The Families Commission is an advocate for the interests of New Zealand families. We are unique because we are legislated to focus on families generally, rather than individual families or cases. Our role is to promote the interests of all families and promote a better understanding of family issues and needs amongst government agencies and the wider community. To do this, we need to understand the issues affecting families. We listen to families, and organisations involved with them, to hear their views.
We also promote, commission and publish research into family issues, and contribute to the government’s policy development processes on family-related issues.
More about the Families Commission
The Families Commission set up The Couch to hear the views of New Zealanders on issues relating to families.
It is part of our wider community engagement programme in which we regularly seek feedback from families, as well as community groups and organisations, through forums and meetings.
The responses from our polls and questionnaires will help us in our advocacy work to improve services and support for families, and improve our advice on proposed government policies.
We've come a long way since our first poll started on 11 April 2006. That poll asked Couch members about their experiences of, and their access to, parenting education. Since then we've asked members about a range of topics including disability, budgeting, childcare for school-aged children and the drinking behaviour of young people.
Members' responses have been generous and have provided us with a wealth of experience and views which are proving very useful for the Families Commission's work. One highlight has been the use of Couch members' opinions in our report When School's Out: Conversations with parents, carers and children about out of school services. Other milestones in Couch activities are the inclusion of responses from our Families and Alcohol Poll in a Families Commission submission on the Government review of restrictions on the sale of alcohol to young people, sharing the results from the Support for Couples poll at workshops for relationship education and counselling providers, and including Couch members' tips on balancing work and family life in our Even Up campaign.
Since the launch in April 2006, we’ve been spreading the word about The Couch at a range of events around the country.
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