The Government programme An Action Programme for the Millennium contains a range of commitments in relation to the family and children. The primary responsibility of my Department relates to income support for families and children. The recent budget made provision for a package amounting to £305.5 million in a full year. As part of this package, £40 million provided for improvements in child benefit: family income supplement was improved by £4 million, including an increase of £8 in the weekly thresholds from June 1999 and the carers allowance was boosted by £18 million on top of the existing £45 million.
My Department has significant and substantial responsibilities for the Government's social inclusion commitments, income support arrangements for families, services for lone parents, support for the community development programme and for the community and voluntary sector generally and for the development of family policy. In this context, the Department has particular responsibility fo the Government commitment to adopt a "families first" approach by putting the family at the centre of all its policies in the context of developing coherent progressive and effective policies for families as promised in the programme for Government, An Action Programme for the Millennium.
In line with its pro-family approach to the development of policy and services and in response to recommendations from the Commission on the Family the Government has established a family affairs unit in the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs. The functions of the family affairs unit are; to co-ordinate family policy, to pursue the findings in the report of the Commission on the Family (published July 1998) following their consideration by the Government; to undertake research; and to promote awareness about family issues.
The unit has responsibility for support for the marriage counselling services and the Family Mediation Service as well as a number of other family services including a pilot programme to provide improved service to families from local offices of the Department through the one-stop-shop model, and the introduction of an information programme on parenting issues.
This year £6.5 million has been allocated specifically for the development of family services. This includes: