The family at the very heart of our work

Tonight at Castille, a myriad of proposals and suggestions that look towards family issues will undoubtedly be made to the Prime Minister. He has already stated that this year's budget will be focused particularly on family matters, although, in truth, all our policies have been directed towards the needs of all members of society as individuals and as parts of our family units.

No one can deny the incredible strides forward this country has made in the ICT sector, in education, in the environment, in equality issues, to name but a few. Any of these and other advances are ultimately to the benefit of our families. One of these advances is the setting up of the Foundation of Social Welfare Services, which approaches the family in a holistic manner, offering support services to the family through Agenzija Appogg, to the families of disabled persons through Agenzija Sapport, and to persons suffering from addiction problems through Agenzija Sedqa.

With regard to children, important milestones to date have been the setting up of the Office of the Commissioner for Children, the laying down of standards for childcare facilities, legislation on fostering, and the development of programmes for children with very challenging behaviour.

Legislation regulating the consumption of alcohol by minors under the age of 16 was passed unanimously through Parliament and an awareness-raising campaign is informing the public about the implications of this legislation, which will come into force on July 1.

The National Family Commission has been working on the first Family Policy. And we continue to work towards ensuring that the shared spaces within communities are of high-quality and, to this aim, through the Department of Housing Construction and Maintenance, this ministry will have invested over Lm10.5 million (€24,458,420.68) from 1998 to 2010 in the embellishment of housing estates.

This is all part of this government's wider vision towards the decentralisation of services and towards the strengthening of our communities. This is the philosophy behind such realities as the Access complex in Cottonera, the developing childcare centre in Birkirkara, the one-stop shop in Valletta, and Dar Pirotta for disabled persons in Birkirkara.

This is why new initiatives and schemes that have emerged from the Housing Authority also point in this direction: The urban regeneration projects, the EU-funded project Head Start, which provides an integrated package to young people leaving institutional care, programmes to aid disabled persons reach independent living opportunities, and various schemes, such as lift installations, which encourage disabled people to continue living in their usual environment and community.

Undoubtedly, the family constitutes the very foundation of Maltese society. As such, our commitment is to buttress this foundation and ensure it receives all the support it needs to continue to flourish, while facing the manifold challenges that occur as society changes, almost on a daily basis.

This is why we need to be forward looking and continue to put into place systems, schemes, services and, more importantly, underlying philosophies, that will stand the test of time. During the last budget, the Prime Minister mentioned several family-friendly measures which parents, as well as employers, can benefit from - crucial lynch-pins for work-life balance, perhaps viewed as "luxuries" by some these days but which will fast become necessities for the new generation.

Many people will say, as always, that more needs to be done. New challenges will require us to keep our thinking caps on while, together, we continue to turn our country into the place where families choose to be. There should be no doubt, however, that this government always has at heart the best interest of the family, and that their interests and needs are foremost on the state's agenda.

Ms Cristina is Minister for the Family and Social Solidarity.