Parenting Support as Policy Field: An Analytic Framework
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.
Governing through trust: Community-based link workers and parental engagement in education
This article seeks to further understandings of contemporary patterns of parental government. Parenting has emerged as a key policy domain in twenty-first century Britain and we explore the politicisation of family life by examining a pilot programme tasked with enhancing parental engagement in education amongst ‘hard-to-reach’ families within the white British community of a large inner-London borough. Concentrating upon the programme’s signature device – the deployment of community-based ‘link workers’ to bridge home and school – ‘governmentality’ (Foucault, 2009) is used as a theoretical lens through which to foreground the link workers’ role in governing parents. We draw on qualitative data collected from link workers, parents, and school leaders, to argue that link workers represent a mode of governmentality that privileges the instrumental use of trust to achieve strategic objectives, rather than coercive authority. The aim being to produce responsible, self-disciplined parents who act freely in accordance with normative expectations as to what constitutes ‘good’ parenting and effective parental support. As such, the article highlights the link workers’ role in (re)producing the ideal, neoliberal parent. However, governing through trust comes at the cost of being unable to firmly secure desired outcomes. We thereby conclude that this gentle art of parental government affords parents some latitude in resisting institutional agendas.
When, catastrophe happens. Assessment and intervention after sudden traumatic death.
The goals of grief after sudden traumatic death is to acknowledge the loss, identify the changes the loss will have in the co-victim's life, and reinvest in life within the new structure. Although these goals seem simple, there is no definitive timeline for when these tasks will be engaged and completed by each of the family members. The pathway and time frame for each co-victim may differ.