FAMILIES AND FAMILY POLICIES:

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FAMILIES AND FAMILY POLICIES

• DEVELOPING A HOLISTIC POLICY AGENDA
• Sheila B. Kamerman

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FAMILIES AND FAMILY POLICY

• Public commitment to children and their families
  varies across countries and over time.
• New initiatives are needed to cope with new risks
  and new problems
• Recently many countries have explored specialized
  and innovative benefits designed to strengthen
  families with children.

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FAMILIES AND FAMILY POLICY

• Purpose of these developments
• Increasing womens labor force attachment
• Facilitating the reconciliation of work and
  family life
• Reducing child poverty
• Strengthening childrens rights to education and
  care
• Enhancing child protection, development, and
  well-being.

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FAMILIES AND FAMILY POLICY

• In some countries, these goals were incorporated
  into a holistic approach to an explicit family
  policy.
• In others, the focus remained more categorical,
  and the family policy more implicit, but still
  guided by an increased effort at enhancing child
  well-being.

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FAMILIES AND FAMILY POLICY

• Organization of paper
• Defining family policy.
• Illustrating what an explicit family policy looks
  like.
• Illustrating several important family and child
  policy initiatives that could be part of a policy
  package in Hong Kong.
• Conclusions

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What is family policy?

• Family policy is what government does to and for
  children and their families.
• Characteristic of family policy internationally
  is concern for all children and their families,
  not just poor families and families with problems.

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What is family policy (contd)?

• Family policy may be explicit or implicit.
• As a subcategory of social policy, family policy
  can be viewed as
• A policy field,
• A policy instrument, or
• A criterion by which all social policies can be
  assessed.

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What is family policy (contd)?

• Family policy has 4 major characteristics
• A view of the family as a central institution in
  a society.
• A definition of family that allows for a variety
  of types, usually at least one adult and one
  child.
• A definition of policy that assumes a diversity
  and multiplicity of policies rather than a single
  monolithic, comprehensive legislative act.

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What is family policy (contd)?

• Family policy instruments include
• Cash benefits
• Services
• Laws

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What is family policy (contd)?

• The major family policy instruments are
• Income transfers
• Early childhood care and education services
• Time for parenting, including paid and job
  protective leaves from employment
• Family law
• Personal social services and family support
  programs
• Housing allowances and policies
• Maternal or family and child health services.

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What is family policy?

• Today the concept of family policy is a global
  one.
• Families fulfill essential roles in
• Reproduction,
• Socialization,
• Early education,
• Promotion of good health, and
• Preparation for adulthood
• But families are changing and the need for care
  and care services is increasing.

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What is family policy (concluded)?

• To carry out traditional roles as well as new
  roles, families require help from government.
• We need to know more about
• Family changes,
• Responses of governments to new family needs and
  problems
• Which family policies may make a difference.

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Countries with Explicit Family Policy

• Sweden
• Historically Swedens family policy has been
  focused on
• Protecting children,
• Redistributing income,
• Compensating for the economic costs of rearing
  children,
• Giving people the economic resources to have
  children when they want to,
• Promoting gender equity,
• Facilitating the reconciliation of work and
  family life.
• Policy based on principles of universality and
  individual rights.

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Countries with Explicit Family Policy- Sweden

• Swedish family policy Includes
• Family cash benefits,
• Income-tested housing allowances,
• 18-month parental leave from employment,
• Advance payment of child maintenance to custodial
  parents,
• Protective and supportive services, and
• High quality public ECEC

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Countries with Explicit Family Policy - Sweden

• Sweden
• 2 current challenges
• Increasing difficulty for immigrant youth to
  obtain jobs
• Segregation of native born persons from those
  perceived as foreign.

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Countries with Explicit Family Policy - France

• Exceptionally generous cash benefits and ECEC
  services.
• 5 objectives have dominated French family policy
• Solidarity
• Pro-natilism
• Social justice
• Protecting the well-being of children, and
• Protecting parental choice with regard to parents
  choosing to work outside the home or remaining at
  home to rear children.

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Countries with Explicit Family Policy - France

• Most important family benefit is universal family
  allowance
• Supplemented by income-tested categorical cash
  benefits.
• Still doesnt cover first children under the
  basic family allowance.
• Primary objective
• Horizontal redistribution of income and wealth
  from those with no children to those with
  children.
• Easing womens burden in balancing family and
  employment.

