Fathers told: do more for your children

Drive to ensure errant parents take more responsibility risks criticism
Father and son
A young football fan prepares to watch an England match with his father. Photograph: Tom Jenkins

Fathers told: do more for your children

Drive to ensure errant parents take more responsibility risks criticism
Fathers-only parent evenings at schools and other special events are to form a big part of a new parenting strategy to be outlined by the education secretary, Alan Johnson, today.

He will present his plans in a speech drawing on research that shows disengagement of fathers is a crucial source of the relative failure of boys in schools. The strategy is also designed to counter rising crime and educational failure.

Though the initiative is likely to be criticised by some family campaigners, Mr Johnson believes there is merit in fathers-only parent evenings, at which they would hear reports from teachers about the progress of their children.

Research suggests that, especially in cases where parents are separated, the father either does not attend or ends up arguing with his former partner.

Mr Johnson is also convinced that some errant fathers need to be persuaded to re-engage with the value of school. He will argue that many unsupportive fathers have had a negative experience of school themselves.

One solution is to ask disengaged fathers to attend courses designed to help them in their role as a father, understand the value of school or to offer practical educational advice.

Mr Johnson will point out that almost half of all children from separated families did not see their father once last year.

He will make no direct reference to the recent gun crimes in south London, but his intervention is bound to fuel the debate on the failure of some fathers to remain committed to their children, an issue that has been raised by many community leaders and educationalists.

The speech is part of a counterattack by the government against claims by David Cameron that a form of social breakdown has gripped Britain, largely due to the decline in the traditional family.

Tony Blair will use his monthly press conference today to attack suggestions recently raised by the Unicef report on children's wellbeing that Britain is suffering a social breakdown. He will say that since 1997 the bottom 20% of society have seen their income rise faster than the richest 20%. A No 10 spokesperson said: "This remarkable progress is the untold story of this government," adding that the challenge now was to offer more support to those who have not benefited as much as they could have from the progressive reforms introduced.

Mr Johnson, who was largely brought up by his older sister, will use his speech to call for "a welfare state that does more to support parents". He will also say that fathers "are not optional extras in the family unit - and should not be regarded as such, not in the workplace, the home or the courts".

"The trouble is that many of the systems and structures we inherited in connection with family life were created in a world which unashamedly sought to keep women at home. As society modernises so must the welfare state be modernised."

Mr Johnson has been studying myriad academic research suggesting the role of parents has a massive direct effect on a child's educational achievement aged 16 and that the effect is far greater than other factors in their upbringing. The speech is an attempt to undermine proposals from Mr Cameron to shape the tax system to favour marriage through transferable tax allowance.

He will claim Labour's abolition of the married couples allowance "was not the act of a government that had no respect for marriage - it was essential in ensuring that children came first". He will argue the MCA discriminated against the 4 million children - one third of all children - whose parents were not married".

However, he will also say: "Marriage represents the pinnacle of a strong relationship: requiring a public commitment between two people.

"But that does not mean all children from married couples fare well, nor that every other kind of alternate family structure is irretrievably doomed to fail."