Social Policy Analysis Applied to the Lone Parent Family - Essay Example

Textual Analysis Esther Okone What do you understand by social policy analysis? Illustrate your ability to apply this understanding to one topic from current issues and debates within the sphere of social exclusion/inclusion. Social Policy Analysis Applied to the Lone Parent Family Social policy analysis and application encompass the whole process of identifying, elaborating, putting forward, and implementing practical responses to social problems. The whole course of action marshals individuals, groups and communities to recognize detrimental community situations and develop diverse resources for facing up to them (Burgess & Taylor, 2004). The identification of problems and their best resolution is not, however, a process worked out in a vacuum. The explicit society in which the social concern exists often enough not only spawns the problem but defines how its ramifications are perceived by the community, particularly over the entire gamut of economic status, social position, and political power. Without a detailed analysis, more often than not the recipients of the service turn out to be the voiceless objects of a well-meaning but ill-fated endeavor to control the problem (Lloyd, 1996). A workable policy has to be concrete and practical, as well as specify all facets of the effort. Strategic elements involve a full evaluation of the environment, since any resolutions must take into account prevailing circumstances. Aspirations and goals of the community and the persons served must be ascertained. Principles have to be set by which decisions can later be evaluated. Potential alternative approaches must be taken into consideration for accurate assessment of the long-term benefits. Operational projections must be measured against the original goals and purpose in order to make certain that efforts stay on target in the necessary direction (Burgess & Taylor, 2004). In the sphere of social exclusion/inclusion the imperative for fine-tuning services in collaboration with the very persons for whom the service is intended can be curiously ignored. Instead, social services are typically "associated either with a paternalistic approach based on the idea of ‘doing good’ to people through a top-down process, or of addressing broader state and societal concerns relating to demands for conformity, social cohesion and economic effectiveness" (Burgess & Taylor, 2004, p.28). In essence, social consciousness involves much more than applying professional skills to a specific problem. The skilled services available to certain groups regularly include biases of which the specialist may be effectively unaware. Various altruistic professionals are more often than not directed by the anesthetized discharge of duty in a world view emerging from the inherent outlook of a specific political and social setting (Lloyd, 1996). Lone parents, teen mothers in particular, characterize subjects of social policy who are quite commonly victimized by a certain pre-judgmental mind-set. According to Burgess and Taylor (2004) since the late 1970s in the UK the impetus has been that of endorsing independent responsibility for personal welfare. Social services have increasingly been presented as something for a "marginalized (and questionable) minority" for whom "safety net provision" may be required (Burgess &Taylor, 2004, p. 30). In effect, a social policy which the community generally identifies with a negligible percentage of the populace, extraneous to everyday experience, is inevitably fated to be generally inadequate and often even apathetically focused. The rift which the cutback in single-parent benefits created in the UKs Labor Party after Tony Blair came to power (Lloyd, 1997, p. 22) offers some evidence of the tension between conventional standards and an open-minded assessing of underprivileged human situations situated outside those societal norms. The maintenance of traditional family values unavoidably conflicts with the reality of non-traditional units even in the area of the objective implementation of social policy. In his Labor Party speech Blair conceded that "each year 100,000 teenage girls in the UK become pregnant out of wedlock" (Lloyd, 1997, 22). The key imperatives for an earnest social policy of inclusion would be the resolve: to include the group in question from the outset, to suitably subsidize all aspects of that ongoing process, to facilitate impartiality and involve the widest range of participants, to advance the role of interested independent groups, to engage all contributors not only in the appraisal but the conclusion, and to work out ongoing arrangements for sustained participation and open communication between providers and clients. In other words, the policy should ensure positive outcomes for service users in both the development and delivery of the service in question. Lastly there must be venues for constructive oversight and reliable feedback (Burgess & Taylor, 2004). In the wider dynamics of social inclusion and exclusion human life plays out within a context of interrelations within which all persons need a real sense of belonging. In effect, since human relationships are inclusive, by definition, any inclusion within a group also tends to exclude the people outside (Abrams, Hogg, & Marques, 2004, p. 2). Political or cultural alliances actually afford common ground for the inclusion or exclusion of entire sectors of the populace. Much of social life reinforces the sphere of those we include, those we exclude, and how we establish those boundaries (Abrams, Hogg, & Marques, 2004). Analyzing important aspects of these processes at the heart of human social relations has much