In 1918, Lettice Fisher, a former social worker and economist, formed the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child. Fisher was part of a stream of well-connected philanthropists who worked to organise civilian volunteers and set up charities to address the evolving needs of a British public affected by the first world war.
By the end of the conflict, more women than ever found themselves without a partner to help raise their children. There were higher poverty and death rates among children born outside of marriage, and fewer legal rights to maintenance payments or inheritance than for those with married parents.
The conditions under which single-parent families live have evolved over the past 100 years, but their need for support has become no less real. Today almost one in four families with children is headed by a single parent, whose average age is 38.
As chief executive of Gingerbread (as we became known after merging with a single parent-led charity in 2007), I’ve been reflecting on how our approach has meant we’ve been able to celebrate our centenary as a charity.
Find a niche but be open to collaboration
We’ve had a clear focus on one-parent families, which has enabled us to carve out a niche. Single parents feel we are for them, and politicians across the political spectrum recognise us as experts. But we know we can’t achieve the change we want to see alone.
Over the years, we have shared information and lessons learned with our sister organisation, One Parent Families Scotland. We recognise the crossover with other charities’ work in housing, welfare, work, mental health and children, and work to build relationships with those organisations. Effective collaboration has meant we’ve been able to add the insight of single parents to those broader issues. That has included campaigning alongside others to improve the lives of children as part of the coalition to end child poverty, coordinating with Shelter to challenge the negative impacts of the benefit cap, and working with Women’s Aid to secure a commitment from the Child Maintenance Service to provide domestic violence training for its staff.
Be prepared to say no to money
When I talk to former staff and trustees from the last 50 years, each one of them has a story to tell of a time the charity nearly folded and a last-minute donation or legacy meant we survived.
Like many charities, we have never had enough money to deliver all of the impact we want and have had to adapt to the changing economic climate. Ten years ago, for example, the charity decided to expand its delivery of government employment contracts to support single parents into work. This has become increasingly challenging as the contracts have become leaner with riskier payment models.
The balance of grasping new opportunities while not chasing the money is a constant tension in smaller charities like ours. But we have to be confident to say no to contracts where the finances don’t add up. We’ve also had to generate more public donations to invest in our campaigning and policy work, including exploring how we ask our beneficiaries for money. This has to be done carefully and balanced with ensuring that single parents who need us most can always access our services for free.
Ask questions about whether you’re still relevant
In some ways what we do is exactly the same as 100 years ago: campaigning to influence government policy, providing advice and support to single parents in crisis and giving opportunities for single parents and their children to thrive.
But of course the social and political context in which we are operating requires us to constantly ask questions about whether our delivery is relevant today. While we aren’t fighting the same battles as in 1918, there is clearly more work to do. Children in single-parent families are twice as likely to be growing up in poverty as those in couple families. And many single parents tell us they still feel isolated and stigmatised by mainstream media.
We’ve also reinvented our services many times over the years and continue to adapt – introducing telephone and then internet support as technology progressed and working with government as child maintenance and welfare policies evolve. We also need to strengthen our use of data to focus less on monitoring and more on understanding the interaction parents have with us and how we can design better services.
Over the next 100 years, our focus on single-parent families won’t change, but survival comes with ensuring we are constantly asking the question: what is needed now and what is needed next?
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Rosie Ferguson is the chief executive of Gingerbread
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