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Parenting Support as Policy Field: An Analytic Framework

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2015

Mary Daly
Mary Daly*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford E-mail: mary.daly@spi.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article develops an analytic framework for parenting support, treating it as both a form of social policy and a measure that intervenes more broadly in politics and society. It is suggested that, as a form of social policy, parenting support can be examined through analytical categories that are classic to social policy, such as: the nature of the offer or ‘good’ to parents, the modality of provision, conditions of access and operation, the policy setting and linkages to other policies, the unfolding of the policy over time and historical roots, philosophical underpinnings and dominant professional influences. In a second layer, the social and political roots and orientations of parenting support have to be investigated. When one does this by, for example, identifying the main actors involved in parenting support and the rationales and claims made for parenting support as a policy response, it becomes obvious that parenting support can be either a benign project of support or part of a more controlling educative or retraining exercise.

Keywords

Parenting support as social policyanalytic frameworksocial and political intervention in familiessocial policy reformcomparative social policy analysis
Type
Themed Section on Parenting Support in European Countries: A Complex Development in Social Policy
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , October 2015 , pp. 597 - 608
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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