Media release
What Makes Your Family Tick?
24 April 2006
The Families Commission says more could be done by the government, employers and family support agencies to better meet the needs of families.
The Commission has just released the final report from its Families with Dependent Children – Successful Outcomes project.
This report reflects the views of the almost 4,000 people who responded to the consultation campaign What Makes Your Family Tick? or took part in a series of focus groups.
The Chief Commissioner of the Families Commission, Rajen Prasad, says “This study specifically looked at the most important period of family life – the child-rearing years. Costs are very high, one parent may have given up work, and time becomes a real issue. Society needs to show that it understands what these families are experiencing so that they can be appropriately supported. This means putting some real thought into the issues they have raised and examining solutions from all angles.”
Common issues for many families include financial hardship, lack of work-life balance, parenting difficulties, the cost of health, education and dental care, and poor access to some support services.
“These families are very important to society and we need to take account of their needs across society. This means changes such as more family-friendly policies which encourage employers to provide flexible and part-time working hours, better parental and family leave provisions and policies that provide greater access to childcare,” says Dr Prasad.
Families told the Commission that reaching a work-life balance was a significant issue for them.
“We believe there is a need for policies that would allow people working excessive hours to cut down. We should also look at, over time, significantly increasing the level and duration of paid parental leave and bringing in paid leave for fathers,” says Dr Prasad.
Many families said they were struggling financially, the Working for Families package will help many people, but we also need to look at the issues around costs associated with education and health and how to improve access to budgeting and life-skills courses.”
Relationships and parenting also pose challenges for families and many acknowledge that there are steps they could take themselves. However it was also commonly suggested that some families needed to be able to access external training and support.
“Parenting education is one of the Commission's main priorities over the next three years and we are developing a work plan that will concentrate on specific aspects of this. This will include determining whether there are gaps between the needs of parents, and the parenting education and support that is available.
“We will also look at to what extent, families can be encouraged to address parenting and relationship challenges themselves, given that many families say they have the ability to do this,” says Dr Prasad.
Overall, the Families Commission work shows that people place a high value on family and experience similar pressures on their family life. Understanding more about these difficulties helps the Commission identify which issues to highlight in its advocacy, public information, policy advice and community engagement.
“The results of this extensive project on families with dependent children will feed into the future development and advocacy work of the Commission and will be used by other government agencies and community groups to improve their policies and services for families,” says Dr Prasad.
Karlum Lattimore
Communications and Media Advisor
Families Commission
PO Box 2839
Wellington
Phone 04 917 7045 or 029 917 7045
karlum.lattimore@nzfamilies.org.nz