Rethinking Family Support in the Current Policy Context

This article uses the concept of ‘the social investmentstate’ to understand key aspects of New Labour’spolicies in relation to welfare reform. It argues that ‘investingin children’ and creating ‘responsible parents’are vital features of many of the policies and service initiativeswhich have emerged since 1997. Such features have considerableimplications for policies and practices in the arena of familysupport. The article goes on to outline aspects of an importantcritique of the social investment state which has emerged fromthose engaged in research and policy analysis who argue fora ‘political ethics of care’. It argues that thisperspective offers important possibilities to family supportadvocates not only for critique, but also for articulating muchneeded policy alternatives to those currently being promotedby New Labour. It also signposts the importance of conductingongoing research into the meanings which are being attachedby individuals to complex and contested terms such as ‘family’and ‘support’.