing.  A Conservative government will:

·         end Labour’s couple penalty in the tax credit system;

·         recognise marriage and civil partnerships in the tax system in the next Parliament;

·         take Sure Start back to its original purpose of early intervention, increase its focus on the neediest families and better involve organisations with a track record in supporting families;

·         provide 4,200 more health visitors to give all parents a guaranteed level of support before and after birth until their child starts school;

·         extend the right to request flexible working to every parent with a child under the age of eighteen, and introduce a new system of flexible parental leave which lets parents share maternity leave.

For more information, or to view the families section of our draft manifesto, please click here.