SOC103A - Developing Social Policy

Social Policy

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Contents
Description.................................................................................................................................2
Background................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................4
Recommendations......................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

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“Family Policy”
Description
Social policy refers to the development of welfare, social administration and policies
of the government which is used to protect the society. Social policy is related to the
government approaches of social services. There are many policies of the government which
is developing by the government to protect society such as health policy, family policy,
education policy and many more. In this report, the discussion will be made on the family
policy in Australia. According to the Australian Bureau, a family is a group of people who
have blood relations with each other and take care of each other. There are various forms in
which families are designed and perform their responsibilities towards each other. Family has
a large extended network of people which spread across the countries or in a small area of the
same dwelling. The family is mandatory to perform the basic functions such as economic
security, a sense of identity, exchange of love and guidance on social values. The core
functions of the family such as care and guidance which is starts from the caring of children
and end with the parent caring by children across the life cycle. The emotional care of the
families for each other is essential for an individual wellbeing. Many factors affect the family
such as early marriage and having children. The environmental policies such as social and
economic policies affect the families. Family policy is developed by the laws and public
directives which are designed to promote marriage or to aware the public about reproduction
and raising children and many other issues (Botterill, 2017).
Background
In the 1970s the marriage rate declined and young people delay marriage and having
children. Their many problems arise in that year such as increasingly entered into a facto
relationship and homosexual relationship which is become more widespread. It has been seen

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that the divorce rate was also increased and the families were getting separated from their
households. Feminist and gay liberation movement challenged the old certainties about the
family and sexuality (Mendes, Snow, & Baidawi, 2015). In the 1970s, it is observed that the
substantial changes and variation in family structure and values. To solve these issues the
Australian government design the policy to protect the families’ relations and child. Family
policy also ensures the spousal support, child protection to solve the conflicts between the
work and family. Until the mid-1980s government saw the families as the basic unit of social
support and the respect their privacy unless the children were neglected or abused. After
family policy, the countries are regulated with some aspects of family life such as the people
are requiring the registration of birth, death and marriage (Bogenschneider, 2014). It has been
seen that marriage, separation and adoption have been legalised so that the rate of divorces
and population is reduced. This policy tries to ensure that the men support their wives and
children which help in protecting the children from the abuse. In this policy, the government
also provide social services and income security to families in the case of an emergency. To
implement this policy in the country; the countries requires sufficient fiscal resources. Birth
rates are less in Australia because their parent is less relies on their children. The family
policy helps in reduces the overpopulation, child malnutrition, child labour, maternal
mortality rate from the country. The communities contribute in funding to provide the homes
for orphans and abandoned children so that the child labour rate and the death rate is reduced
(Jacobs, 2017).
This policy is focusing on the protection of children, women’s and men’s from social
problems. It is the responsibility of the parents to take care of their children in every stage of
life not only in the pre-schooling (Daniel, 2015). In 2001, the Australian government
implements policy with the name of “Families Australia” to the federal government and
parliament on ways to increase the wellbeing of families (Ahl, & Nelson, 2015). The main

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vision of Families Australia is that the families enjoy the greatest possible wellbeing.
Families Australia gets the greater support for the social, economic, cultural, spiritual; and
developmental need of families. Families Australia is working to relieve the suffering,
distress and help the helplessness people. There are many events organised for the wellbeing
of the families of Australia such as National families’ week, conferences, policy forums,
Annual Meeting of the National Coalition on child safety and wellbeing, families Australia
Oration and many others.
Discussion
Families Australia is a national leader of the country which is highly appreciated for
the quality and independence of its work. This policy is governed and managed by the high
authority to the highest standards. There are different types of services for families and
children which help to improve services such as family services, childcare services and child
welfare services (Mahon, Bergqvist, & Brennan, 2016). The national framework is
Australia‘s first ever national plan to be endorsed by the Council of Australian Government
which helps to enhance the safety and wellbeing of children. This policy again received the
awards of third national framework action plan which were agreed to deliver the timeliness
and quality. It becomes the first strategy working group which ensured the prevention and
early intervention. After following this policy it also opens ten workshops around the
Australian which involve over 400 participants from government, research sector and non-
government (Adamson, Cortis, Brennan, & Charlesworth, 2017).
After all these achievements, the country still faces the issues due to default in
Australian family policy. Current major issues in this policy are the falling marriage rates,
increasing divorce rates and increasing childcare spending. In Australia, crude marriage rate
of 5.4 marriages per 1000 people which were the second lowest on record as compared to the

