Single parent training should be mandatory for work coaches
Single parent training should be mandatory for work coaches
It doesn't take many meetings with the Job Centre or ReStart to understand that none of the advisors receive training on working with single parents. Even domestic violence training is optional, online, and rarely taken up. There used to be specialist single parent advisors, under the New Deal for Lone Parents Scheme until July 2011, when Universal Credit began being rolled out. Due to lack of any official reason for why they were scrapped, the change seems ideological like the other reforms - to achieve behaviour change via punitive actions instead of rather than individualised support. Gingerbread have long campaigned for the return of specialist lone parent advisors, alongside other campaigning organisations.
Single parents are not a homogenous group
Work coaches meet all sorts of people, many of whom are vulnerable, who may not speak to another adult that day. Single parents have hugely diverse circumstances, vulnerabilities and challenges. Those who have just started a claim may have recently fled domestic violence or still be experiencing it or post-separation abuse. They may be grieving a relationship breakdown, the loss of their partner or family member. They may be care-experienced, be living with mental ill-health, poverty, addiction, poor housing and other structural issues, have a child or children who may have additional needs but are not yet diagnosed - or all of these at once.
Some parents may be doing fine and know exactly what the barriers are to returning to employment and just want to be able to work through them independently in their own time, yet coming to countless appointments makes them feel increasingly drained and frustrated.
Being on Universal Credit as a single parent - whether working or job seeking, or not - is about so much more than childcare and flexible working but it feels that are the only barriers that employment advisors are trained on - with no scope to consider other challenges. As a survey respondent wrote: 'single parents are not a homogenous group'.
Lack of professional curiosity
From my experience and others, work coaches are not being trained to respond appropriately to what the person in front of them is saying or, as is often the case, not saying. During my appointments I felt like it wasn't that work coaches weren't trained in empathy, but that they were actually trained to ignore any emotion from claimants.
I was passed around several work coaches and at least two didn't make eye contact with me or even acknowledge my child. One responded to my tears by booking me into a repeat appointment less than a week later, only to repeat the same questions in the same order with my same response, choosing not to acknowledge my distress or frustration.
Instead, training and targets seem to focus simply on claimant commitments, conditionality, and applying sanctions. In addition, work coaches lack understanding of the power they hold in threatening or actioning sanctions. The result is a clear lack of professional curiosity and empathy in many, and, sadly it means that support and safeguarding opportunities are missed.
Advisors need to be trauma-informed
It is urgent that Jobcentre work coaches and all employment advisors undertake training in trauma-informed practice and working with single parents. They also need to be trained in recognising domestic violence and working with survivors given that there are a huge proportion of lead and single parents who are impacted by DV. Work coaches who understand trauma - who can recognise when someone is in crisis, respond appropriately, and create safety - are kinder and more effective. Individuals accessing Universal Credit who feel heard and respected are more likely to trust work coaches and employment advisors, more likely to be open about their circumstances, and therefore more likely that they (along with their job coaches) can achieve realistic and sustainable outcomes.As soon as I was switched to the Intensive Work Search group, I started dreaming of a way I could gather other parents' knowledge and experiences to inform and educate Job Centre coaches, employment advisors in other organisations, and decision-makers.