RC groups query new family quango

CATHOLIC family welfare groups have cautiously welcomed the government's new flagship National Institute for the Family unveiled this week, writes Luke Coppen.
The Institute, which will act as a clearing house for research on family life, is being presented as an important signal of New Labour's commitment to the family. It will use its initial £2 million grant to co-ordinate the work of existing family charities and advise the government on family policy. However, the director of Family and Youth Concern, Valerie Riches, questioned the very basis of the Institute. "It's just one more quango interfering in the lives of people," she said. "Does the Government know better than the average parent?"
At the Institute's launch on Thursday, the Home Secretary Jack Straw was expected to say that the government is committed to finding new ways of helping parents to raise children. He will underline New Labour's strong support of marriage, but say that it is not for the state to put pressure on people to get married or to stay together.
Catholic Marriage Care expressed concern that this watered down the government's commitment to married life. "Marriage Care [hopes] that any research undertaken will keep clearly at the forefront that the mutual commitment of marriage is the bedrock of stability in our society," said Rev John Murphy, Catholic Marriage Care's chaplain. "We all know that the married family is the best family," Valerie Riches commented.