" We know that juggling work with bringing up children can be hard and we also know that for many people going back to work is a daunting prospect and not something that is taken lightly.
That's why we want to give parents some extra help to get into work once their youngest child reaches seven. We also want to offer more support and advice, so parents can build up their skills and confidence to prepare for and find a job.
This means once their children reach five, our advisers will offer lone parents a "skills health check", to identify where they may need specific training and education to ease their eventual path in work.
But it’s more than just this. Clearly we also need to change the culture around work in our country, in both private and public sectors. We can do quite a lot through legislation, but that can't solve the whole problem. It's also going to be down to companies and employees and what they can do.
So, probably the biggest thing we've done in this area is to introduce the right to request flexible working. There was a lot of scepticism about this at first. Some said employers would just say no - but it turned out that 90% of employers agree all the requests that are made.
This right only applied to younger children initially. But it's worked so well that we've extended it to people caring for relatives and we're now going to also include parents with children up to 16.
Ultimately, however we need to make sure people have jobs to go to, as you rightly point out. That’s why we’ve embarked on something called Local Employment Partnerships, where over 2,000 employers have agreed with us to look to give jobs to people from disadvantaged groups, and in return we offer help such as pre-employment training or work placements, so people can prove themselves and try out the job in question.
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