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Countries with Explicit Family Policy - France

• French family policy also includes a large
  service component
• Universal voluntary and free public preschool
  system for all 3- to 6- years old, and almost
  half 2-year olds, covering the full school day
• Extended coverage for children with parents
  working a longer day
• Extensive subsidies for infant and child care
• An extensive maternal and child health service.

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Family Policy Developments and Innovations

• Term social protection includes
• Government actions that provide individuals and
  families with a defined minimum standard of
  living and protection against traditional social
  risks
• The concept of social protection provides a
  policy framework for dealing holistically with
  poverty and vulnerability.

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Family Policy Developments and Innovations
(contd)

• Child-conditioned social protection includes
  those policies that are contingent on the
  presence of children
• Social insurance,
• Social assistance,
• Child-related demogrants,
• Social services, and
• Social infrastructure.

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Family Policy Developments and Innovations
(contd)

• Social Protection in Hong Kong
• Scholars describe the state as playing a major
  role in Hong Kong, as direct provider of
  education, health care, housing, and cash
  benefits for the poor.
• Missing from a family policy agenda are
• Child benefits,
• Special child-conditioned benefits,
• Some sense of the adequacy of these benefits,
• More extensive ECEC services,
• ECEC services for children under age 3, and
• More extensive parental leave.

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Possible Components of a Family Policy Package

• Income Transfers, in particular
• Asset-based Policy and Child-development
  Accounts.
• Hypothesis is that providing assets before a
  crisis occurs would lead to
• Less family breakdown,
• Fewer school dropouts, and
• Less movement of orphans to becoming street
  children.

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Possible Components of a Family Policy Package
(contd)

• Child Trust Funds
• Goal to strengthen savings habits, help
  redistribute assets, and educate people to the
  need for and value of savings.
• Unclear whether it will alleviate child policy

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Possible Components of a Family Policy Package

• Conditional Cash Transfers
• New form of cash transfers that focuses on
  improving
• The health, education, and well-being of poor
  children and their families
• Requires that the receipt of the grants be
  contingent on
• Enrolling and maintaining children in school,
• Obtaining preventive health care, and
• In some countries, participating in other social
  services, and parental employment.

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Possible Components of a Family Policy Package

• Major questions currently debated
• Whether policy is limited to the more affluent
  countries or can be adopted by poor countries as
  well.
• Whether provision without conditions would
  accomplish the same objectives at lower costs.
• What is the role of personal social services?.

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Possible Components of a Family Policy Package
(contd)

• Early childhood education and care services
  (ECEC)
• Services for children below compulsory school age
  involving elements of both physical care and
  education.
• Apart from significant contribution to cognitive
  stimulation, socialization, child development,
  and early education, an essential service to
  employed parents.

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Possible Components of a Family Policy Package
(contd)

• Early childhood education and care services
• Include a wide range of part-day,
  full-school-day, full-work-day programs under
  education, health, and social welfare auspices.
• Are funded and delivered in a variety of ways in
  both the public and the private sectors.
• Are voluntary and take-up is high where the
  programs are free or the fees are very modest,
  and the quality adequate.

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Possible Components of a Family Policy Package

• Early childhood education and care services
  (ECEC)
• Acknowledged in Hong Kong too, as essential
  foundation for child development
• Current stress on
• Improving quality,
• Enhancing staff qualifications, and
• Strengthening the links between preschool and
  primary school.

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Possible Components of a Family Policy Package
(contd)

• Early childhood education and care services
• Almost universal coverage for 3- to 6- year olds
  but largely part-day
• Unclear how care is provided for the rest of the
  working day.
• Inadequate data regarding infant and toddler care.

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Conclusions

• Difficult to obtain a coherent picture of what is
  provided to enhance the wellbeing of Hong Kong
  children and their families, with what
  consequences.
• Among initiatives mentioned are
• Family commission,
• Family advisory council,
• Family impact analyses and reports, and
• Family-friendly policies.
• Biggest gap is a holistic picture of the
  situation of the children and the policies
  designed to respond to their needs and problems.

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Conclusions (contd)

• Family policy is a holistic approach to
  evaluating social policies affecting children and
  their families.
• A holistic approach to developing a coherent
  policy agenda remains to be developed in Hong
  Kong.
• Even without that it would be useful to make the
  policy package that exists more visible.

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Conclusions

• No one policy can achieve all the desired goals
• Reducing child policy,
• Increasing capital investment,
• Protecting childrens rights,
• Strengthening families, and
• Enhancing child development and well-being.
• An explicit family policy may not be the answer
  but making the condition of children and their
  families more visible and assessing the policies
  affecting them would help if the goal is to
  achieve greater coherence.