'Invest in our young, before it's too late'
6 October 2008
Graham Allen, Nottingham North MP, stresses the importance of focusing on early intervention.
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David Cameron: Our plan for change
1 October 2008
David Cameron's speech to the Conservative Party conference outlines plans to replace spending on outreach workers with extra universal health visiting.
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Conservative conference: relationship advice for newlyweds
30 September 2008
Maria Miller, Shadow Minister for the Family, gave a speech to the Conservative party conference on family services policy.
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Tell us how best to help new mothers
18 September 2008
Maria Miller, Shadow Minister for the Family, has launched an online survey on the Conservative's health visitor policy. The survey aims to help the development of a Dutch policy which provides professional home support to new mothers in the first few days.
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'Early Intervention: Good Parents, Great Kids, Better Citizens'
16 September 2008
A new report published jointly by the Centre for Social Justice and Smith Institute sees early intervention as key to transforming the life chances of children from deprived backgrounds. In the report former Government Minister Graham Allen and former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith paint an apocalyptic vision of worsening violent crime and social disorder unless radical steps are taken early to halt the slide to delinquency.
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Susan Kramer speech at Bournemouth 2008 conference
14 September 2008
Liberal Democrat Families Spokesperson, Susan Kramer today delivered her speech to conference, outlining her aim to extend the amount of pre-school childcare that is provided free of charge for all families.
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The new Tories: Ten policy areas and their progressive impact
10 September 2008
The Guardian and Demos examine the new Tory thinking in ten policy areas including family.
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Michael Gove on stable family structures
4 August 2008
Michael Gove, the Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, gave a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), outlining the Conservative's support for "stable family structures".
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Webchat with Maria Miller
17 July 2008
The Shadow Minister for the Family, Maria Miller, took part in a webchat on the Mumsnet website, in which she discussed issues around work-life balance.
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David Cameron on family support policies
9 June 2008
David Cameron gave a speech to a Relate conference claiming that family support policies would be among the "defining social reforms" of a Conservative government. He said that a possible option would be to spend more money on relationship support.
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The Conservatives on parenting
14 May 2008
Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Chris Grayling MP gave a speech outlining his party's thoughts on parenting skills.
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David Cameron on Health Visitors and parental leave
15 March 2008
David Cameron, Leader of the Conservative Party, gave a speech at the Conservative Spring Forum entitled "Yes, we can get the change we really want" in which he criticised the plan to increase the numbers of 'untrained' outreach workers at Sure Start centres, and announced instead his intention to provide a universal Health Visiting service. He stated that this was not an attack on Sure Start but about making Sure Start more effective, and that his pledge to increase the number of Health Visitors are the type of support parents want. He also outlined his proposals on maternity/paternity leave. This includes offering all parents 12 months parental leave, to be shared by mother and father.
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