What ideas and suggestions would you like us to pass on to the new government?

"Stop paying peoiple benefits for children they have since starting to claim benefits - really really annoys me that people who are not working can effectively afford to have as many kids as they want whilst people with a social conscience only have as many kids as they can actually afford to bring up themselves. Birth control is free and you don't need a degree in rocket science to use it now do you."

the only people who would suffer as a result of this is the children.

DF you're right, but I can't help agree. This is clearly aimed at parents who use children to obtain more benefits/bigger housing. Unless it's made clear that people will not be given these priviledges, I can't see how the problem will be effectively addressed. If the parents are truely responsible, they will not allow their children to suffer - by not having more of them.

Well I'm glad the coalition is asking for opinions and I hope they read them even if they don't choose to go with it. I think a democracy is all about considering the options and then the people we elected (or didn't elect) have to make the decisions.

Personally I think they've probably got it wrong. My instinct is that by cutting local government staff, building programmes and investment in steel forge construction in Sheffield we will head into a negative downward spiral.

That said, we have to d the best we can at community level to look after our small businesses. Clearly the Gov is not going to put any money directly into small businesses but they can free up rules and regulations that kill new businesses dead. Tiny things e.g. allowing libraries and children's centers to put up posters for local businesses on their notice boards - not just charities. People say "the managers couldn't police it properly and someone might sue the council if the sailing teacher wasn't properly qualified" Well just get a legal person to write some official blurb like - ..... County Council does not take responsibility for content of these advertisements, etc. Newspapers do it all the time.

New businesses that can't afford to optimize their web pages to goggle can't get any free publicity anywhere.

And as for small shops. Let's look at why France is full of small, family run, colorful, charismatic shops and we have thousands of super markets. Let's change the regulations so that if a shop keeper only has two shops in the whole country they don't pay the same costs as the big boys. I love lots of things about Britain but red tape and political correctness is killing the character, charm, enthusiasm and entrepreneurial nature of our country. Please do make some good changes along with the horrible cuts.

In direct response:

Are there particular services that you think warrant special protection and should be ring-fenced?

Yes, plenty and they are free to ask me personnaly if they care so much. But don't for a second think that I am "won over" or feel "listend to" by Cameron/Clegg just because their spin doctors thought it a good idea to ask mumsnet on board in a bid to falsely make me think my opinion matters at all. This isn't a coffee morning.

How could Mumsnet work with government to make life easier for parents? For example should Mumsnet be promoted by Midwives and Health Visitors to parents when they leave hospital or have their final visit?

I think they should be separate.

Could Mumsnet be used as a job-share hub?

Maybe.

We know you'll have lots of ideas and suggestions, so please post them here and we'll try and pass on as many of them as we can.

Feel free, nice of mumsnet to ask. However I have a feeling it won't make any difference. They already have an agenda.

For 's sake get someone from the coalition, anyone - minister - spin doctor - government propaganda brigade: otherwise known as BBC / Express or Telegraph) to say something POSITIVE.
I'm up to , NO I've gone beyond up to I'M over the top with miserable .... please S T O P the depressing hopelessness miserable drone - It's worse than the African fog horns.

If someone, somewhere doesn't say something good about British people, workers, soldiers, children, teachers, etc we're all heading for a massive all encompassing
D E P R E S S I O N.

Look the new government must be going to do something good. Tories used to be associated with common sense. At least looking at this child safety ISA thing sounds common sense and cutting down stupid health and safety red tape that doesn't make anyone safer. Start making life easier for SMALL BUSINESSES - please..

I think some govt messages, eg healthcare, parenting, could come via MN, but it would also have to be done via Netmums/Bounty etc to achieve coverage; even then, not all parents go online. You could have a few govt messages at the end of our weekly MN emails (not Aitch's!). Eg:

We have tons of stockpiled swine flu vaccines, so pregnant women should definitely be vaxed asap

Your library has books on PND if you need them, but speak to your HV if you think you've got it

Feed your dc vegetables

etc

It would be great to see an end to spin from the Dept of Health, and spin doctors come very expensive, so potential savings would potentially be pretty vast across all govt depts.

I think local councillors should be responsible for disseminating local council info to residents, mostly via group emails. They should know their residents well enough to be able to disseminate info effectively to those who are not online. It would give them something to do apart from swanning around in Mayoral cars visiting Events and enjoying hospitality, as mentioned in an earlier post. It would hold them more accountable, too, because residents would be able to hit the reply button and say "I object." And it would mean people would actually get to know who their local representatives are.

Could MPs do similar with govt info? The Tory party were very adept at using emails during the run-up to the election, so they know how to do it.

Let me deduct the cost of childcare from my income BEFORE you work out what taxes I owe and what benefits I am entitled to. For example someone who earns £30k and spends £20k on childcare should be regarded as having an income of £10k.

i don't think free bus/ rail transport for over 60's is necessary - would raising the age to 70 be better. My mum, a healthy 63, who travels round Europe regularly, has a free train pass and to me it doesn't seem necessary.

Please ask them why they persist in the belief that faith schools are a good thing when all the evidence points to the contrary. Please, Please!! I asked Michael Gove that one and his answer "Yes, faith schools are good.." PAH!!!

I think it is positive that the govt is interested in parents views and mn is a great forum for gathering them.

I would like to add the issue of education. the previous govt put too much emphasis on the management of education rather than the delivery and hence money is moving out of the classroom and into Quangos and management strategies. This needs to be reversed - and teachers are much cheaper than quangos and managers and are much better for our kids.

