Presentation made by Helen Wilkinson, Director, Genderquake Limited to QMW Seminars, 29 January 2003

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Presentation made by Helen Wilkinson, Director,
Genderquake Limited to QMW Seminars, 29 January
2003
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What Are Key Issues Which Policy Must Address

- For Lone Parent mothers,
non-resident fathers in the context of family
policy and the work-life agenda
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Fragile families

• In general, healthy families are those in which
  the father and mother are actively involved in
  the nurturing of their children
• Lone parenthood in which the father is non
  resident re by definition fragile families
  vulnerable to child poverty, low income and low
  employability
• Policies to address the needs of lone parent
  mothers are critical for strengthening fragile
  families

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Fragile families ctd

• More needs to be done to facilitate and maintain
  the connection between the non resident father
  and their children, and provide child support in
  the widest sense
• Adult relationships may no longer be for life but
  parenthood is - children require the love and
  nurturance from both parents regardless of
  whether or not the connection between the two
  adults is frayed

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Core proposition

• If we are to succeed in achieving the outcomes of
  Government objectives in relation to lone
  parenthood we have to systematically tackle and
  address policies for non-resident fathers
• This is a particular issue for low income groups
• Policies such as they exist are not joined up

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Government strategies

• New Deal for Lone Parents supports registered
  childcare costs for part-time working for one
  year and New Deal for Lone Parent advisors help
  lone parents to look for a job, get training and
  find suitable childcare.
• Jobcentre Plus ensures that jobseekers with
  children and their personal advisors have better
  access to information on childcare provision in
  their area, from April 2003 there will be a
  dedicated Childcare Partnership Manager in every
  Jobcentre Plus district.

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Key policy interventions for lone parents

• Work as a route out of child poverty - New Deal
  for Lone parents getting lone parents back into
  work
• Work-Life balance as route to balancing work
  and parenting new initiatives, new rights for
  better work-life balance e.g. flexible working,
  extended maternity leave etc etc
• Child care solutions - developing and delivering
  reliable high quality affordable childcare and
  focussing the NCS to deliver child care solutions
  for lone parents

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Non-resident fatherhood - strengthening the ties
that bind

• Government needs to develop strategies for
  promoting the involvement of non resident fathers
  in the lives of their children and linking this
  to agenda for lone parent mothers
• USA is an interesting model of practice and
  innovation

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Lone Parents policy challenges

• eradicating child poverty by 2020 and halving it
  by 2010 and
• getting 70 per cent of lone parents into paid
  employment by 2010
• Policies for non resident fatherhood a missing
  link and needs joining up to this agenda

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Child care gap and lone parents

• Childcare is a commonly reported barriers to work
  among non-working lone parents
• 52 of non-working lone parents on Income Support
  in the New Deal for Lone Parents (NDLP) Survey
  2000/2001 mention the lack of suitable childcare
  as a barrier to work
• nearly one half of non-working lone parents with
  children under five have concerns about the cost
  and availability of childcare and
• lone parents who say they expect to look for work
  sometime in the future also recognise the
  childcare barrier, with 28 per cent having
  concerns about costs and 19 per cent reporting
  that no childcare is available.

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Lone parents concerns

• nearly one half of non-working lone parents with
  children under five have concerns about the cost
  and availability of childcare and
• lone parents who say they expect to look for work
  sometime in the future also recognise the
  childcare barrier, with 28 per cent having
  concerns about costs and 19 per cent reporting
  that no childcare is available.

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Child care condundrum

• Many lone parents have only one income to to pay
  for childcare and no option other than to use
  informal, unregistered childcare that
  consequently excludes them from receiving any
  Government contribution towards their childcare
  costs.

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Problems with child care tax credit

• Impact of CCT is limited particularly for lone
  parents
• Typical cost of childcare services for a child
  under two of 120 a week means that despite a
  childcare tax contribution towards the cost of
  childcare, the lone parent is still left with a
  share of the cost that is simply unaffordable
  (they get on average just less than 60)

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Problems with CCT ctd..

• Restriction of CCT to registered formal childcare
  is problematic, particularly for lone parents of
  whom a significant proportion (42) only use
  informal childcare, not eligible for CCT
• Lone parents express a strong preference for
  informal care as they want someone to care for
  their child who can give them the quality of care
  comparable to their own and whom they can trust
• Only 15 per cent of lone parents exclusively use
  formal child care

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Government strategy re child care lone parents

• Development of Childrens Centres targetted
  investment in the 20 per cent most disadvantaged
  wards. Will go some way to addressing the
  childcare needs of lone parents who live in those
  wards but the market is being left to deliver
  childcare in the remaining 80 per cent of
  neighbourhoods
• Evidence presented at a recent Education Select
  Committee suggested that extending this programme
  to the 30 per cent most disadvantaged wards would
  extend access to 70 per cent of disadvantaged
  children.

