 News
4th February 2008
Cameron wants
new mums to have home nurseMothers could be offered the help of
a daily maternity nurse in the first week after birth under a radical plan being
considered by David Cameron. The Tory leader will today try to dispel fears
that he is stalling in the polls by unveiling an ambitious manifesto for improving
the lives of children. He told the Daily Mail that he was determined to
help middle-class parents struggling to cope with the pressure of "ferrying" youngsters
about because streets are not safe. But his most eye-catching idea would
involve giving all first-time mothers the kind of home support usually available
only to the wealthiest families. Mr Cameron argues that new mothers need
the kind of intensive support in the first week which used to be provided on the
NHS by midwives and community nurses. Private maternity nurses cost up
to £1,000 a week for their help and advice about breast-feeding, nappies and sleep
training, as well as giving mothers a chance to rest. Although the Tories
have not costed the proposal, estimates suggest that even with families sharing,
it would cost at least £ 150million to help the roughly 340,000 first-time mothers
each year. Mr Cameron employed a maternity nurse for his children and has
asked his team to look at a Dutch scheme for making them available free to all
mothers for six hours a day. Mr Cameron has asked his children's spokesman
Michael Gove and health spokesman Andrew Lansley to travel to Holland to observe
the scheme, which offers mothers help with chores such as getting older children
fed, cleaning and laundry. He told the Mail: "I'm hugely impressed by the
Dutch system. To have those extra pair of hands around - and the advice of a real
expert - could, I think, have a dramatic effect on the beginning of a baby's life
and perhaps help in setting a positive path for the parents to follow. "I'm
not suggesting that this is the magical answer to solving the parental problems
that are on the increase in our country. I don't believe the state can provide
easy answers to these problems. "But I think this is a good, practical
and sensible programme designed to support parents and which is worth proper attention."
Health Minister Ann Keen said: "It is irresponsible for the Tories to make
unfunded and uncosted spending promises on maternity services that they cannot
deliver." Mr Cameron's enthusiasm for intense, at-home care for mothers
is part of a wider package of "family-friendly" ideas which he says will give
his party the edge over Gordon-Brown. He hopes it will help him draw a
line under the Derek Conway scandal, which revived embarrassing memories of Tory
sleaze, and help reverse a downward drift in the polls. But it is likely
to lead to Labour claims that he is merely promoting a Tory version of the "nanny
state" based on subsidies for the middle classes. The Conservative leader
will today publish a blueprint for changing attitudes to childhood, which calls
for a "profound cultural change" in the way Britain treats its children. He
told the Mail: "This is the week the Conservative Party shows it is serious about
improving childhood and the wellbeing of children. "We want to change Britain
from being one of the least family-friendly nations in Europe to one of the most
family-friendly." He will also highlight Tory pledges to extend flexible
working to all parents, abolish the so-called couple-penalty in the benefit system,
scrap health-and-safety red tape to make school trips easier, and introduce more
"parkies" to patrol parks and playgrounds. The decision to focus on childhood
was inspired by the first anniversary of a damning Unicef report last year which
put Britain bottom among 21 wealthy countries on the wellbeing of children. Mr
Cameron said: "Parents are spending more time with their children, which is all
for the good, but parents are struggling to do a good job. "Actually success
in raising rounded children is not just about intensive supervision, it's about
enabling children to discover the world for themselves. "That's the problem
with streets and parks that are less safe is that just ferrying children around
doesn't enable them the time they need, as they had in the past, to discover things
for themselves." Where to next? | 