Why are maternity/paternity legal rights so unbalanced? I can claim up to a year off, partner can only claim two weeks. If leave was assigned per child rather than per mother/father, parents could have the option of dividing it between them in a more balanced and fair way.

"Stop paying peoiple benefits for children they have since starting to claim benefits - really really annoys me that people who are not working can effectively afford to have as many kids as they want whilst people with a social conscience only have as many kids as they can actually afford to bring up themselves. Birth control is free and you don't need a degree in rocket science to use it now do you."

the only people who would suffer as a result of this is the children.

Make the traffic light system on food compulsory, then add a tax on foods that have 3 or more in the orange and red category, that is on a par with tax on fags and booze.

Stop paying peoiple benefits for children they have since starting to claim benefits - really really annoys me that people who are not working can effectively afford to have as many kids as they want whilst people with a social conscience only have as many kids as they can actually afford to bring up themselves. Birth control is free and you don't need a degree in rocket science to use it now do you.

I would also make tennants aware when they move into a house or flat funded by the government that they will not be moved out if they have more kids as they are making a choice to become overcrowded. More kids should not equal a bigger house.

Stop NHS staff going on stupid courses and stop them having so many bloody days off sick - since moving from private to public sector I am appalled by the amount of days lost by consultants and nurses because they are sick again!!!

Oh, and a bit of help for people who want to return to work, but dont claim benefits? I went to the jobcentre naively expecting there to be at least some kind of guidance and help (have reasonable intelligence and potential, but dont want to return to the career I had prekids 7yrs ago), only to be told that I get nothing, but if I claimed benefits I'd get all kinds of help and courses and retraining.

And dont cut the free swims, we cant afford to take 1 ad 2 kids all the time, its so bloody expensive.

Try and seema bit more positive; already, everything seems to be very negative about this gov - withdrawing,cutting,stopping. Even if these things do have to happen, cant you balance it out with positive improvements too?

Ok, life has been hard under the last gov, esp as we have had 2 small kids and only one income. But I never felt scared, like I do now. I really feel, for the first time, like our family is in danger of going under, financially

Build more council and low income houses. And I'm talking here of family homes with gardens that cost £100,000 or less.

There's a whole generation of middle to low income families who are unable to invest in their future because they have to rent their family homes at great cost, unable to afford a suitable house in their price range.

The instability of renting is very difficult for young families in particular, hence the need for more council housing which will at least allow young families stability and lower than market rents so they can (gasp) save some money towards owning their own place one day.

Of course, there's no danger of this government doing this because every government seems to be falling over themselves to support buy to let property owners depite them being the bloody problem in the first place. Probably because lots of MP's make money through property.

When DD was 18 months old we were made homeless when our landlord decided to sell our house and we simply couldn't afford 1 months rent + deposit + agency fees + credit check + admin fees etc that every bloody landlord in town was charging. We are too poor to save money, particularly then.

So we went to the council and got temporary housing. Our council has bugger all council housing and housing association houses are spread thinly amongst the very needy.

The council have an ingenious plan for the increasing numbers of homeless like us. A private sector partnership. They pay an agency twice market rent for rental housing for "undesirable tenants" like us poorer families. We were told that we would have the security of this house for 3-5 years providing we don't increase our income. Because then we'd be eligible to pay the full rent. Our chances of getting council or HA house was very low and this was presented as our only option unless we wanted to live in temporary accomodation for up to 2 years. It's a benefits trap we cannot escape from. How can we save for another house without increasing our income and then losing housing benefit?

Incidentally, I spoke to the property owner of this house, not the agency. Owner is responsible for all repairs and I was arranging some with them. Owner receives less than half the rent paid by housing benefit, well below market rent, for this property. So our agency is getting an extraordinary sum for some light administration.

Surely it would be cheaper just to build some bloody houses?

Why not change the rules on marriage as well so you can nip down Tesco and get married before your weekly shop? How can anyone think registering something as important as the birth of a child is an unnecessary palava?!

As everyone has clearly got carried away with talking about policy - none of which will be taken on board in any way, shape or form - wouldn't it have been useful for someone from MNHQ to come back on this thread before now?

And special needs special needs special needs.

Other children may or may not make it, but they have a chance and a choice. Without good intervention, children with special are at serious of risk of having infinately, yet preventable poorer quality of life. These are vulnerable children, and will become vulnerable adults. It's not THEIR recession so make the right choices in their name.

A rule that you can't work for a bank within 10 years of working in government and vice verse.

To make jobs over 100k compulsory job-share so that more people are employed. (a bit like a 2.5 day week)

Stop pretending we have an aging population. There is a cohort who were born between the wars, that those immediately after them are pretty much all dead!

In Bristol you can register births in one of the hospitals.

I think the beauty of Mumsnet is that it is an independent non-political (unless that's the topic) mums talking to other mums and sharing experience. If you were to feature 'interaction with government' I would suggest you re-structure your site so that there were links to the appropriate area but not contained within the body of MN itself.

The only thing I've ever really found bureaucratic and illogical has been the way I'm asked to submit all my earnings information for my tax return and then declare it all over again for my child tax credit claim. They both contain the same information so why can't it be shared across departments?

BTW I don't agree with you about registering births being a 'palava'. I liked the formality and sense of occasion....

I am curious as to why Mumsnet wants to become a government agency......