What's the single biggest thing the government could do to help parents?

[JustineMumsnet]

Hello Mumsnetters,
Can I pick your brians for a moment please? Were you to get the chance to sit around a table with Gordon Brown and he was to ask you what government should be doing to help mums and families, what would you say?

well I htink they coudl just STOP for a while and listen

think
ask

stop blaming everyone

definately get the tax credit system sorted, this has really messed us up big time, we are an ordinary low paid family and we are paying back money we were told was ours.

cane me and call me madam ask him to get rid ofr the new victim charge at the magistrates courts?
tell him its shit and everyone hates it
scrap that and he get himslef a few thousand more voters

oh and a central pot/fund for mag courst comepnsation payemnts so old ladies arent paid £5 a week of a total payment of £400 say.
SO EASY to do

and there are a few other magistrates courst reforsm i cna imagine...

upping the max of £1k fine on road traffic cases...

Two things I think

1. Get a family tax code X per adult plus Y per child tranferable between partners that covers single parent partners whether one or both work, same sex partners one child 7 children

Then if you earn under your allowance it gets topped up - sorted

2. pay childcare before (or free from) tax

Instead of ditching the support, education and advice once past the 'this is how you bath your baby' stage in hospital, the Government should implement strategies that support parents by providing them with explicit information on good behaviour management practise.

Parents need to know where they are heading with all aspects of parenting and often feel lost as they reach the 9-12 month stage and find that their ability to positively manage behaviour is suddenly challenged by their increasingly independent baby. By the time parents stumble upon Sure Start or finally beg their HV for advice (often with reluctance) or similar, they have already found themselves in negative or ineffective cycles of behaviour management and it is then difficult to implement newer, more effective strategies.

Second, seek out and destroy all ill-informed, impatient, impractical and unpleasant HVs and cull them in a big vat of hot nestle baby powder.

And stop fannying around with ASBOs and initiatives with daft names and just make it known that parents are responsible for their kids. Schools to teach rather than "discuss", and use plain and simple language to show that this behaviour is acceptable and that behaviour isn't. Stop pandering to people's sensitivity - abusing people verbally or physically is wrong, end of. OK, circumstances may lead people to behave badly but they still should be punished, then you sort out how to stop re-offending. I'm off on a tangent here, not quite under the idea of the OP. Think I'll shut up before I open my mouth and put my foot in it...

victim surchagre

tis crap

( for those hwo dont knwo it a payment oyu HAVE ot make fro all imcomes if youare foudn guilty of a crime afetr april the 1st this year that is punished by use of a fine)

NO ONE knows wher the "££ is ogign to
not to victims it seems

adn yes bin asbos

oh could rant forever about hte law

also make new peopel who drive only allowed ot take ONEPassenger and not to drive after 10 pm unless htey have an exemption note form work ( like in new zealand)

also have poeple haev 12 points ot START wiht and lose them that way

TC need sorting

Education needs more money and more available for SN

Housing for all and tighten up on buy-to-lets and dodgy landlords

i agree with the tax credits thingy..i think the government should support us SAHM`s and realise what an important job we re doing..personally i enjoy staying home with my kids but did try and go back to work but basically couldnt afford to do it in the end, after childcare i wasnt working for anything and had to turn the job down a t the last minute when we realised we would be worse off...plus there should be more help offered for autistic kids ..we seem to miss out a lot on help , my ds isnt statemented therefore we do not get the help he really needs emotionally and socially..its not fair..plus the waiting lists are so long for therapy as they dont have the funding for more therapists..arrggh. look government ..read this and understand what parents want..

SPEND SOME MONETY ON THINGS
prisons
rpbation education
spend
you have money for the fuckign dome so spend some on things that coutn

See, I reckon if they spend lot son my idea and a bit on mental health then a couple of generations down the line we won't even neeeeeed prisons!

housing.

do something about affordability of housing and all the other problems here (affordable childcare, tax credits etc) become unneccessary. Many, probably most, families who are struggling are only doing so because they are paying too much rent or mortgage.

