Labour's plans to 'force' single mothers back to work

Peter Hain's plans to force single mothers, some with children as young as 7, back into work, reminded me of that other Peter: Tory minister Peter Lilley. Some of you may be old enough to remember his infamous speech at their party conference, at the height of Mrs Thatcher's grip on transforming the UK -' There is no such thing as society', into a self seeking, let the rich get richer, and let the rest eat cake generation. A policy that New Labour has successfully continued rolling out.
Peter Lilley stood up and said he 'had a list of young women here' He was portraying all single mothers as women who had deliberately had babies to get a flat.
Now we have his heir, Peter Hain telling, ney forcing, women with young children into work. Don't get me wrong, I think everyone who can, should be encouraged to take up work, and support themselves and their families. But having had the experience of being a single mother some years ago myself, and one that has always worked, and never claimed benefit in my life, I can tell Mr Hain, its not that easy. A lone parent will have to earn enough to pay for after school childcare, which is not cheap, and hard to arrange. Childminders are charging around £15-20 per hour, here in London. Then there are the long school holidays. Just how are these managed if there are no family networks living nearby who can help out? Which employers are going to allow time off for school holidays?
At a time when lone parents are still being demonised for the ills of society, when many need genuine support in bringing up their children, and when we have heard that child poverty has not gone down, rather it has increased, I would think we need to accompany any policy of obliging lone parents back to work, with a package of support, and child care allowances that would make this possible.
I was interested to read that around half of families where children are living in poverty, come from families who are in work.
This indicates that many families headed by lone parents are already in low paid work. Flexible and part time work, that pays reasonably, is still difficult to come by.
The Sutton Trust have just produced a report they've commissioned that social mobility has remained static for the last 30 years. Bright 5 year olds from poorer families will be overtaken by 5 year olds, who are less bright, but from richer families. The brighter children who come from families with higher incomes, with mothers who can afford to stay at home and support their children's education by parental involvement in their schools, and have the time to sit and read to their children, we know will go on to become higher achievers.
The child with the lone parent in a low paid job, struggling to make end meet, will not be able to give their children the same degree of support. We know that. I've been a school governor, in Hackney and Islington over many years, and have seen the type of parents that have the time, confidence and ability to get involved in school governing bodies. It is always difficult to get working class parents, and those from ethnic minorities involved.
The government says it wants to turn 'passive recipients into active job-seekers' Can't disagree with this sentiment. There are many single people I've come across who have been passive recipients of dole for years. As long as they have the ability to work, then they should. When it comes to lone parents though, this mantra won't work. As with other areas of legislation, they need to apply this to children of families headed up by lone parents too- Every Child Matters, and look closely at what is in the best interest of the child, and ensure they receive the extra support they need to support their families both financially and emotionally.