Disadvantaged Children

Debate between Fiona Bruce and Graham Stuart

Thursday 20th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Fiona Bruce]

I do so agree. In fact, that was the subject of my very first question in the House, some months ago, and I look forward eagerly to hearing the Government’s response to the idea of such a scheme being put into action. I thank my hon. Friend for raising it again; that is a timely reminder.

As the mother of two teenage boys with the benefit of a supportive wider family, I want to promote and encourage the role of parents and grandparents in helping children to grow up to be all that they can be. In the report by the right hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr Field), I welcome his statement:

“We imperil the country’s future if we forget that it is the aspirations and actions of parents which are critical to how well their children prosper.”

He is absolutely right. Children flourish with support and encouragement from the care giver or care givers with whom they have, ideally, a long-term, stable and loving relationship. So do parents.

If parents never had continuing close care and nurture as they grew up, or the example and experience in their lives of caring parents, how difficult it must be for them to be good parents themselves. We have to address that key issue. How can we break the inter-generational cycle of poverty in families where parents themselves have not had a good parenting model?

[Mr Graham Stuart]

My hon. Friend talks about absences in young people’s lives. I am particularly concerned about young boys, who are often brought up in families with no male role models. They turn up at primary school, where more than eight out of 10 teachers are now women rather than men, and they lack the male role models in life to ensure that, as they grow up, they can learn how to behave as a man, as a father and as a supporter of their own family.