Co‐producing innovation or innovating co‐production? Responding to the contact needs of non‐resident parents in the Republic of Ireland

The empowerment and participation of children and families in both the design and the delivery of services oriented towards them is now an accepted norm, if not always the accepted practice. Yet, challenges still remain, particularly where parents are separated and contact issues are problematic. Although contact centres are common in some Western countries including Australia, New Zealand, the UK, France, and the USA, this is not the case in the Republic of Ireland. The relatively recent introduction of divorce, increases in separation and childbirth outside of marriage have led to the need for service planners to respond to the growing issue of non‐resident contact with children. Using Bovaird's co‐production framework, the purpose of this paper is to outline and discuss specific findings relating to service user involvement emanating from a formative evaluation of an innovative supported contact service in Ireland. What emerges from the findings is a picture of co‐production where the broad parameters of the service are professionally defined and where the specifics of service user involvement in delivery vary from family to family but within the bounds of professional control.     

Capitalizing the Crisis? Explanatory Factors for the Design of Short‐time Work across Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development Countries

This article looks at the financial and economic crisis 2008–10 in 18 Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development states and seeks to investigate explanatory paths for the subsidization of further education within short‐time work programmes. Several hypotheses are put to the test: first, a classical partisan difference argument; second, a varieties of capitalism approach proposing a successful joint rallying of employers and employees for subsidization in coordinated market economies; and, lastly, the merged hypothesis that right‐wing parties in a coordinated economic context might subsidize feeling the pressure to overcompensate an ‘issue ownership’ of left parties in the field of employee‐friendly policies. We identify four explanatory paths: coordinated economies in the sample subsidized when they were economically closed or highly indebted. The results also support our combined hypothesis, that New Zealand – a left‐governed liberal market economy – and right‐governed coordinated market economies of the non‐Scandinavian type subsidized.     

Can the EU funds promote regional resilience at time of Covid-19? Insights from the Great Recession

This paper makes some contributions to the policy discussion on Covid-19. We present real-time evidence on the effects of the coronavirus crisis on regional employment in Italy, by finding that the current shock is producing major adverse consequences in the South and on female occupation. We document that both the absorption and the allocation of the EU funds can sustain the resilience of regional labour markets, by reducing the employment losses at time of Covid-19. We construct regional employment adjustment scenarios based on information and estimates observed during the Great Recession. We discuss the limits of our approach and future developments.     

Going the Extra Mile? How Street‐level Bureaucrats Deal with the Integration of Immigrants

Dutch immigration and integration policies are being interpreted and implemented by local street‐level bureaucrats. We carried out 28 semi‐structured interviews with integration coaches, integration teachers and client managers in order to understand the dilemmas they face, and to explain their subsequent behaviour. The results show that although organizational characteristics such as the bureaucratic burden made street‐level bureaucrats reluctant to enlarge their discretionary space at the expense of policy rules, their willingness to help clients often transcends these boundaries under a combination of three conditions: high client motivation, extreme personal distress of the client, and negative assessment of existing policies and policy instruments (both in terms of fairness and practicality). Furthermore, street‐level bureaucrats were found to be constantly reinterpreting and revising their roles.     

Migrant Care Work Going Dutch? The Emergence of a Live‐in Migrant Care Market and the Restructuring of the Dutch Long‐term Care System

In recent years, a live‐in migrant care (LIMC) market has emerged in European countries with specific care, migration, and employment regime features. In countries with relatively low levels of formal long‐term care (LTC) provision, people in need of care and their families have started purchasing LTC directly from individual – mostly migrant – workers who live‐in with the person in need of care. Previous research has shown that this arrangement is facilitated by the availability of cash‐for‐care benefits that can be freely used by the beneficiaries, and/or by low levels of regulation of employment and migration. The Netherlands traditionally features strong, universal and generous LTC policies. However, recently, the phenomenon of LIMC has also appeared there. Based on exploratory qualitative research, this article examines the features of Dutch LIMC and the factors that foster or hinder its development. Our findings show that the ongoing restructuring of the Dutch LTC system – particularly the emphasis on informal care and decreasing accessibility of institutional care – are important factors pushing an LIMC market. At the same time, various institutional factors limit its growth, particularly the high levels of regulation of the Dutch care, migration and employment regimes. Further cutbacks in the care sector might push more families to this market in the near future, and change the character of the Dutch LTC sector. The Dutch case is relevant for other countries with longstanding traditions of generous LTC services which currently undergo retrenchment, and sheds light on routes to institutional change.     

Understanding the Relationship between Income and Health: How Much Can be Gleaned from Cross‐sectional Data?

