United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron will speak on a change to UK policy making Sunday. Cameron is expected to officially admit that legislation has caused children and parents to suffer, while introducing mandatory impact assessments whereby the government must formally consider the effects of policies on families, in addition to considerations regarding cost effectiveness and the environment.
The Prime Minister will use the speech to admit that children and parents have often suffered as a result of legislation.
From October, Whitehall impact assessments for policies will be instituted to formally consider effects on families, along with factors such as cost effectiveness and the environment.
“I want every government department to be held to account for the impact of their policies on the family,” Cameron is expected to say.
“The reality is that in the past the family just hasn’t been central to the way government thinks, so you get a whole load of policy decisions which take no account of the family and sometimes make these things worse.
“Whether it’s the benefits system incentivizing couples to live apart or penalizing those who go out to work or whether it’s excessive bureaucracy preventing loving couples from adopting children with no family at all.
“We can’t go on having government taking decisions like this which ignore the impact on the family.
“I said previously that we would introduce a family test into government. Now that test is being formalised as part of the impact assessment for all domestic policies.
“Put simply, that means every single domestic policy that government comes up with will be examined for its impact on the family.”
The new impact assessment measures will become part of the formal Whitehall process in October.
The speech is part of a campaign by the UK government to help troubled families. The new phase of the program will target 500,000 families–a quadrupling of the initial phase of the project. The new phase will be started first in the 50 local authorities which have so far been most successful in implementing the initial stages of the project.
By Day Blakely Donaldson