The Family Review set out to understand children and families’ perspectives on family life – from what family looks like in 2022 to the challenges facing families.
A summary of the key findings is set out below.
Chapter 1 - Family in the UK and England in 2022
- Chapter 1 outlines family composition and formation across the UK and England. This is unique analysis by the CCo showing the current shape and size of households, change over time in family structure and an analysis of families by ethnicity, religion, socio-economic background, and local area.
- As of 2021, there are 8.2 million families with children in the UK - 63% are married couples with children, 14% are cohabiting and 23% are headed by a lone parent. CCo’s analysis shows large variations in family composition by demographics such as ethnicity, local area, and socioeconomic class.
- There has been a slight decrease in married families in the last 20 years (from 65% in 2001 to 63% in 2021) and an increase in families cohabiting (from 11 % in 2001 to 14% in 2021).
- An important change in family life over the last 20 years has been the steady increase in the employment rate for mothers (from 67% in 2002 to 76% in 2021).
- Family composition is dynamic and can change over the course of childhood. Data from the Millennium Cohort Study shows that of children born in 2000-2001, 44% do not live with both biological parents throughout their entire childhood.
Chapter 2 - What defines Family
- Chapter 2 outlines what families told us about their lives and their own families. CCo’s brand new research including the Family Life Survey (FLS) and focus groups gives a comprehensive insight of children and adults views of family life.
- The vast majority of children and adults were overwhelmingly positive about family, this was consistent across different family types, ethnic groups and local area.
- When asked about what three words they first though of when they heard the word ‘family’, the top words for children were ‘loving’, ‘happy’ and ‘home, for adults it was ‘loving’, ‘home’ and ‘caring’.
- In an open-text question on what family means to parents and children, the most common response was that ‘family is everything’.
- Four themes emerged through the FLS, focus groups and interviews: the emotional importance of connection within families; the importance of shared experience for family life; the unconditional support, both practical and emotional, from within families; and the strong, positive, and enduring relationships found in families. These factors were present in families of all shapes, sizes, and compositions.
Chapter 3 - Children living away from their birth parents
- Chapter 3 looks specifically at children who are not living with their birth parents and what they think of family life. This includes children who are fostered or adopted, those who live in kinship care arrangements and those living in institutions. For children in care under Section 47 of the Children’s Act 1989, the local authority is their corporate parent. • Currently 80,850 children are looked after by the state in England. Of these children, 4,070 are unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). 15 • Most children in care are living in foster homes (71%) although, 9% of children in care live in children’s homes and 5% in unregulated accommodation, such as supported flats and hostels.16 • Children in some ethnic groups are over-represented in the care system and rates also vary significantly by local area. 17 • Most children in care will have lived through difficult experiences with their birth parents, however in The Big Ask, 70% of children still said they were happy with their family life. However, they were more than twice as likely to be unhappy with their family life (14% compared to 6% for children not in care).18 Chapter 4 - Why is family so important: the protective effect • Chapter 4 defines ‘the protective effect’ of families and outlines the benefit it provides to family, using unique quantitative and qualitative research and analysis. • The protective effect is defined as – emotional connection: love and joy; Shared experiences of family life; Strong, positive, and enduring relationships and the ability to depend on one another for practical and emotional support. • To demonstrate the protective effect, CCo looked at three outcomes: well-being of family members; long term outcomes of children and the ability of the family to withstand challenges. 11 • CCo analysis of Understanding Society shows that believing you could rely on family in time of crisis is associated with higher overall well-being. Among adults who can rely on their family ‘a lot’ if they have a serious problem, 80% are satisfied with life overall compared to 66% for those who can’t rely on their family ‘a lot’ if they have a serious problem.19 • In CCo’s FLS, those who felt they were spending the right amount of time with their children were happier than those who were spending too little time with their children.20 • New CCo analysis carried out, using data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE), found that getting on well with at least one of your parents is associated with higher hourly income at age 25. 21 Chapter 5 - Challenges to family life • Chapter 5 examines both the common concerns that can affect all families and then the much more serious challenges which can undermine one or more elements of the protective effect. • Common concerns raised by many families throughout CCo’s research were financial pressures and childcare.22 • The serious challenges examined are not an exhaustive list, some are more serious than others and most are on a continuum. The challenges covered include intense conflict within families, parental separation, mental and physical illness, parental alcohol or substance misuse, domestic abuse and child abuse and neglect. These issues are often more significant when they co-occur. Chapter 6 - What services are currently provided to families • Chapter 6 establishes what services are currently available to families and what families want from the services they access. It is a framing chapter for Part 2 of the Review. • CCo’s research showed that most parents would just turn to family or friends if they needed advice or support. CCo’s FLS showed 78% of parents would turn to family and 51% would turn to friends. 23 • There is substantial regional variation in access to services. For example, in London 94% of babies received their first check through the Healthy Child Programme, while 77% in the South-West did so. 24 • CCo’s research showed that parents and families would like services to be relational, accessible, welcoming and non-stigmatising and inclusive to all family members. 25 12 Chapter 7 - Next steps • This Chapter discusses the next steps of the Family Review and explains how Part 1 provides a framework to underpinning to Part 2. • In Part 2 the CCo will review the Family Test to make sure it is fit-for-purpose. The CCo will conduct further research into family support and services to develop a high-level outcomes framework which is focused on family strengths. • Alongside this the CCo will publish guidance on how to improve data collection and sharing. And will publish practical proposals to improve the integration of local services and will use the findings from Part 1 to inform work on defining disadvantage.
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