Examine the ways in which laws and social policy affect family life.
Social policies consider the actions that the government take to make changes in society. Social policies are developed to help tackle social issues. There are some different views on policies, for example, from the New Right or New Labour. They have different views and during different times in society, views change. Some policies have a positive effect on the family and some have a negative effect on the family.
The New Right believe there was once a ‘Golden Age’ of the family where husbands and wives were strongly committed to each other for life. The children were brought up to respect their parents and social institutions such as the law. They are opposed to family diversity and are anti-feminist. The New Right see the 1960s and early 70s as the beginning of the attack on family values by the government.
The New Right promote what are called family values. Jewson (1994) identified some core family values. Public policy should favour this family type and oppose other types like same-sex families, sexual freedoms, sex education that ignores the family setting, and abortion. The nuclear family of two married parents and biological children is the normal family. They believe that the woman cares and nurtures while the man brings in economic earnings. They also believe that the family should look after one another in times of ill health, old age and lack of work.
The Essay on Domestic Violence Family Human Social
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The New Right support some policies that also support the traditional nuclear family. They support the tax and welfare policies as it benefits the heterosexual married couples. This leaves out a lot of different types of families such as the extended family and the same-sex families and so is unfair to those. They also support the payment of child benefit to the mother and reluctance to fund free universal provision has reinforced the idea that women should take prime responsibility for children. Feminists would say that this is wrong as it is devaluing women like it used to be. In 1991, the Child Support Act was created which said that an absent parent was expected to pay maintenance for children and this helped them to keep in touch with the family. This means that even if two parents did not like each other at all then they would still have to keep in touch. In 1999, the coordinated family policies were introduced, which is where the state sees the family as a private institution and therefore are reluctant to interfere.
Some people would criticise this because improved rights for women and children strengthen the family, not weaken it. Also, the traditional male family model has been undermined to improve the social and economic position of women – marital rape only became illegal in 1991. Children’s Acts would also criticise because they show that society works better with what they give rather than what the New Right think. Feminist Ann Oakley (1997) said that the New Right wrongly assume that men and women’s roles are fixed by biology. The New Right is negative reaction to feminism. The traditional nuclear family is based on the oppression of women. This causes gender inequality. There is little evidence to show neither that single parent families are part of a dependency culture nor that their children are likely to be any more delinquent.
The Essay on Child Protection Policy
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New Labour, like the New Right favours strengthening the institution of marriage and regards a family headed by a married couple as normally the best place in which to bring up children. New Labour has also cut benefits to some lone parents too.
In 1999 New Labour produced the first set of comprehensive family policies since the birth of the welfare state. In the Green paper Supporting Families (1998); New Labour discussed the importance of the family in society and concern for the effects of family breakdown in terms of poverty, crime, achievement, health and lifestyle choices. The Children Act (2004) provided the legal framework for the management of Children’s Services. In 2007, the department for Children, Schools and Families was introduced to manage the delivery of services for children and young people in the UK.
In 1998, Surestart Children’s centres were launched to provide a wide range of services aimed at children from birth to 5 years and their families. The New Deal (1998) helped people get benefits while being unemployed. They also support the Children Act (2004).
They support the subsidy for nursery childcare; Childcare Act (2006).
They support longer maternity leave and doubled maternity pay. Finally, they support the Child Poverty Bill (2009) aimed at ending child poverty by 2020.
The New Right critics argue that New Labour policy on the family undermines family privacy and encourages dependence on ‘nanny state’ for welfare. Policies still favour idealised view of married life and the nuclear families despite acknowledgement of diversity. Feminists argue that childcare provision in UK needs to be improved; women still take primary responsibility for childcare. The New Labour have failed to legislate in favour of flexible working practice, employers are given guidance only.
In conclusion, different social policies have affected the family in different ways and always will depending on who is in power. There will always be criticisms of anyone’s decisions and the family will have to live with whatever social policy is introduced/enforced.