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other countries (Widerquist, et al., 2017). Although, the marriage rate of people is increasing
still the rate of divorce are increases. The one reason behind the falling marriage rate is that
people taking a conscious decision to live together unmarried. It is observed that the
relationship can reach at the uncertainty and emotional distress which results in a failed
relationship and fear from the marriage (McDonald, 2015).
To protect the children from the abuse and other social factors which affects the
children; society starts spending more on the facilities of children. Childcare has been used
by both governments as well as the society. Middle-class families also spend on the childcare
services. Child care is commonly used as an arm of government employment policy; due to
spending more on childcare the cost of services is increased. Skill shortage is increasing due
to increasing the use of Childcare (Thomson, 2017).
Recommendations
From the above analyses, it has been seen that there are still many issues faced by the
country. To solve these issues the government of Australian has to take initiative towards the
services and made a strong policy. The marriage rate id reduces in the country due to
increasing the divorce rate in the country and the many other issues which are facing by the
country.
New rules and regulation
It has been seen that the government of Australia face the issue of falling marriage
rate due to the conscious decision of the people to live together without marriage. The living
relationship without marriage has the risk of failing relationship of people due to many
reasons such as uncertain child and many others. The government of Australia has to make
the new rules and regulation to control the rate of failing relationship. It is necessary to put

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a restriction on the living together policies of the government. The government should also
measure the rate every year and then analyse the reasons behind the issues of failing marriage
rate. Evaluation of rate is necessary to resolve the issue of the country (Bibbins, Grossman, &
Curry, 2017).
More facilities
It is the responsibility of the government that the policy is implemented at every
corner of the country. This policy is made for the family wellbeing but it mainly focuses on
the child well-being which is not cover the entire people such as old age people. It is true that
the childcare is important for the country for future benefits but it is also the responsibility of
the government to take care of old age people. The state government has to organise the
events to support older people so that they can also get the advantage of this policy and stay
healthy. The government should ensure that the services will be available to the old age
people or not (Robila, 2014).
Delivery process
The family policy is developed by the government for the wellbeing of families but the
time of delivering the services is more beneficial for the society. However, the government of
Australia provides many services by organising the various events. But there are many issues
which are faced by society due to delay in services. The government should take care of the
quality and time of the process of the delivery of services. It is beneficial if the services are
met at the time of requirement and at the right place. Child care is beneficial for society but
spending more money on it is not beneficial for society. The government could suggest and
educate the people to take care of their children (Smyth, Hunter, Macvean, Walter, &
Higgins, 2018).

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Conclusion
From the above analysis, it has been concluded that Family Australia is developed by
the Australian government as the family policy. It is developed for the wellbeing of families
and children. The people of Australia face the issue of divorce, and decreasing the marriage
rate. The government did not interfere in the personal matter of the people until the child
abuse and child labour. To resolve these issues the government takes initiative by developing
the family policy to support the people. Under this policy, the government organised the
many events to support child care, and provide the facilities to the parents. Although the
policy gain the many achievements still the Australians face issues such as failing marriage
rate and child care services. To resolve these issues and the government should measure the
quality and time of the process of delivery, and made new rules and regulation to develop the
economy.

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References
Adamson, E., Cortis, N., Brennan, D., & Charlesworth, S. (2017). Social care and
migration policy in Australia: Emerging intersections?. Australian Journal of Social
Issues, 52(1), 78-94.
Ahl, H., & Nelson, T. (2015). How policy positions women entrepreneurs: A comparative
analysis of state discourse in Sweden and the United States. Journal of Business
Venturing, 30(2), 273-291.
Bibbins-Domingo, K., Grossman, D. C., & Curry, S. J. (2017). The US Preventive
Services Task Force 2017 draft recommendation statement on screening for prostate
cancer: an invitation to review and comment. Jama, 317(19), 1949-1950.
Bogenschneider, K. (2014). Family policy matters: How policymaking affects families
and what professionals can do. Routledge.
Botterill, L. C. (2017). Rural Policy in Australia: The Farm Family and the Farm
Business. In Government Reformed (pp. 101-118). Routledge.
Daniel, G. (2015). Patterns of parent involvement: A longitudinal analysis of family-
school partnerships in the early years of school in Australia. Australasian Journal of
Early Childhood, 40(1), 119.
Jacobs, F. H. (2017). Evaluating Family Programs: Current Issues in Theory and Policy.
Routledge.
Mahon, R., Bergqvist, C., & Brennan, D. (2016). Social policy change: Work–family
tensions in Sweden, Australia and Canada. Social Policy & Administration, 50(2),
165-182.
McDonald, P. (2015). The evolution of population and family policy in Australia. In Low
and Lower Fertility (pp. 143-159). Springer, Cham.

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Mendes, P., Snow, P., & Baidawi, S. (2015). Response to Broadley et al.,'The ethical
obligations of research with vulnerable young people who have dependent children'.
Communities, Children and Families Australia, 9(2), 35.
Robila, M. (2014). Handbook of family policies across the globe (Vol. 10, pp. 978-1).
New York, NY: Springer.
Smyth, B. M., Hunter, C., Macvean, M., Walter, M., & Higgins, D. J. (2018). Education
for family life in Australia. In Global perspectives on family life education (pp. 93-
113). Springer, Cham.
Thomson, J. (2017). Australian social work responses to family disadvantage and the
removal of children. Communities, Children and Families Australia, 11(2), 5.
Widerquist, K., O'Connor, A., Williams, W., Hollister, R., Watts, H., & Levine, R. A.
(2017). A retrospective on the negative income tax experiments: Looking back at the
most innovate field studies in social policy. In The ethics and economics of the basic
income guarantee (pp. 95-106). Routledge.