Research and analysis

Families and work: Revisiting barriers to employment (RR729)

Supporting parents to make the transition into work.

Documents

Families and work: Revisiting barriers to employment (RR729): report

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Families and work: Revisiting barriers to employment (RR729): summary

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Details

By Nadia Bashir, Richard Crisp, Tony Gore, Kesia Reeve and David Robinson

In recent years, considerable effort has been put into supporting parents to make the transition into work. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) commissioned the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University to undertake a study to explore whether these incentives were helping parents to overcome the barriers known to impede their engagement in the formal labour market. The research focused on two main tasks:

  • the re-analysis of in-depth qualitative interviews of parents from a previous study commissioned by DWP (Fletcher et al., 2008) focusing on the interaction between parenthood and work
  • a series of additional interviews to explore issues not covered by the original interviews.

The report outlines findings and policy implications on the following issues:

  • full-time parenting and decisions about returning to work
  • job search and important considerations for parents
  • easing the transition to work - transitional and in-work benefits
  • experiences of work.

Updates to this page

Published 1 April 2011

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