Family and Parenting Institute

The Family and Parenting Institute (FPI) is an independent charity that exists to make the UK a better place for families and children. It works with charities, businesses and public services to offer practical help to families. Its campaigns and research work focuses on building a "family friendly" society by offering insights into current and future family life. FPI runs the Family Friendly scheme which aims to help public and private organisations to better understand diverse families and meet their needs. The Family and Parenting Institute merged with the Daycare Trust in January 2013 and is now called the Family and Childcare Trust.

FPI was established by the Labour Government as the 'National Family and Parenting Institute' (NFPI) in 1999, in response to a recommendation made in the Supporting Families Green Paper 1998. The Institute modified its operating name and brand to 'Family and Parenting Institute' in 2006, though the registered name remains the National Family and Parenting Institute.

FPI describes its values as follows:

As well as research, policy and public affairs, the FPI is currently engaged in the following projects:

Since 1999 the FPI has run Parents’ Week – an annual week-long celebration of parents and families through events and projects throughout the UK. At the launch of the 2011 Parents’ Week, Minister of State for Children and Families, Sarah Teather MP stated that parenting issues were at the “top of the agenda” for the Coalition Government

The Family Friendly scheme was launched by the FPI in summer 2011 with the aim of making the UK a more family friendly society. Public, private and charity sector organisations joining in the scheme take a ‘Family Friendly pledge.’ They are then given a framework and resources for putting the pledge into action, focusing on customers, staff and services. Families themselves are given the opportunity to give feedback, via the scheme’s website, on the quality of the service they received. Current members include BT Group, easyJet, Barclays, Gatwick Airport, Gingerbread (charity), Fatherhood Institute, Grandparents Plus, Action for Prisoners’ Families, Contact A Family and a number of local Family Information Services.

Since 2010, the FPI has produced a “report card” on the UK’s progress towards becoming a family friendly society. The 2010 report graded the UK on the following factors: costs of raising a child; maternity and paternity leave; elderly care; work-life balance; child and pensioner poverty; childhood commercialisation; neighbourhoods and green spaces and care of vulnerable children.

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