The decision process

Discussion of ‘factors’, ‘priorities’ and ‘compromises’ may create the misleading impression that lone parents’ decisions about work are always made by means of a precise and detailed calculation, wherein the pros and cons of working are carefully weighed up to reach an overall optimal solution. In fact, while some parents do reach their decision by means of a process approximating this sort of model, for others, the process can look quite different.

The processes by which our lone parents reached their decisions about whether to work may broadly be classified as one of the following:

• overall calculation; • partial perspective;

• norms - or perceptions-based; • prompt or gateway.

Overall calculation

Parents who did engage in a ‘calculation’ in order to arrive at a decision about whether to work had usually done so with the support and assistance of somebody else, either a friend or family member, or a professional such as their New Deal for Lone Parents adviser. Some calculations were solely financial – would the parents be better or worse off in work? – but, often, other factors would also be involved, including the potential impacts of working on children and family life in general. Where a friend or, more commonly, a family member was involved in assisting the calculation, this was sometimes associated with an offer of informal care, which seemed to give the third party a clearer role or ‘investment’ in the lone parent’s decision. The part played by NDLP advisers in the decision process seemed to vary quite widely: some parents described a thorough and ‘holistic’ service, whereby advisers had addressed a range of concerns, including giving practical advice about specific jobs and childcare providers. In other cases, however, advisers seemed to have focused all their attention on certain aspects of the calculation – most commonly the financial implications of coming off benefits and into work (the ‘better-off’ calculation) – while neglecting others, such as finding suitable childcare or finding work to fit with family responsibilities. Some parents also raised the issue

of the difficulty of calculating the financial implications of returning to work without a good idea of their earnings potential, which may be a particular issue for parents who have never worked or who have been out of work for a long period of time. The decision about whether to (re-) enter work was typically seen as important and high- impact by these parents, and any gaps in the calculation could be seen as indicative of risk and, on that basis, prove unsettling.

It is also worth noting that information on childcare tended to be an important element in ‘calculations’ about the implications of (re-)entering work, and that those parents whose decisions processes most closely resembled this model were also more likely to have taken a proactive approach to finding such information. Issues around the kind of childcare information that is available to parents, and the ways in which such information is disseminated, will be considered in Chapter 5, where we explore lone parents’ policy messages.

Partial perspective

For some lone parents, however, the decision of whether or not to work was not arrived at by means of a calculation, but through a process which was somewhat less balanced and controlled. The decision process of some parents might be characterised as originating in a ‘partial perspective’, in other words, they arrived at a decision by focusing it down to some subset of the different factors involved in their thinking about work, e.g. by thinking only about their own career aspirations or only about the needs of their children, and suspending or postponing the other factors until these had been dealt with. A ‘partial’ approach often reflected a short-term perspective, and was particularly associated with the perception that circumstances were destined to change: one of the student parents we spoke to, for example, admitted to having no idea what she would do about childcare once her training was complete and she was ready to enter work. The temptation to come to a decision about whether to work based on a partial perspective seemed, in many of these cases, to be a reaction to the feeling that taking all factors into account at once was too big a task or challenge to manage; in some cases, parents seemed to feel that the challenge was so big that their only option was to approach it gradually or

‘in bits’. A sense of having too many issues to tackle or too much to cope with at once came through strongly from some lone parents, and highlights a considerable need for support, particularly during a transition into work. In Section 3.3, we focus on this transition and discuss both the nature of the support lone parents require around this time, and where they tend to find it.

Norms- or perceptions-based

In Chapter 2, we talked about the role perceived norms – stemming, for example, from a lone parent’s own upbringing – can play in forming work and parental care orientations. Accordingly, norms sometimes had an influence over decisions about work, although those parents who arrived at a decision about work by means of a ‘norms- or perceptions-based’ process did not typically perceive themselves as having made a ‘decision’ about whether to work at all. Rather, their working status

was determined by some norm or perceived norm, stemming from friends, family, communities or society more widely, or from perceptions about the feasibility of working that were long-standing and general, rather than based on particular items of information or evidence (again, the issue of how easily information was available is also relevant here and will be revisited in Chapter Five). We have already mentioned parents who said they had never considered returning to work while they were caring for (young) children and those who, on the contrary, said they had always assumed they would do so. Similarly, some parents were working or not working as a result of perceptions about what was feasible, not for them specifically but at a more general level; for example, that it was not financially beneficial for parents to work before their children started school or that there were no jobs available that could fit around school hours. For these parents, working or not working was not a matter of ‘choices’ or ‘decisions’, but of (perceived) necessity.

