Policy towards lone parents in the UK has undergone significant changes since 1997. In particular, for the first time in the post-war period, the government is offering positive support for lone parents to enter the labour market. A target has now been set to reach a lone-parent employment rate of 70% within 10 years (DfEE, 2001a). This is being implemented through policies that are intended to support and encourage lone parents to take up employment, including in-work benefits and improved support for childcare. Lone parents receiving Income Support will have to take part in compulsory work-focused interviews but benefit support will continue to be available to those who do not choose to enter paid work. However, in some other countries more radical measures have been introduced, with lone parents being required to seek work, to take up training, or to participate in work or work-based employment programmes, as a condition of benefit receipt.

The aim of this book is to explore the nature of the policy changes affecting lone parents, the rationale for these, the way in which they are being implemented, and the outcomes for lone parents and their children. The approach is both country specific and thematic. Part 1 includes six country-based chapters that provide a detailed and contextualised examination of national policy goals, how these have been implemented, and their outcomes. Part 2 includes five chapters that explore particular aspects of policy through comparative cross-national analysis, and a concluding chapter that reviews future policy options. This chapter provides an introduction to the collection through a discussion of three topics: the aims of the book; the choice of the countries included and the topics covered for each; and the five thematic issues addressed.

Before turning to the specifics of the issues to be addressed in the book, however, it is worth pausing to note the wider importance of these policy trends. As Ruth Lister points out in the foreword, the government is committed to the creation of an ‘active welfare state’, in which the main role of policy is to enable people to support themselves through paid employment. Including lone parents in this goal – even on a voluntary basis – represents a break with the past, and a shift away from the assumptions about the role of mothers that have shaped UK policy for many years.