Policy actors at European and national level generally concur about the need to take account of socio-economic trends when initiating public policy reform. They are less likely to agree about the moral justification of government intervention designed to influence demographic behaviour or about the effectiveness of such action. Nor is it self-evident that any convergence of demographic patterns, standards of living, lifestyles and policy objectives across the European Union (EU) will necessarily result in similar policies being enacted and, even less so, in them automatically producing the same outcomes. Indeed, European law has consistently retained the caveat that social policy implementation should be discharged at national level, in accordance with the subsidiarity principle, to accommodate differences in welfare systems. The diversity of national arrangements for formulating and delivering social protection in EU member states is acknowledged in international legislation, as illustrated, for example, by article II-9 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, with reference to the right to marry and found a family (see Chapter Six).

Judging whether or not a policy decided by EU institutions has achieved the intended outcome at national level requires an assessment of the fit between the objectives agreed and the outcomes observed. The task is particularly difficult in the area of family life, since policy objectives do not always make explicit reference to the family dimension, and because outcomes cannot necessarily be directly attributed to specific policies. In this chapter, the aim is to explore further the relationship between policy and changing family structure by examining cross nationally the process whereby public policy impacts on families and, more especially, the perceptions that beneficiaries themselves have of the influence of policy on the decisions they take about family formation and living arrangements.

Increasing importance is being attached to evidence-based practice as a mechanism for ensuring that policy is rigorously scrutinised in terms of its feasibility, practicality, affordability and public accountability (Davies et al, 2000, pp 2-3). During the 1990s, within a context of cost containment, greater emphasis was being placed in policy analysis on assessing the effectiveness of implementation and the operational efficiency of policy measures. Governments also became more interested in measuring and evaluating the performance of their institutions over time, as gauged by customer satisfaction (Walker, 2000, p 147).