Our new working paper undertakes an analysis of social policy provision in the six European countries (Belgium, Croatia, Spain, Sweden, Poland, and the UK) from the perspective of resilience and the role of social policy. The analyses are based on a theoretical framework which defines resilience as families’ capacity to adjust to situations of risk without negative outcome and interprets social policy as having both protective functions, such as support available throughout family-based transitions, and promotive functions, such as adequate income support, in affecting the conditions for families to be resilient. The working paper prioritises the protective aspects. It therefore considers how policy supports transitions for all parents between care and employment and how policy treats three particular types of family situation that the research identifies as needing extra support: parenting alone, caring for children with a disability or illness, and families with a migrant background.
Consequently, five areas of policy are analysed: parenting-related leaves, early childhood education and care (ECEC), provisions for lone-parent families, provisions for families with children with a disability, and provisions for families with a migration background adjusting or integrating into the new country.
Our research highlights a number of key findings relating to the extent to which national and EU policy systems support families to be resilient:
- Some policy fields seem to be better equipped, or further along the road, than others in helping families to be resilient. The policies oriented to transitions, such as parental leaves and ECEC, generally seem to be better developed then those for family situations with heightened risk.
- Conditions that exclude people from benefits and services reduce policies’ effectiveness (from a resilience as well as other perspectives).
- Where the EU has set legal benchmarks most countries meet them, and so the significance of the EU as a policy agent is confirmed. But where the EU only makes ‘soft recommendations’, they do not seem to embed thoroughly into the national systems.
- The recognition that some families need more is not fully reflected in the policy systems. One big issue is that of equivalence in support for lone-parent families compared to those with two parents. The lack of information on and system knowledge about certain types of families, especially with children with disabilities and migrant families, is a general weakness found across countries.
We will continue this work with the help of our Policy Lab which aims to road test policy solutions promoting family resilience with key stakeholders.
The full working paper is available here.