GB should make sure more homes get built, tax second homes and introduce a new medium term tenancy system (i.e. not the current short term one, which allows landlords to hike rents every 6 months, and also not the old sitting tennancy system).

Recruitment, training and retention of midwives so people get the best start to parenting they can.

plus more money for the probation service. It affects families indirectly, but it does affect us when offenders just go straight back out to steal more cars or what have you.

MAKE CHILDCARE TAX DEDUCTABLE

MAKE CHILDCARE TAX DEDUCTABLE
(Is it in bold this time?)

Don't get me started on housing (but I suggest making whole of BTL income taxable PRE expenses (wtf can I tax deduct my BTL mortgage but not the one putting a roof over my kids head?!!)and allowing every adult to own one place and one place only before having to pay a hefty tax bill on profit from sale. Should sort out property prices nicely whilst handily getting rid of a bit of balatent discrimination against married people.
Am i not right in thinking that child benefit isn't taxable because collecting the tax would cost more than they would get?

1dilema, you need an at the start & end of each* word

Sort out NHS dentistry (actually surpirised no one has mentioned this...unless I missed it)

If dentists get a govenment grant to open a practice they should HAVE to offer NHS treatment for x amount of years (I think it is (or used to be) 1yr. Not long enough!!! Dental contracts should be longer than a year.

No dentists allowed to stipulate children not allowed NHS treatment. All dentists should have to offer it.

Make new dentists NHS for x amount of years. A new dental graduate cannot do private quality dentistry a week after they qualify....saying that, some can't do it a decade after they qualify!

Offer more incentives for dentists to remain NHS & no go private & scrap this new stupid orthodontic structure.

Reading the posts, I think the theme of "pay me to stay at home with my children" is cropping up rather a lot.

I have to take issue with this as it would instantly create an inequality between those who go out to work and pay for childcare, thereby retaining only the surplus between the net pay and the childcare costs and those who want to stay at home therefore incurring no childcare costs.

What some SAHPs seem to be saying is that they want to have their cake and eat it, ie they want a better standard of living whilst being a stay at home parent plus they want the government to fund this increase in their standard of living. The thing is that ultimately it isn't "the government" funding it, is it ? It's the taxpayers, i.e. the working parent/parents.

If we want to be taken seriously we have to be practical about suggestions and increased state funding of SAHPs will just increase the tax burden on the working parents, giving them less net income. Are the SAHPs really saying they want working parents to fund SAHPs time at home with their children by the working parents spending even less time with their own ?

Jakstini If your employer is not based in this country they may not be liable to any potential legislation re childcare vouchers anyway. If you employed by a very small employer (with no H.R. or no separate payroll department) then you might be able to persuade them to operate the scheme by volunteering to be the person responsible for running it, you don't need to use an agency to provide the vouchers. Check the inland revenue website for details of the scheme.

grrr, I'd like to be paid to stay at home, but I know this wouldn't be paid at a "real" wage, I was thinking more a token amount to give sahm's some recognition, rather than getting nothing at all.

some of us just want to bring our kids up ourselves and will settle for crap financial circumstances to do it, to me thats certainly not having it all, its just having a bit of it but giving up a whole lot too.

I couldn't agree more, Senora!

Exorbitant housing costs are at the roo of MANY social ills in this country - and I don't mean just those with a mortgage, because of course high prices also mean high rents.

And I agree completely with the medium term tenancy point. Tenancies which can be passed - excepting joint tenancies between spouses or domestic partners - are just as bad as right-to-buy for depleting affordable housing stock for rent, particularly in urban areas, so perhaps an exception for tenant farmers.

toomuchtodo , How much would you consider to be a token amount ?

And I don't agree with the Pay Me to STay at Home thing, either.

If your partner is working poor and you stay home, you already do get quite a bit of child tax credit, just not as much as someone who has their child in daycare (for obvious reasons).

grr, to be honest probably about £30 a week

not much really