Fatherhood Institute and Policies

POLICY & LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORKS requiring engagement with fathers

there is a really good policy powerpoint on this website which allows you to see how policy relates to fathers.

Masculinities - paternity leave/parental leave

The number of men taking statutory paternity leave has slightly increased
Information from HMRC, the number of employees claiming paternity pay rose
from 170,000 in 2008-09 to 194,000 in the year to March 2010, an increase of 14%



Below is a link to a Guardian article where government are considering shared parental leave in 2015

Why cutting maternity leave would be good news for Britain's parents Both parents would benefit if maternity leave were cut to 18 weeks with the option of shared leave for the rest of the year





Jo presses the Government on shared parental leave

Leitch review

Skills in the UK: the long-term challenge: interim report

Child Labour Rachels's Mission

International Labour Organisation

 What is child labour

Considerable differences exist between the many kinds of work children do. Some are difficult and demanding, others are more hazardous and even morally reprehensible. Children carry out a very wide range of tasks and activities when they work.

Defining child labour

Not all work done by children should be classified as child labour that is to be targeted for elimination. Children’s or adolescents’ participation in work that does not affect their health and personal development or interfere with their schooling, is generally regarded as being something positive. This includes activities such as helping their parents around the home, assisting in a family business or earning pocket money outside school hours and during school holidays. These kinds of activities contribute to children’s development and to the welfare of their families; they provide them with skills and experience, and help to prepare them to be productive members of society during their adult life.

The term “child labour” is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.

It refers to work that:

• is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and
• interferes with their schooling by:
• depriving them of the opportunity to attend school;
• obliging them to leave school prematurely; or
• requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.

In its most extreme forms, child labour involves children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities – often at a very early age. Whether or not particular forms of “work” can be called “child labour” depends on the child’s age, the type and hours of work performed, the conditions under which it is performed and the objectives pursued by individual countries. The answer varies from country to country, as well as among sectors within countries.

The worst forms of child labour

Whilst child labour takes many different forms, a priority is to eliminate without delay the worst forms of child labour as defined by Article 3 of ILO Convention No. 182:

(a) all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;

(b) the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances;

(c) the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties;

(d) work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.

Labour that jeopardises the physical, mental or moral well-being of a child, either because of its nature or because of the conditions in which it is carried out, is known as “hazardous work”.

Candy and Child Labour Rachel's Summer Mission

Having looked on the world wide web this mission will concentrate on the chocolate manufacturer Nestle after it agreed in 2001 by the signing of an agreement to end the problem of child labour in its cocoa supply chain. 

Nestlé becomes first food company to partner with the Fair Labor Association

Child labor is still a reality on cocoa farms in Côte d’Ivoire and has its roots in a combination of factors (2012)

Nestlé sets out actions to address child labour in response to Fair Labor Association report on the company’s cocoa supply chain (2012)

Having read through these reports it is clear that Nestle are failing when it comes to child labour.  The report has shown many injuries for example machetes that slice into the children's legs as they harvest the cocoa pods, alongwith working long hours.

  children working long hours, using dangerous items such as machetes really worth the end result????  The next time you are eating chocolate think about where its manufacture started and how may children are being abused to provide us with this luxury item.  We also have a part to play in ending child labour, if chocolate bars came with a warning "child labour has been used to manufacture this product"  or "chocolate plays a part in child labour" with images of children would we still buy it, want it or feel we need it!!

It appears despite the efforts of large companies such as Nestle child labour is still an issue 11 years after signing an agreement as shown in the Fair Labor Association (FLA) independant report.

BBC News Nestle failing on child labour abuse says FLA re...

Time to prepare for Year 2

Well hello followers of my blog.  After a lovely summer/time off it is now time to prepare myself for the start of Year 2, which I am rather excited about and looking forward to.  The next time I complain about the work I will need to re-read this to remind myself that I have actually missed it during my time off!!!!  So refreshed and ready here comes Year 2!!!