F

F Family 'It would seem ... very difficult to avoid having the family as a social institution even if one wanted to' (Harris, p. 91) but, of course, the family takes a number of different forms. For example, the nuclear family, characterised by relationships of parent-child and of mates, differs in respects important for welfare considerations from the extended family, with its significant kin network. Generally speaking, we can think of the family as a group related by marriage, blood, or adoption constituting (at least for a period) a single household. In a welfare context the family assumes importance for a number of reasons: it is the locus for distribution of care obligations; it is the matrix for much socialisation of young and old; it is the scene and source of many troubles (e.g.family violence); services sometimes seek to provide a substitution for the scale and care of the family (as in the idea of the Family Group Home in child care provision). In addition the family is protected by notions of privacy; and arguments about how households are constituted and which grouping should be recognised as a family are common in social policy discussion. The controversy surrounding the so-called co-habitation rule in relation to supplementary benefit is a good illustration of the last two factors. Bell, N. and Vogel, E. (eds) (1961) A Modern Introduction to the

Family, Routledge & Kegan Paul. Clayton, P. (1981) The Cohabitation Guide, Wildwood House. Donzelot, J. (1977) Policing Families: Welfare versus the State,

Hutchinson. Harris, c.c. (1969) The Family: an Introduction, Allen & Unwin.