Pathways to Work for Lone Parents

The Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland hosted a Peer Review in Belfast on 10-11 May 2010 that brought together ministry officials and independent experts from ten countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia), as well as representatives from DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities at the European Commission.

The purpose of the ‘Pathways to Work for Lone Parents’ (PWLP) pilot presented by the Host Country was to increase lone parent entry into the labour market by offering the services of a dedicated, specialist lone parent adviser from first contact with a Jobs and Benefits Office (JBO) through to job entry; new work preparation provision combining training and work experience; and new financial incentives of a Return to Work Credit and an in-work emergency fund. The barriers to work for lone parents are similar across Europe and pilot elements offer some scope for transferability – the role of specialist adviser in activating lone parents and in addressing their practical and personal barriers; the pre-employment training and work experience to address employability issues; the better-off calculation (BOC) to demonstrate the financial implications of work and the introduction of financial incentives to enhance the financial return from work. However, as the pilot has shown, these elements are not sufficient without job opportunities, flexible working practices and quality and affordable childcare.

The main conclusions of the discussions are summarised under the following headings:

Effective partnership working: The Peer Countries agreed that the complex nature of the problems faced by lone parents requires ‘joined-up’ approaches and partnerships with statutory agencies, local authorities, NGOs, community organisations, industry and volunteer groups. Such an approach is more likely to improve reach and to prevent lone parents from missing out on support appropriate to their needs due to lack of coordination across the range of support services offered.  Understanding the local context is essential to facilitate this process. This partnership approach is also seen as key to overcome client resistance to engaging with statutory services.

Targeted approach Vs Mainstream approach: Most countries do not have an approach which targets lone parents specifically. However, many peer countries expressed a strong interest in the benefits of such an approach. These include the possibility to provide Employment Advisors in the Public Employment Services with specific training not only on the counselling and inter-personal skills required to help gain the necessary trust and co-operation of a target group which has in many cases been out of the labour market for a very long time, but also with enhanced training on all the support services available to lone parents (from advice on childcare services, to mental health advice and details of housing and other relevant benefits). In addition, a targeted approach was also seen as allowing for the development of specific measures which had the needs of lone parents in mind, such as training provision which includes the offer of childcare facilities. However, a number of disbenefits or drawbacks of a targeted approach were also identified. These included the possibility of stigmatising lone parents, but mainly revolved around the question of how to select the most vulnerable groups to have access to such services in the context of scarce resources. The question was also raised whether a targeted approach could indeed detract from a move, which has been evident among most EU Public Employment Services in recent years, towards individual action planning which clearly assesses and acts upon the needs of each client.

Making work pay: The existence of a benefit trap is dependent on the benefit regime. In the UK, the provision of tax credits and one-off financial incentives have been shown to be essential to tip the financial balance in favour of work for many lone parents. Tools such as the ‘Better-off calculation’ seem effective in demonstrating to lone parents the financial consequences of their different employment options and help in making benefit regimes more transparent. However there are other costs associated with working (e.g. childcare) that can act as a disincentive for the lone parent.

Importance of frontline staff: It was agreed that the key to effective intervention was to be found in ensuring Employment Advisors are highly skilled and receive ongoing training; a caseload approach ensuring that each client sees the same advisor each time and the maintenance of a ratio between advisors and clients which allows for a personalised and effective service. It was acknowledged that as a result of the crisis and the stringency of public budgets these best practice goals were increasingly difficult to achieve.

Individualised pathways and performance measurement: In terms of the most suitable pathways for lone parents it is most important to acknowledge that lone parents are not a homogenous group. Therefore an initial assessment of needs is key to develop an appropriate personal action plan. Particularly individuals who have been out of the labour market for some time often have barriers to overcome which go way beyond the need to update skills to boost employability. It is therefore critical to accept that it is as relevant to measure how the distance to the labour market decreases as it is to measure shorter-term employment outcomes. In doing so, it is necessary to ensure that clients are not endlessly recycled through the system but follow a meaningful and individualised activation pathway, which can range from confidence building and measures to address non-skilled related obstacles, to activation to training and (subsidised) work placements or employment.

Role of social partners: A general lack of family friendly working arrangements not only hinders lone parent’s access to employment, but also serve to undermine gender equality in the labour market as a whole. It could be argued that in countries with strong childcare arrangements employer reluctance to recruit women with children (including lone parents) is lower, but on the basis of the sample of countries present at the peer review it is difficult to assess whether this is a linear relationship. Social partners clearly have an important role to play in supporting family friendly working arrangements. Ease of return to the labour market is also significantly influenced by leave arrangements and other labour market parameters.

Quality and affordability of childcare provision: Many countries fail to meet the Barcelona targets of offering childcare facilities to a third of 0-3 year olds. Even where childcare facilities are available, accessibility, flexibility and cost remain key factors restricting access to employment for women. In the wider societal context, the distribution of caring and other domestic roles clearly also remains an issue to be addressed and the structure of leave arrangements can have an important function is this regard.

Participating independent experts

• Eleanor Breen

  Northern Ireland
  Breen and Partners
• Rossitsa Rangelova

  Bulgaria
  Institute of Economics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
• Robert Plasman

  Belgium
  Université Libre de Bruxelles
• Vera Kucharova

  Czech Republic
  Institute for Philosophy and Sociology of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences
• Susana Pavlou

  Cyprus
  Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies
• Hugh Mosley

  Germany
  Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB)
• Aliki Mouriki

  Greece
  National Centre for Social Research
• Candy Murphy

  Ireland
  CMAdvice Ltd
• Elena Zamfir

  Romania
  Research Institute for Quality of Life, Romanian Academy
• Maja Jandric

  Serbia
  Faculty of Economics, Belgrade University
• Klemen Sirok

  Slovenia
  Faculty of Management Koper