Children and Families Bill

Baroness Perry of Southwark Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd July 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Perry of Southwark]

My Lords, in this debate many noble Lords have already put forward serious issues for the Minister to consider and they have suggested additions that they would wish to see. I know that the Minister will reply to their questions with his usual care and courtesy, and I myself have certainly listened to them with great sympathy. However, the Minister may have nothing to say to me, as I simply want to give a very warm welcome to the Bill. Indeed, there are some provisions in it that give me more pleasure than anything I have seen in the past 20 or so years.

I should like to mention just three provisions which are especially relevant to women, because I believe that the women of this country should celebrate them. In certain areas, they represent a huge step forward, for which we have been fighting for over a generation.

Like many women, I wrestled for many years to balance the responsibilities of a demanding job and the needs of, in my case, four young children. I owed a duty to my employer to give as much time as the job demanded, and I both owed a duty and cherished a wish to be with my family, enjoying their company, as much as I possibly could. I used to say that I lived with a permanent sense of guilt: if I was with the family, I felt guilty about the job, and if I was in the job, I felt guilty about my family. In those days, there was no flexibility in work at all. The hours were fixed, and the expectations of my bosses were for many more hours than the contract strictly required. The very idea that one might plead, for example, an important speech day at one’s child’s school as a reason to leave work a little early was just unthinkable.

Over the years, many employers have become more enlightened, and slow, welcome progress has been made for many lucky workers. Now, there is a wonderful provision in the Bill that gives everyone—men and women—the right to flexible working hours. Work at home on occasions when there is something important to get done quietly without losing time in travel or interruptions from colleagues? Yes. Start late to be there for the children as they go off to school? Yes. Or start early and leave early to be there when they get home? Yes.

How many women have worked through their lunch break to complete a task so as to leave in time to pick up children from school? An American friend of mine who is a very senior banker told me that her bank had recently conducted a study into the work patterns of its employees. She told me, “We found that the first 10 or so people out of the door at close of business were all mothers of young families, and we were very concerned about that. But then we found that those women actually put in more hours in a week than most of their older or male colleagues because they worked straight through their lunch hour”. Now, there will be no need for such stress. While of course these are welcome provisions for both men and women, we know from many studies that in a majority of families women still bear the principal responsibility for childcare, so this is indeed a policy for women to welcome, and I welcome flexible working.

The second area which is good news for women, although it is one where, again, both men and women benefit, is the provision for shared maternity leave. In the past, and for many still today, coming home from hospital with a newborn means at best only a few days with a partner’s help to cope with sleep deprivation and physical weariness. After those few days, the young mother is on her own, often reaching exhaustion at the unremitting responsibility of meeting the demands of a baby.

How wonderful for the new mother now, thanks to the provisions in the Bill, to have several weeks to share the burdens, as well as the joys. How right it is for the child to be able to bond with both parents in those precious early days. The Bill gives infinite possibilities in sharing the 12-month entitlement: time together at the start, and the remaining time perhaps split so that each parent can spend time at home with the baby while the other works. What a welcome and wonderful offering this is.

I do not share the negative doubts of the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes. I am sure that many fathers will welcome this provision. Many men regret the lost opportunities to spend time with a much loved small child. This Bill gives fathers the opportunity of a proper shared role in bringing up a small child. In so doing, it may even provide one more valuable shift in the balance of the roles of men and women in families, helping more young parents to stay together as their children grow up.

The third area where I believe this Bill will be welcomed by many women who care about the emotional and social welfare of children is the presumption of equal access for both parents after separation and divorce. All too often in recent years, the assumption has been not only that the welfare of the child implies that they live with their mother but that the wishes of the mother are paramount in determining what access is granted to the father. Denying a child adequate contact and time with both their parents is not in that child's best interest. The sense of self-worth and confidence in any child comes primarily from one's parents, and continued contact with two parents can strengthen a child's confidence, even after the trauma of divorce. I was interested to read in the Sunday Times the words of Penelope Leach, a guru of childcare in the 1980s and 1990, who said—rather surprisingly, coming from her—that even bad fathers should, with proper supervision and safeguards, be allowed time with their children, because that contact is so important for the child. Although some angry divorced mothers may—understandably, perhaps, in some cases—resent this provision, it is contrary to all we know about the interests of a child to allow any mother to use her children as a weapon in her anger against their father. I am confident that the overwhelming majority of mothers, who see how much their children both love and need their fathers, will welcome this measure. I am proud that the coalition Government whom I support have brought forward what I believe is an excellent Bill for women and for families.