Prompts and gateways

For some parents, the process of coming to a decision about work focused specifically on a single event or series of events, or on a particular set of circumstances. For example, as we have seen in Chapter 2, a relationship break-up or bereavement can have a considerable effect on parents’ thinking about work, as can health- related circumstances (for parents and children) and other problems (e.g. domestic violence, drug use). Some parents’ work decisions had also been shaped by positive prompts such as an offer of work or childcare and could therefore be characterised as essentially reactive. Some expressed the view that they had been ‘lucky’ to have come across an opportunity to combine work and childcare, perceiving such opportunities to be the exception rather than the rule, sometimes on the basis of their observations of relatives, friends or acquaintances who were also lone parents.

Aside from events or circumstances that determine or ‘prompt’ a decision about whether to (re-) enter work, some parents described particular experiences that had provided them with a ‘gateway’ into the labour market. Perhaps the most important gateway was education or training, which can benefit parents not only in terms of developing skills and obtaining qualifications, but also across a wide range of dimensions including work orientation, confidence and self-esteem. Study and training can be particularly helpful for parents who have never worked or who have had a long career break, either owing to a pregnancy or for other reasons. Educational activities were seen by some parents as a longer-term investment towards a ‘career’ rather than ‘just a job’; for others, they were attractive because they represented an opportunity for (re-)entering work gradually, possibly in a way that was more compatible with their childcare needs (e.g. because it involved fewer or more flexible hours) or because they could adjust the pace of their training according to their families’ needs. These findings are in line with the evidence gathered through previous research on student parents (La Valle et al., 2002b). Aside from education and training, voluntary work within a school or childcare setting also emerged as an important ‘gateway’ for some lone parents: several parents who were working as helpers or volunteers clearly perceived this as a route

into paid work over the shorter or longer term. There was a sense, particularly among parents who had never worked or had been out of work for a long period of time, and among those who lacked confidence about working, that schools and childcare settings were ‘safe’ or familiar environments, where they knew what they were doing and did not feel intimidated. They could also feel secure in the knowledge that this was one form of work-related activity that would not conflict with the needs of their children, both because of the hours involved and because the environments (it was assumed) understood the needs of children and would be sympathetic to the parent’s perspective. In addition, voluntary work provided some parents with the non-financial benefits of working without requiring them to resign the ‘security’ of being on benefits or to risk the potentially severe consequences of miscalculating the financial implications of working (e.g. losing a mortgage). Finally, there was a sense that, for parents who were intimidated by, or not orientated towards, work, voluntary rather than paid involvement in a workplace could feel more secure insofar as it was less ‘binding’ than paid work, the dynamics of the employer-employee relationship were different and, ultimately, parents were free to withdraw.

Moving between models

Aside from specific prompts or gateways that led directly to a change in attitudes towards work, there was evidence that other factors could help shape the nature of the decision process. In particular, it was clear that the provision of adequate and relevant information about both work and childcare opportunities had the potential to move parents away from the ‘partial perspective’ and ‘norms- or perceptions- based’ categories, and equip them to make more of a formal calculation about the implications – financial and otherwise – of taking up work. However, where a parent was initially resistant to the possibility of working, perhaps owing to low perceived employability, challenging circumstances, nervousness, or a perception that it was the norm for mothers of young children not to work, information may not have been enough. In these sorts of cases, more intensive and personalised support and encouragement were often required, and here a positive, productive face-to-face relationship with an NDLP adviser could play a vital role. We will come on to discuss lone parents’ views and experiences of the NDLP, as well as the wider issue of information on work and childcare, in Chapter 5.