Kerry has got behind a new campaigning urging people to stop stigmatising single parent families as ‘scroungers’ or ‘bad parents’.
Gingerbread, a national charity that works with single parent families to improve their lives, has launched a campaign today to challenge these labels and change people’s perceptions about single parents.
Last Friday, Kerry paid a visit to Bristol Young Mums group – a group made up of a mix of young females who have been on
Prince’s Trust programmes. The group was brought together in order to gain a better understanding regarding the challenges young parents face when preparing to become a mother and to support them in that process. Kerry spent two hours with them, hearing what they had to say on issues such as child care, job-seeking and education, and also answering their questions about politics.
A survey of lone parents on income support in 2001 found that over half have no qualifications, and accessing education as a lone parent can be difficult. All The Princes Trust programmes offer valuable options for single parents. In particular to help build confidence, basic skills, and develop communication skills – all which are often pre-requisites for moving into employment or training.
Speaking about the Gingerbread campaign, Kerry said:
"The single parents I know are single parents for a wide variety of reasons. Their personal circumstances and family backgrounds are very different. But they all have one thing in common; they're doing their best to bring up their children in a loving, supportive home. We should be supporting single parents in their efforts to do this, not stigmatising them."
Fiona Weir, CEO of Gingerbread said:
“Single parents are fed up of being stereotyped and stigmatised and our new campaign seeks to tackle that. It’s great to have the support of Kerry McCarthy – we hope that all MPs will sign up to lose the labels.”