Statement from Harriet
Harman, Minister for Women and Equality, on the Government's
"Support for All: the Families and Relationships Green Paper":
"I am
pleased that the Families and Relationships Green Paper reconfirms
our commitment to support service families. The families of our
service personnel have always held things together at home, and
their task has become even more demanding with the forces fighting
away in Afghanistan.
"Service wives must have the chance to get training,
work and childcare. But, as I have seen first hand from my visits
to military bases, that is hard if they have to move regularly and
are located on a base miles away from parents and in-laws.
"Our new initiatives demonstrate that we are committed
to tackling the disadvantages faced by service families because of
their unique lifestyle. The Service Family Employment Task Force
will report shortly on its review of what extra help could be
offered to service families looking for work. We are putting in
place Armed Forces Champions for each Jobcentre Plus district, and
we are considering how Tax Credits better support families in the
Services and explore what more could be done.
"We will make sure that service families have the same
access to childcare, school places and transport as the civilian
population so families can access training, work and childcare."
The work on service families can be found in the Green Paper at
pages 10, 11, 51, 91 and 109.
Background
* The Government announced a series of measures in November to
support service families, including an Employment and Skills
Taskforce, new Armed Forces Champions for Jobcentre Plus
districts, and looking into how service families can have the same
access to education and transport as the civilian community.
* The measures add to the progress made by the cross-government
2008 Service Personnel Command Paper. This was published
specifically to ensure that military families, whether based in
the UK or abroad, were no longer disadvantaged in obtaining jobs,
or accessing public services such as childcare, education,
healthcare, and work.
* The Government will publish a report on this work in the
spring, focussing on practical steps which improve the lives of
military family members.
Contacts:
Government Equalities Office press office
Phone: 0207 276 0932
enquiries@coi.gsi.gov.uk