Unpacking the relationship between parenting and poverty: Theory, evidence and policy

Policy discourses around child poverty and its causes and effects on families emerged in the 1990s, culminating in the Coalition government's emphasis on the quality of couple relations in improving child outcomes and in reducing child poverty. This article reviews and updates the current evidence base around the relationship between parenting and poverty. Evidence suggests an intricate relationship between complex and mediating processes of, for instance, income, parental stress, disrupted parenting practices and neighbourhoods and environments, as opposed to a simplistic causal relationship between poverty, parenting and child outcomes. The article then proceeds to suggest responses to enhance the evidence and research. Lastly, it considers the implications for child poverty policy, arguing that current responses are too simplistic and do not sufficiently reflect the evidence base

Barriers to inclusion and successful engagement of parents in mainstream services: evidence and research

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the current evidence base on barriers to inclusion and successful engagement of parents in mainstream preventive services. Design/methodology/approach: Evidence was generated using a narrative review which uses different primary studies from which conclusions are produced into holistic interpretations. It provides an interpretative synthesis of findings based upon an exhaustive inclusion and exclusion criteria and systematic selection of literature. Findings: The paper identifies barriers to successful engagement as: structural; social and cultural; and suspicion and stigma. In terms of successful engagement, it identifies personal relations between staff and service users, practical issues, service culture, consultation, information and targeting, service delivery, and community development and co-production approaches. Research limitations/implications: The paper demonstrates that the evidence base is limited and not adequately theoretically grounded. It argues for more research based within a pragmatic approach, which is more theoretically and epistemologically informed. Practical implications: The paper demonstrates that more theoretically and epistemologically informed research needs to be addressed in order to design mainstream services on behalf of service practitioners and researchers. Originality/value: Such an approach would assist policy makers and practitioners to develop interventions to reduce potential barriers and facilitate successful engagement and is grounded within users’ experiences. It would also reflect the complexity of working within a late modern environment, attend to the multiple needs of users, and address the complex layers intrinsic to the construction and reproduction of services, as well as widening the current evidence base

Comments from the roundtable: Judy Corlyon, Aggrey Burke, Harriet Ward and Victoria Lowry reflect on issues discussed at the event

Comments from the roundtable: Judy Corlyon, Aggrey Burke, Harriet Ward and Victoria Lowry reflect on issues discussed at the even

Understanding Poverty in all its Forms: A participatory research study into poverty in the UK

This report is about the experience of poverty in all its forms in the UK. Although there have been many reports about poverty, this one is different. Instead of being led by policy makers or academic experts, this research has involved those experiencing poverty throughout the process. People with experience of poverty have led, shaped and written up the research and were not simply its subjects. This report describes how the research was planned and carried out by a group of co-researchers, half of whom had direct lived experience of poverty and half of whom had experience of poverty through their work, in research, journalism or public services. The co-researchers worked with an operations team from ATD Fourth World UK, who provided a secretariat. Together the co-researchers and operations team made up the national research team

Social tourism and organised capitalism: research, policy and practice

Social tourism is a contested concept, practised little in the UK, but more widely throughout mainland Europe. However, limited research demonstrates its benefits to recipients. The emergence of social tourism has occurred through a historical and discursive process linked to organised capitalism and modern civil society. Social tourism has the capacity to transcend traditional and commercial concepts of tourism and challenge purely market-based tourist and leisure activities. Supporters can make the case for social tourism on the UK policy agenda through the following: more holistic research into social tourism and its benefits; the use of current government changes around the public health structure; and integration of social tourism into community needs around social capital and local health and wellbeing intervention development