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Fringe meetings at party conferences 2007 - report
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One Parent Families|Gingerbread was touring the seaside towns this autumn, putting the case for lone parents at all three major party political conferences.
Our first event was held at the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton, where Annette Brooke MP, their spokesperson for children, and Lord Archy Kirkwood debated the best way to support all families, giving strong support in particular to investment in childcare, a reform of the Child Support Agency and the right for all families to request flexible working. They also spoke of the need for more attention to be paid to housing policy, and to the needs of families with disabled children.
Next we went to Bournemouth for the Labour conference, to debate the proposals that lone parents should claim Jobseeker's Allowance. Caroline Flint MP, Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform, put forward the view that the Jobseeker's Allowance regime was flexible enough to deal with all circumstances, and that being in work was good for parents and children. Jenny Watson, former chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission, made the case for more flexible working - and more responsibilities to be placed on employers rather than parents. Lastly, Natascha Engel MP spoke of her own experience of growing up with a lone parent and how hard it had been at that time. She argued that things had improved massively for one parent families, but she recognised the many issues that lone parents and their children can still face - and suggested that they needed more support.
Finally, we spoke to the Conservatives in Blackpool. Our head of Policy, Kate Bell, highlighted the real facts about lone parents and the need to counter some of the stereotypes and concentrate on the issues they face, such as poverty. Samantha Callan, who worked for Iain Duncan Smith on his report 'Breakdown Britain', said that she knew many lone parents were doing a good job in bringing up their children alone, but that the current system was encouraging people to become lone parents, and what was needed was more support for marriage. Finally, Maria Miller MP, shadow spokesperson for children, argued that policy needed to be focused on the best interests of the child, whatever the family type. She also focused on the need for reform of the Child Support Agency.
The events were kindly supported by BT and their head of Public Affairs, Tim O'Sullivan, spoke at all of them. He suggested that lone - and other - parents needed to find work compelling, rather than compulsory, and explained how BT's flexible working arrangements had enabled around 80 per cent of their workforce to work from home. This led to better staff retention - with 99 per cent of women returning to work after maternity leave - as well as better working arrangements for staff.
For information about each individual fringe meeting please click on the links below:
Liberal Democrat Party Conference
Labour Party Conference
Conservative Party Conference
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