Policy & campaigns

We use our campaigns, research, and policy work to help amplify the voices and concerns of single parent families to a wider audience. We look at how single parent families are impacted by government policy and we challenge government to make these policies fairer to single parent families.

There are six main areas we focus on: childcare, child maintenance, employment and skills, families and relationships, living standards and poverty, and welfare reform. We conduct and publish key research relating to these topics each year and campaign to effect change with and for single parents.

General Election 2019

As the UK prepares to vote on 12 December 2019, Gingerbread is calling on single parents to make their votes...

Woman giving a presentation in front of a screen saying 'single parent voice'

Our campaigns

Together with single parents, we challenge social stigma, and influence government policy to ensure single parent families receive a fair...

Publications

Read all of Gingerbread's policy publications, including research reports, consultation responses and briefing papers.

Childcare

Childcare is important for both children’s development and parents’ employment. For single parents, childcare is particularly important to help make...

Child maintenance

A child has a legal right to be supported financially by both their parents, and the government must help parents...

Employment and skills

Almost all single parents are in work or want to work. Single parent employment is at a record high, particularly...

Families and relationships

Single parent families often deal with many challenges. Children in single parent families face around twice the risk of poverty...

Living standards and poverty

Single parents’ finances are often tight. Single parent families face a particularly high risk of poverty compared with other households....

Welfare reform

Benefits are a lifeline for many single parents, whether in work or not. Barriers to entering and progressing in work,...