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Work/Family Balance Policies in the UK since 1997: A New Departure?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2007

JANE LEWIS  and
MARY CAMPBELL
JANE LEWIS
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE email: j.lewis@lse.ac.uk
MARY CAMPBELL
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE email: m.i.campbell@lse.ac.uk
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Abstract

Three successive Labour governments have developed a range of work/family balance (WFB) policies, including child care services, leaves and flexible working hours, which have also become an increasingly coherent package. Drawing on Hall (1993), we explore the extent to which these represent a significant change at three levels: that of ideas (the goals of policy), mechanisms (the nature of the policy instruments), and settings (the fine-tuning of policy instruments). We examine how far the ideas driving the policy developments have been about the welfare of the family and its members, and the nature of the balance of continuity and change in policy instruments and settings, making some suggestions as to how this might be explained.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , July 2007 , pp. 365 - 381
Copyright
© 2007 Cambridge University Press

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