Roundtable discussions
Participants discussed questions from the evidence response under the themes:
- Households and families
- Family formation and dissolution
- Children in need of care
- Families affected by disability
- Parental working patterns
Some common themes which emerged included:
- Need for flexible services to reflect the variety of and change in family types
- Significance of fewer children and the ageing population
- Significance of the later pension age and the impact of this on informal care
- Need for childcare for older children
- Lack of information to support changing family structures and different transition points
- Multiple and increasing barriers resulting from welfare reform
- Role of schools and education generally
- Need for more evidence, including qualitative evidence, about the kind of work parents are in; accessibility of services for families affected by disability, including urban and rural and transport issues; transitions to adult services; young carers; cohabitation rates and breakdown; older mothers; teenage mothers