Publication type
Report
Authors
Publication date
June 15, 2022
Summary:
The Covid-19 pandemic exposed, exacerbated, and solidified deeply entrenched health and socio-economic inequalities, leaving many individuals and groups even more vulnerable now than they were before the pandemic began. Single parents are no exception, and the last two years have presented particular challenges for single parents living in London – especially around employment, childcare, and mental health. To track the impact of policy change and to gain a better understanding of how single parent experiences evolved throughout the pandemic, Gingerbread interviewed 42 single parents across London in November 2020 and in February 2022. We particularly wanted to explore the impact that the pandemic would have on single parent employment in London, building on previous research we conducted into the pre-pandemic experiences of single parents. As uncovered through Gingerbread’s nationally focussed research over the same time period, single parents collectively feel that they are an afterthought in policy making and government decisions. Or, as one of our interviewees succinctly put it, “we are the invisible family.” To try to make the challenges of single parenthood more ‘visible’, and to better protect single parents who live in London following the Covid-19 pandemic, Gingerbread have identified a number of policy recommendations at a local and national level. These recommendations are divided into three policy areas identified by single parents as areas of concern in the qualitative interviews: employment, childcare and mental health.
Subjects
Link
#547337