I agree that we need to capture the voice of parents and to have a proper dialogue which fully involves them. After all if we can have a Children’s Commissioners office to capture the views of a very wide range of children from different backgrounds, ages and cultures, then why not a Parent Commissioner’s office?

It isn’t enough to make the excuse that all parents hold different views depending on their circumstances – it is the responsibility of government to represent the views of parents in the way children are raised. At present there is no channel for this parent voice to be expressed. Parents are encouraged to use childcare even for babies, when even the DWP research recently published shows that parents have a strong preference to care for their children themselves. Add to this that in the Next Steps to Early Learning and Childcare report the Annexe points to evidence of strong parental preference to raise children at home. So why then does the government /DCSF not listen to this view ?

Some good work is being done by individuals in communities but we need more joined up thinking. We need to value and acknowledge the work of parenting. In the UK we are still at the bottom of the league tables for childhood well being and something (not sure what) just isn’t working very well in this country. Perhaps it’s because families have been without support for so long – we need to take families out of poverty by enabling them to keep more of their hard earned money – this can be done by a more favorable taxation system, for example income splitting in recognition of the extra financial outlay of raising children to adulthood. Solving poverty by getting mothers back into work before they are ready just causes emotional deprivation all round. See www.fulltimemothers.org for more information (it represents dads as well as mums and also recognises that many mums work from home and around the school day and children’s needs) .