Gingerbread says it is the leading British charity working with single parent families.[1] The National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child, founded in 1918, changed its name to the National Council for One Parent Families in the early 1970s and in 2007 merged with Gingerbread, a self-help organisation founded in 1970. After briefly being known as One Parent Families|Gingerbread, it relaunched as Gingerbread in January 2009.
The charity provides expert advice and practical support to single parents. The charity works to improve the livelihood of single parents through advocacy and policy work, relating to employment and skills, families and relationships, living standards and poverty, and welfare.[2]
J. K. Rowling, formerly a single parent, is the charity’s President.[3]