Archive: Children And Family

Lords hands coalition biggest defeat yet

Single parents could be forced to pay upfront charge to receive child maintenance

Peers rejected the government's welfare reform bill yet again last night, in the largest Lords defeat yet for the coalition.

Coalition turns fire on Labour after benefit cap defeat

It's not necessarily game over for welfare reform resistance, after all

Coalition won't budge despite 'bedroom tax' defeat

Officials to target troublemaker families

August's riots have prompted the govt to look more seriously at family intervention projects

A team of Whitehall-controlled officials are to find and then intervene in the lives of Britain's most troubled families, David Cameron has announced.

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LGA: Councils will help improve lives of troubled families

Local Government Association chairman Sir Merrick Cockell comments on David Cameron's bid to intervene in the lives of the UK's 120,000 most troubled families

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PM leads adoption push against councils

David Cameron says current adoption rates for under-ones is shocking

Councils which are failing to deal with adoption cases quickly are to be embarrassed into action.

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Parent complaint website just months away

Parents groups are concerned at the prevalence of sexualised imagery in childen's products

Plans to set up a parent complaint website for children's media are being fast-tracked by the PM.

Abstinence-based sex-education bill passes Commons vote

Abstinence: Dorries' bill is unlikely to become law but it has already stoked controversy

A bill which would enforce the teaching of abstinence in sex education classes has won the support of MPs.

British bulldog becoming extinct

British Bulldog: Going the way of the dodo?

The games which many people associate with their childhood, like conkers and British Bulldog, are disappearing from the playground, according to teachers.

Social mobility 'slower than in medieval England'

Medieval Britain: Better for social mobility?

The rate of social mobility in the UK is now slower than during the medieval ages, according to new research.

Barnardo's takes on refugee role

Children's charity Barnardo's is going to take on a hand-on role in taking care of children of asylum seekers who are to be returned to their home country.

1.6m children still in severe poverty

Save the Children figures show 13% of all the country's children live in severe poverty

Over 1.6 million children still live in severe poverty in the UK, according to charity Save the Children.

PM seeks teenage recruits

David Cameron seeks teenagers for national citizen service

David Cameron is using Facebook to appeal to 16-year-olds as he seeks to drum up interest in his national citizen service proposals.

Authorities warn against teenage 'sexting'

'Sexting' is popular among 11 to 16-year-olds

Teenagers have been warned off sending sexually explicit pictures of themselves by child protection experts, amid fears that sex offenders are collecting the images.

IDS: Marriage 'helps us escape celebrity'

Weddings: The antiode to a celebrity culture?

A married life is the best antidote to the "celebrity self-obsessed culture we live in", Iain Duncan Smith will say later.

Scrapping child trust fund a 'backward step'

The payments will stop altogether on New Year's Day

The abolition of the child trust fund will deprive tens of thousands of children of a "vital nest egg", a thinktank has argued.

Family 'not just about marriage' - Cameron

Family life isn't just about marriage, David Cameron says

David Cameron is taking a step back from his pro-marriage stance in a speech this lunchtime.

Comment: The market's assault on childhood

Dr Katherine Rake is chief executive of the Family and Parenting Institute

Businesses are putting families under strain by unscrupulously targeting products at children.

Frank Field blames the parents

Better parenting holds the key, Frank Field believes

Improving Britain's parenting skills will help the life chances of those not yet at school, a report by Frank Field has found.

Clegg to give child detention update

Child detention continues under the coalition

Child detention could be phased out by the spring, a report has suggested.

Ed Miliband names his baby 'Samuel'

Ed Miliband has named his second child 'Samuel'

Ed Miliband and his girlfriend Justine Thornton have named their second child Samuel, Labour sources have confirmed.

Govt delays child detention promise

Child detention featured in the coalition agreement.

The promise to end the detention of children in immigration centres has been officially delayed.

IDS: Labour's £24bn 'failure on families'

IDS: 'Unapologetic' support for family and marriage

Iain Duncan Smith has claimed the previous government's failure to combat family breakdown has led to huge costs from resulting social problems.

Race 'should not be a barrier' to adoption

Matching ethnicity should no longer be a key factor in determining succesful adoptions, Tim Loughton argued

Children being of a different ethnic group to prospective parents should not be a barrier to adoption, a minister has said.

Lesbians go for first gay marriage

Campaigners hope their legal challenge will herald the end for the ban on gay marriage

Campaigners are set to launch their concerted legal bid to push through a change in the law preventing gay marriage.

Supreme court rules pre-nups are binding

The legal status of pre-nuptials became considerably more reliable today, after the supreme court ruled against the former husband of a German heiress.