Government early years policy focuses almost exclusively on academic and economic areas, instead of relationships between families, the Centre for Social Justice has said.
The right-leaning think-tank's latest report, The Next Generation, argued that relationships between parents and their children, and between couples, were overlooked in favour of getting parents back in to work.
It said the government should make child benefit more flexible, so parents can get most of it in the earlier years if they want to stay at home and look after their children.
And it argued parents who are working should have a genuine choice over what childcare to use, including the option to use tax credit to pay relatives to care for their children.
The government should also offer relationship and parenting education to everyone, and try and keep childcare out of children's centres so they can focus on offering family support.
"Relationships in the early years remain on the sideline in current policy," the report said. "Policy prioritises economic and academic ambitions above the essential relational needs of children."
It said the government should make child benefit more flexible, so parents can get most of it in the earlier years if they want to stay at home and look after their children.
And it argued parents who are working should have a genuine choice over what childcare to use, including the option to use tax credit to pay relatives to care for their children.
The government should also offer relationship and parenting education to everyone, and try and keep childcare out of children's centres so they can focus on offering family support.
"Relationships in the early years remain on the sideline in current policy," the report said. "Policy prioritises economic and academic ambitions above the essential relational needs of children."
