Putting families first will help us tackle inequality, says ROSS CLARK

Presenting the preliminary findings of her Family Review, Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza argued what to many people will come across as a statement of the bleedin’ obvious, but which many of those in power seem to find it difficult to say: “Investing in family is the single greatest investment you can make. If we do it right it is a self-sustaining unit and there to catch us when we fall, and if you are part of a strong family you cast your net to catch others.”

This is not just her personal view; it is the result of months speaking to focus groups, involving parents and children, and analysing mountains of data.

Children who were close to their parents, she found, are happier, they do better at school and they go on to earn more in adulthood.

It all led her to an obvious conclusion, but again one which has become lost among the liberal- Left who control so much of the political agenda in Britain (even when we have a
Conservative government). The promotion of family life, she said, should be top of the political agenda.

That is not how things have been in Britain in recent years. On the contrary, many government policies could not have been better designed to keep people single – or even break families apart.

Married couples’ tax allowance has been abolished for most people, planning policy has made it difficult for young people to afford to buy or even rent a decent home. Benefits like Child Allowance have been redesigned so as to reward parents for living apart. 

Governments of all colours have sat by and shrugged their shoulders as the proportion of children growing up in two-parent families has plummeted.

According to de Souza’s report, 44 percent of children born in 2000 spent part of their life up until the age of 17 living outside a traditional two-parent nuclear family.

For children born in 1970 the corresponding figure was 21 percent. The decline of family life has been far sharper in Britain than other European countries.

Twenty-three percent of households with children are currently lone-parent families – compared with an average of 13 percent across Europe.

Only Denmark and the Baltic states have higher rates.

The figures reveal a huge class divide, too, with the 28 percent of the poorest households headed by single parents, compared with just 10 percent in the highest income brackets.

De Souza’s report came about because it was commissioned by the equalities minister Kemi Badenoch in response to a recommendation by Tony Sewell’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities – a report which was bitterly denounced by the Left for stating that there are many factors other than structural racism to explain why some ethnic groups are disadvantaged.

One of the factors the commission cited was the stark difference in family life between different communities.

The figures in de Souza’s report lay it out bare. Among British families of Indian origin, 87 percent are headed by parents who are married or in civil partnerships.

Among those of Chinese origin it is 82 percent. Among white British families it drops to 59 percent and Black Caribbean families it drops to just 26 percent.

No one is denying that there is still some racism in Britain, but surely anyone concerned about ethnic disparities in health, education and income should stop chirping about structural racism, start looking at these glaring figures and ask: what is it about the Black Caribbean community which leaves so many children growing up without two parents, in many cases without male role models, and what can we do to help families stick together?

Growing up in a two-parent family is not the be-all and end-all of everything. If you are a child with a violent or abusive parent you would be better off if they left, even if it leaves you as part of a single-parent family.

But no amount of handwringing by the liberal Left can disguise the fact that children brought up in stable families with a close relationship with their parents are happier, healthier and do better in life.

As de Souza said yesterday: “Children tell me family is everything. Parents tell me family is everything”. But for some reason it is something that the political classes have spent the past few decades trying to avoid saying.