Providing Advice for Lone Parents: From Parent to Citizen?

20 Pages Posted: 27 Mar 2012

See all articles by Gillian Douglas

Gillian Douglas

The Dickson Poon School of Law

Richard Moorhead

Exeter Law School, University of Exeter; Centre for Ethics and Law, Faculty of Laws, UCL London

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Date Written: March, 27 2012

Abstract

This article draws upon research exploring access to advice for lone parents. In it, we argue that current advice provision for lone parents is insufficiently accessible to enable them to achieve adequate social integration. We explore the ways in which advice provision falls short of what is required, and suggest that access to information and advice should be conceptualised as an aspect of social citizenship, rather than as an adjunct to a narrowly focused legal system (which we term the ‘legal model’) or as a means of improving parenting skills (which we term the ‘educational model’). We argue that such a conceptualisation would offer a better way of determining how to meet the needs of this group and, by implication, other such groups at risk of social exclusion.

Keywords: family law, child law, single parents, social integration, parenting skills

Suggested Citation

Douglas, Gillian and Moorhead, Richard Lewis, Providing Advice for Lone Parents: From Parent to Citizen? (March, 27 2012). Child and Family Law Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 55-74, 2005, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2029734

Gillian Douglas (Contact Author)

The Dickson Poon School of Law ( email )

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Richard Lewis Moorhead

Exeter Law School, University of Exeter ( email )

University of Exeter
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Centre for Ethics and Law, Faculty of Laws, UCL London ( email )

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