Brown promises ‘truly family friendly’ welfare state
The Chancellor Gordon Brown has told a packed House of Commons that Labour will seek to create “a welfare state that is truly family friendly for the first time in its history”.
Delivering his Pre-Budget Report statement, the Chancellor told MPs that a society is judged by its “generosity to children and old people who have served the community all of their life.”
As such, the major focus of his policy announcements were on improving access to childcare, and the financial position of families.
Mr Brown said that the “family is the bedrock of society” and though parents also had responsibilities, “it is in the national interest to help parents meet those responsibilities”.
On maternity leave, he said that he wanted parents to be “able to stay at home longer when their child is born” and said that maternity leave will rise from the current six months to nine months, thanks to an investment of £285 million.
The Chancellor added that he was setting a goal that maternity leave should rise to a whole year in the future.
For the first time, maternity leave will also be transferable to fathers.
Other key announcements in the ten-year childcare strategy include a consultation on the right of parents of older children to request flexible working and increasing the childcare tax credit so that it covers 80 per cent of childcare costs.
Also on childcare, Mr Brown said that the number of children’s centres would increase to 3500 by 2010, providing one million new childcare places and by April 2007 free nursery education would be extended to 15 hours a week with the long-term goal of extending it to 20 hours a week.
Schools would also be given additional resources so they can open from 8am to 8pm.
David Hart, general secretary of the teaching union NAHT, said that he supported the childcare strategy – but with the caveat that sufficient funds must be made available.
He said: “It will contribute significantly to raising levels of attainment, because too many of the very young turn up at school for the first time lacking basic social skills.
“But the strategy will only succeed if parents work in partnership with schools to deliver high quality education and childcare. Schools are not surrogate parents, and the strategy must not absolve parents from their prime responsibility for the upbringing of their children.”