to contribute to the study of the effects of social and public policy with regard to lone parents. To appraise the problem of what conditions or set of circumstances confines individuals or groups to being outsiders takes several different levels of analysis. Since the need to belong is fundamental to human life, occasionally ostracized individuals may actually have it within themselves to challenge the legitimacy of the bases of exclusion. (Abrams, Hogg, & Marques, 2004, p. 3). However, more typically, such devalued individuals respond with anger and antipathy, or somehow strike back. Social exclusion can set in motion a dynamic that ultimately generates conflict. The harshly negative cycle that affects people who are excluded puts them on the defensive with especially self-defeating behavior. The immediate implication is that being and feeling excluded is unhealthy for people both emotionally as well as materially. Beyond that it is injurious for the society in which they exist, creating an atmosphere that gives rise to ever bleaker inequality and distrust (Abrams, Hogg, & Marques, 2004, p. 4). Some authorities believe confidently that socially unwanted people convert to a healthier response when offered acceptance, and the cycle can be broken. These social psychologists examine both the negative and more socially positive reactions that ensue from a lack of acceptance within a group. Whether helpful or hurtful responses result, exclusion spurs a person to take steps to attain to the four primary needs of self-worth, self-sufficiency, fitting-in, and a meaningful life (Barry, 2005). According to Monica Barry in her research on youth and social inclusion (2005), support for single teenage mothers in England is offered under the government’s Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, which proposes by 2010 to cut in half the staggering numbers of adolescent pregnancies alluded to by the Prime Minister in his address above. Besides efforts to offer more facts on sex and contraception to young people, pilot projects across England provide expectant teenagers with personal mentors to help in the decision to continue the pregnancy, keep the infant, or choose adoption. In late 2002 new nationwide provisions were initiated to provide childcare support of up to £5,000 per year per child for single parents from 16–19 years old with registered child minders. Semi-independent subsidized housing is currently being offered for 16 and 17 year-old lone parents unable to live with their birth family (Barry, 2005, p. 234). However, in the long run, underlying social imperatives assure that the broader thrust for preventing teen pregnancy often enough supersedes support stratagems for single teen mothers. The Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy contends that lone teen parents continue to subsist on very low incomes, encounter overwhelming hurdles to either finish their schooling or break into the workforce, and generally reside in substandard housing. The group advocates for government agencies to better publicize financial incentives for young parents to return to education, without neglecting co-requisites for safe, affordable childcare, and appropriate housing (Barry, 2005, p. 236). Support for teen mothers is poor largely because social policy actually derives from the wider context of political expediency within structures of disadvantage and repression which can be time and again swept under the rug. Since the 1970s major shifts in the debate over welfare and teen parents, with clear moral undertones in favor of the conventional family, have made working-class teen mothers the target of burgeoning social control (Rowlingson & McKay, 1998). Worry about rising percentages of single mothers living on benefits encourages an increasingly punitive stance in relation to at-risk young parents. The tension running through debates on teenage motherhood fluctuates between clear-cut assistance and social control (Barry, 2005, p. 236). In this milieu, the young parent’s own participation is often enough accorded little notice. Still, given the chance, research as recent as 2003 which sought the views of a cross-section of teen parents disclosed some surprising perspectives on the issue. Over a four year period 33 young mothers took part in exploratory interviews. All were in their teens or early 20s, had become mothers between the ages of 14 and 20, and were living in socially disadvantaged areas on very limited incomes. Around a quarter were from minority ethnic groups (Barry, 2005, p. 237). For most of these young women pregnancy was unplanned, yet they had done well as young parents and reportedly matured as a result of motherhood. The exercise of parenthood was definitely hard work, from which many gained a great deal of personal growth. In addition to the hardships of poverty and an insecure income, the young people faced the added frustration of the low expectations of adults towards them. The economic and political debate over entitlement and benefits seems to fail to notice the priceless experience of the meaning of motherhood which these teenage parents, left to negotiate personal and social issues on limited resources, had the wisdom to recognize and value (Barry, 2005, p. 238). Some young teens were counseled to look at termination of the pregnancy but eventually chose against it. Public opinion often leaves young women with the impasse of an awkward situation of being censured as much for abortion as for carrying the child to term. Several decided that, all things considered, the affirmation of parenthood would be their best choice. Teenage parents are often stereotyped as a group which rejects mainstream norms and values, but the young