The UK Government is proposing lessons in parenting for 14-year-olds. The lessons could include teaching about the role and responsibilities of parents, children’s legal rights and how parents can influence their children’s success, according to media reports. Child development and the role of play may also be part of the lessons. Shadow Children’s Secretary Michael...
A Government quango in the UK is questioning whether pharmacists should still be free to decline distributing the Morning-After-Pill. The Morning-After-Pill can cause an early-stage abortion. Traditionally, it has been up to pharmacists to decide whether or not to dispense controversial drugs. But now the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence is running a consultation that...
Swedish authorities take child from homeschooling parents
A senior Labour minister in the UK has signalled a major U-turn by the Government on the issue of marriage. In the run-up to this year’s general election, Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, has admitted that the party’s long-standing ambivalence towards marriage was a mistake. The party is set to...
Lone parent benefits may come to an end once a child reaches the age of 13 a new scheme being suggested by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin. One billion euro is paid out in lone parent allowances each year. In an interview with The Irish Times, Ms Hanafin said the Government’s...
Churches should be “lining up” lawyers to defend themselves against secular legal challenges under the Equality Bill, a Government equalities minister has admitted. Michael Foster MP, a minister in Harriet Harman’s Equalities Office, was asked whether the Bill would lead to legal clashes between churches and atheists. He said both sides “need to be lining...
Photographer loses appeal on same-sex "committment ceremony" decision
Minister of Education Batt O’Keeffe has defended the existence of religious schools, saying that schools with a Christian tradition had played “an outstanding part” in Irish education. Referring to calls to nationalise the school system, he said it was not within his remit to decide if religious organisations should be driven from schools. Speaking in...
One of Ireland’s leading parents’ groups, the National Parents’ Council, has criticised a proposal by the Law Reform Commission (LRC) for children aged as young as 14 to be allowed access to contraception without parental knowledge. The age of consent in Ireland for sex is 17. Both the Association of General Practitioners (GPA) and the...
