Social Policy Support For Families in the UK and South Korea: To What Extent Does Family Support Create Inclusive Growth and Social Cohesion?

Family friendly social policy has a strong link to the achievement of key social goals, such as those in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including inclusive growth and social cohesion. However, even in high income countries, policies supporting families are often inadequate. The Covid-19 pandemic graphically exposed these weaknesses in social policy for families in both the UK and South Korea.

At the same time, the pandemic also highlighted how both social cohesion and economic growth depend on families and households. In the UK, this included the dependence on families to provide both care and home schooling in 'lockdown', the way in which restrictions on childcare and school provision hindered labour market participation, increasing the negative economic effects of the crisis. Similarly, in South Korea, the pandemic has interrupted social relations and networks increasing the risk of unemployment for women who took on the majority of the caring burden.

The research will explore how social policy supports (or not) families in both countries and will highlight how research, policy and practice can learn from experience in each country. Ultimately the aim of the research will be to identify how policy and practice can better support families and households in each country, with this being a stepping-stone to more inclusive growth and social cohesion. While 'family friendly' social policy is often regarded as relating to childcare, parental leave, flexible employment practices and welfare supports, we broaden this to include other forms of emerging family issues such as a lack of social care, children's wellbeing, family support for crime diversion/desistance. We also include the delivery of family policy via non-standard organisations such as in arts or sports participation and the automation of care using robots and artificial intelligence. To achieve its longer-term aims, the project will facilitate the establishment and development of a collaborative network of researchers, policy makers and practitioners interested in how social policy supports families/households in both countries.

The network will develop from existing collaborations between the Principal and Co-Investigators through four specific foci: (a) social care (b) children's wellbeing, (c) desistance from crime, (d) family support through technical innovations and artistic and cultural participations. Four Research Workshops (online) and two subsequent Symposia (face-to-face) will take place in the UK and South Korea in order to develop deeper professional collaborative relationships. Those travelling for the in-person Symposia will have participated in an online Workshop and will be selected to have most capacity for cross-country collaboration to further the development of the network.

The collaboration will result in the publication of two collaborative outputs in the form of a Special Issue of an academic journal and an edited volume. We will also produce a series of ten policy briefings containing key findings from different researchers in the collaboration (i.e. focussing on the UK and South Korea). Some of the outputs will be co-authored by UK/South Korean researchers together. It will also produce two funding proposals to sustain the network and collaborative research between participants. Finally, the partnership will be supported through an infrastructure (e.g. website, art exchange/art exhibition, infographics or photo sharing) which will be institutionalised through approaching international scholarly associations to establish a UK-South Korea Working Group for research on social policy and families (such as The East Asian Social Policy Network or the Korean Institute for Childcare and Education). This will be useful in broadening and sustaining collaboration beyond the direct activities of the partners and participants in this project.