women who took part in the survey generally subscribed to conventional values of marriage, a good career and pride in their children as well as satisfaction with their own parenting abilities (Barry, 2005, p. 238). The teens felt motivated, once they had children to care for, to provide their children with a better start in life than they had known in their own childhood. Many were enthusiastically engaged in cultivating their own abilities and training, while others preferred to concentrate on parenting and to defer the return to schooling until the children grew older. A few young people who had records of substance abuse experienced a growing self-confidence and dramatic change in lifestyle as they worked through the pregnancy into new motherhood. Making a fresh start fostered a nascent sense of maturity and pushed them to assume more responsibility. For most the adjustment to parenthood was fairly straightforward and significantly less overwhelming than they had expected or even been warned by others (Barry, 2005, p. 238). The ideal remedy would certainly be the prevention of unwed parenthood in the first place. However, Besharov & Gardiner (1996) point out that, more realistically, even should drastic measures reduce the number by half, the remainder would still represent over 600,000 unplanned births annually. On balance, social programs must face facts and invest accordingly to realize better ways to improve the quality of life for single teens and their objective offspring. These researchers, however, believe that strategies supporting voluntary commitment have generally proven ineffective in the larger community, and propose, instead, the promotion of new policies that are to some extent paternalistic (Besharov & Gardiner, 1996). From their perspective a majority of teen single parents prove really hard to assist. A good many live in extremely indigent neighborhoods with negligible support, a considerable number suffer severe learning difficulty or are overwhelmed by personal troubles, from significant levels of depression to chronic substance abuse. However well-funded or structured, some really worthy programs oftentimes have limited success with underprivileged youth. Stratagems to afford unwed parents the means to build up self-sufficiency often do not generate noteworthy results, since many, if not most, return sooner or later to welfare. Besharov & Gardiner (1996) propose that a revised approach to welfare that rewards proactive behavior might promise to generate more successful results, so long as the effort is set in motion well before a regular reliance on welfare benefits takes root. In March of 2003 the BBC reported that according to a new survey following the 2001 census, nearly 40% of households with children in Manchester are lone parent households (39.8% in Manchester - 38.7% for Liverpool). The news corollary that followed urged better childcare support. Paul Kenny, from the GMB (Britains General Union), held that: "These figures demonstrate the absolute necessity of employers adopting family-friendly policies to enable these lone parents to participate fully in the workforce." Kenny suggested further that it "would also be of great help if childcare expenses were made tax deductible for both employers and parents" (BBC News, 2003). Clearly, whatever the cost or the complexity of solutions to the problem, the stakes for society as a whole are substantial and far-reaching. Social policy in this area cannot afford to be held hostage to political expediency or economic speculation, though the dilemma is undoubtedly impacted by both. The long-term wellbeing of the entire populace actually hinges on the welfare of anything but an insignificant few. Facilitating the proactive participation of that concerned segment deserves to be taken seriously. References Abrams, Dominic, Hogg, Michael A., & Marques, José M. (2004). Social psychology of inclusion and exclusion. London: Taylor & Francis Routledge. Barry, Monica. (2005). Youth policy and social inclusion : Critical debates with young people. London: Taylor & Francis Routledge. Besharov, Douglas J. & Gardiner, Karen N.(Winter, 1996). Paternalism and welfare reform. Public Interest. p. p70(15). Burgess, Hilary & Taylor, Imogen. (2004). Effective learning and teaching in higher education. London: Taylor & Francis Routledge. Chase-Lansdale, P. Lindsay, Kiernan, Kathleen & Friedman, Ruth J. (2004). Human development across lives and generations: The potential for change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Edgar, Iain R.& Russell, Andrew. (2003). The Anthropology of Welfare. London: Taylor & Francis Routledge. Ermisch, John F. (1991). Lone parenthood : An economic analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Evans, Martin & Eyre, Jill. (2004). The opportunities of a lifetime : Model lifetime analysis of current British social policy. Bristol: Policy Press. Ford, Reuben and Millar, Jane. Ed. (1998). Private lives and public responses: Lone parenthood and future policy in the UK. London : Policy Studies Institute. Halsey, A. H.& Webb, Josephine. (2000). Twentieth-century British social trends. Hampshire: Macmillian Press LTD. Hays, Sharon. (2004). Flat broke with children: Women in the age of welfare reform. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kenny, Paul. (2003). More children live with lone parents. BBC News. News Front Page England. Monday 10 March. Lloyd, John. (1997, December 19) A benefit cut in search of a policy: Reduction in single-parent benefits divides British Labor Party. New Statesman. p.12(2). Rowlingson, Karen & McKay, Stephen (1998). The growth of lone parenthood : Diversity and dynamics. London : Policy Studies Institute. Read More