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Child care challenge for Lone Parents

• Key headlines from recent NCS review process
• Concerted action is needed to encourage informal
  child careers to train and qualify as registered
  childminders
• Need to consider whether some form of benefit
  can be extended to lone parents and informal
  carers through reform/modification of child care
  tax credit
• Policy priorities and investment beyond
  geographic confines to reach lone parents in
  affluent areas

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Fatherhood as a public good

• Research evidence chronicles benefits of
  active, nurturant fatherhood for children and a
  growing literature on the psychological,emotional
  and physical benefits for fathers
• Scope for more research in this area, especially
  vis a vis non-resident fathers

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Trends in fatherhood

• New Dad? - research evidence shows that fathers
  today are more involved with the care and
  nurturance of their children (custodial fathers
  are a rapidly rising demographic group).
• Disconnected Dad? - research evidence also shows
  growing minority of children are growing up in
  fatherless households

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The cycle from connection to disconnection

• The research suggests that many non-resident
  fathers have a positive connection with their
  child at the beginning. Over time, this
  connection becomes more tenuous (there are also
  significant differences between divorced and
  never married fathers)

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Generational shifts in non-resident fatherhood

• Over the last three decades, unprecedented trends
  to father absence - precipitated by divorce
  epidemic
• A new generation of non-resident fathers are
  coming to light - more and more make up the
  never marrieds, and often the connection
  between the two adults is tenuous

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Low income non-resident fathers

• Special barriers factor them out of equation in
  societys eyes (and thus their own) - societys
  definition of responsible father frequently
  specifies economic provision
• Low income non resident fathers frequently want
  to pay but cannot pay - the system forces them
  underground and over time, they lose contact

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Contradictory trends?

• Trends in fatherlessness need some qualification
  - evidence of the rise of single parent
  households does not in itself prove
  fatherlessness - qualitative research amongst a
  new generation of never married, low income
  households points to the phenomenon of the
  underground father

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Time for a new paradigm?

• The deficit model of fatherhood has held sway for
  too long
• We need a new set of expectations for todays
  fathers - changing public and political cultures
  (e.g. public awareness campaigns to shift
  political consciousness and shifts in public
  policy to encourage and facilitate involved
  fatherhood (e.g. custody reform, facilitating
  team parenting, welfare reform)

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Key Conclusions

• Fatherhood moving to the top of agenda - its
  future not yet secured
• The message about child well-being and about the
  key to promoting healthy families need to be made
  more explicit and integrated into outcome
  indicators
• Communities need to be involved and heard - no
  one size fits all
• Fatherhood cannot be seen in isolation - the best
  policies are those which recognise the
  interrelationship between welfare to work and
  family preservation issues

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US Political context

• An unprecedented level of community mobilisation
  around the issue
• Foundations have played a strategic role in
  putting the issue on to the agenda
• Federal interest in the issue risen since mid 90s
  and accelerating - Administration support and
  legislative interest in Congress

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Political context

• State activity rising - NGA sub-committee, states
  setting up taskforces, commissions, policy
  initiatives
• Key charismatic individuals - Governors,
  community activists, state bureaucrats etc have
  been central
• The importance of womens voices as well as mens

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The downside

• The funding base for many fatherhood initiatives
  is still tenuous (all too often dependent on
  other drivers such as welfare reform which has
  different goals)
• Few of the innovative states have factored in
  outcome indicators and ways of evaluating the
  effectiveness of their programs with fatherhood
  in mind - this leaves them vulnerable in the long
  term

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The downside

• The interests of fatherhood activists are
  sometimes in tension or do not always coincide
  with state/federal policy goals (eg. child
  support, welfare reform)
• Demand for technical based assistance is
  beginning to outstrip supply - the fatherhood
  field still needs active development
• The case for fatherhood per se needs to be
  articulated by community based activists and
  mainstreamed into the mindset of state and
  federal policy makers for programs to be secured,
  let alone flourish

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The downside

• Foundations frequently change policy direction
  once they have raised issues - this leaves
  fatherhood programs vulnerable
• Key charismatic individuals have been critical at
  all levels - federal and state but especially
  within foundations and community based
  organisations - without their energy the potency
  of the issue could wane

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State upsum

• Diversity is key - no one size fits all
• Different political context in each states frames
  the issues
• But also, common themes - federal welfare to work
  and child support are key drivers - not least in
  releasing new funding streams
• Child well-being is jostling to make itself on to
  the agenda of policy makers - but it is finance
  that is driving most states

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Policy Implications for UK

• Focus on engendering healthy parenting
• Need to prioritise low income fragile families
• Need new fatherhood paradigm - away from deficit
  model
• Shared parenting should become the norm - custody
  reform, access visitation, mediation services
  to never married as well as married

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Key findings from US

• Concept of fatherlessness needs qualification
• Process of disconnection is complex with
  significant differences between divorced parents
  and never marrieds
• Low income non-resident fathers face specific
  barriers - economic barriers to involvement on
  a par with barriers lone parent mother face
• Clear, measurable, tangible benefits of involved
  fatherhood - for child, father and mother and
  therefore strategies for tackling non resident
  fatherhood have the potential to also improve the
  lives of lone parent mothers

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Policy Implications

• Child support reform benefits lone parent mums
  and reduces child poverty
• Welfare to work if to succeed in above, need to
  develop strategies for enhancing economic
  potential of low skilled low income fathers
• Means securing funding base for fatherhood
  programs in their own right
• Prevention is the cure
• Holistic government
• Build child well-being and father involvement
  into key program evaluations

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Lessons for Britain?

• Direct link to current debates about welfare
  reform - in terms of welfare to work, and child
  support
• Ideally, this should be linked to a more all
  encompassing campaign to promote responsible
  fatherhood as a whole reaching all fathers and
  all income groups
• Policies to promote responsible fatherhood should
  be primarily justified in terms of child
  well-being
• Policies for non-resident fatherhood also need to
  be linked to lone parent policies

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Joining up policies for fragile families

• Arg for promoting greater contact between
  non-resident father and the child increasingly
  based not just on well-being of the child and
  father but also indirectly the mother (in reduced
  stress, enhancing family income, sharing the
  parenting load, etc) and thus tackling and
  achieving potential policy outcomes vis a vis
  lone parents

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For more information on any aspect of this
presentation contact helen_at_genderquake.com.Pleas
e also visit www.genderquake.com