At the beginning of the month, we sent a Freedom of Information request to the Department for Work and Pensions to get an update on the Families Test – a government initiative that was designed to ensure all relevant policy and legislation was “family friendly”, and we can now publish their reply.
Whilst the DWP have very kindly taken the time to answer our questions and offer some interesting insight into the initiative, a lot still needs to be done.
Since its inception last year, only three policies have been put through the Families Test, and one of these assessments appears at the time of writing, to be incomplete. When asked who was in charge of ensuring the Test was carried out, we were told simply that the Prime Minister “expects that it will be.”
To be fair, the DWP offer to bolster this approach by working with their colleagues and Cabinet officials to provide more information on the Test and to target policy which may be eligible for testing. Something though, you would have thought the DWP would be doing as of right at this point. And when we asked whether they were aware of any departments using a template of some kind to log the details of any policy tested against the Families Test, as suggested by the Test guidelines, we received an evasive response that did not even answer our question (see below for the actual reply).
But by far the most interesting answer to our query, is the DWP’s response to policy tested which does not meet the criteria set out in the Families Test. The DWP tells us, “If a potential negative impact is identified then it is for the policy team to bring this to the attention of Ministers and consider whether they should take mitigating action. ”
So there is no onus on anyone to really do anything. And we think that says it all.
You can view the questions we put to the DWP and their reply, below:
daveyone1 said:
Reblogged this on World4Justice : NOW! Lobby Forum..
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Dorothy Chambers said:
Fudge Fudge Gloriase Fudge. Ther’s nothing quite like it for making some mud. When the mud ‘s ready, spread it around then no information can realy be found.
I owe a copy rite fee to the music of the song Mud Mud Glorouse mud
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Dana said:
Thank you Natasha for posting the article about the 3 children removed from their parents because of the father smacking his children and the mother who sided with her husband. They did not feel they had done anything wrong but the Judge (not named) said the father could not keep his children because of his “entrenched” views!
I personally think the Judge is wrong! A sledgehammer to crack a walnut decision! How can it be right to split up the family and cause distress to the children by not living with their parents! The UK is really becoming a dictatorship!
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Natasha said:
Hi D, I think the judge was named?
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Dana said:
She was indeed Natasha. Judge Sarah Wright. Seems she is another Judge gifted with the power of telepathy as she said there was no prospect of the father ever changing!
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