The aim of this paper is to develop a better understanding of the relationship between income and health using a cross-sectional survey of the general British population. It is divided into two parts. First, it examines a number of methodological inconsistencies in the existing literature and assesses their consequences for the inferences that can be drawn about the income–health association. These issues include: the measurement of income and its functional form; health selection; and the role of confounders. Second, it explores the relative strength of the income–health association in contrast to that of other socioeconomic measures. The relationship between income and health is complex. However, having taken into account a range of methodological problems, income is still significantly associated with health. The association appears to be non-linear and is attenuated but not removed by controlling for health selection effects. The inclusion of a wide range of confounders into models of income and health reduces the association between them, but does not make it insignificant. In comparison to other socioeconomic measures, income appears to be a better discriminator of health status than education or occupation. However, tenure and car ownership seem to be at least as good if not better than current income.     

When is a Health Department not a Health Department? The Case of the US Department of Health and Human Services

Given the current policy debate over health reform in the United States, it is not possible to describe the organizational structure that might emerge from this process. This article explores five of the attributes that underpin the context for a discussion of the structure and operation of a health bureaucracy in the USA. First, ambivalence in the US society about a public commitment to health and a general scepticism about a significant public sector in this area. Second, separation within the system between types of activities (e.g. health research activities, provision of services, and financing of health efforts). Third, the health system operates in the context of a government with shared powers as well as federalism and an assumption that some issues belong to states, and sometimes localities, and not to the federal government. Fourth, difficulty in the US system when it attempts to focus on prevention activities. And fifth, the structure of HHS creates tensions between management initiatives and professional expertise and standards. The article concludes with a discussion of possible organizational alternatives.     

Can Case Management Contribute to Effective Use of Small Self‐Directed Support Packages for People with Disabilities?

While self‐directed support for people with disabilities and their families represents a welcome shift toward self‐determination and increasing control, the risk of managing with insufficient funds remains. This article examines whether different types of case management can mitigate that risk by providing support when people have only a small direct funding package. It applies the question to an evaluated program of self‐directed support in Queensland, Australia that allocated A$4000 with one of two approaches to case management: program‐focused or organizationally oriented. Case management contributed to the effective use of limited budgets and addressing goals when it promoted choice and control, built relationships, and enabled flexible fund use. Program‐focused case management seemed to be less constrained in enhancing social participation than organizationally oriented case management, which tended to restrict some participatory opportunities. These findings are consistent with earlier research, which indicated that case management can interfere with participation. Even in the context of a small funding allocation, a case management approach that promotes flexibility and person‐centered planning, control over funding, and capacity building can improve the effectiveness of self‐directed support; however it does not overcome the inherent limitations of insufficient funds for adequate support, or the cost of case management itself.     

Risk assessment and domestic violence – how do child welfare workers in three countries assess and substantiate the risk level of a 5‐year‐old girl?

This paper examine how a sample of 301 child welfare workers in Norway, England and California, USA assess risk in cases of domestic violence. Decisions in child welfare cases are made under a high degree of uncertainty, and by using the vignette method, we explore whether child welfare systems and risk assessment approaches result in different assessment of risk level and substantiations. We find both cross‐country differences and similarities: Norwegian workers consider the risk level to be significantly higher than their peers in England and USA. However, workers' justifications for and identification of decisive factors in the case are strikingly similar across countries. These similarities are observed for both high‐risk and low‐risk assessors, and they may exist due to widespread knowledge about domestic violence and its negative consequences. We argue that the international differences in risk level assessments are due to system differences in the countries studied.     

Playing the Game of Outcomes‐based Performance Management. Is Gamesmanship Inevitable? Evidence from Theory and Practice

This article presents the case for the need for a re‐think in the prevailing orthodoxy of measurement approaches in the governance and management of public services. The article explores the simplification of complex reality that outcomes‐based performance management (OBPM) requires in order to function, and the consequences of such simplification. It examines the evidence for and against the effectiveness of OBPM, and argues that both sets of evidence can be brought into a single explanatory story by understanding the theory of OBPM. The simplification required to measure and attribute ‘outcomes’ turns the organization and delivery of social interventions into a game, the rules of which promote gamesmanship, distorting the behaviour of organizations, managers and practitioners who undertake it.     

Benefit ‘Myths’? The Accuracy and Inaccuracy of Public Beliefs about the Benefits System

There is a widespread assumption by academics and commentators that negative public attitudes to the benefits system are due to ‘myths’ held by the British public. However, there is little research on whether the public believe these ‘myths’, nor critical scrutiny of benefit ‘truths’. This article therefore investigates what British people believe about the benefits system, and the extent to which these beliefs can be regarded as correct. To do this, we use 46 measures from 18 datasets (including British Social Attitudes, the European Social Survey, Eurobarometer, and surveys by YouGov and Ipsos MORI made available for academic study for the first time), and compare these perceptions to true figures obtained from a variety of sources. We find that – against expectations – there are some areas where the public are (on average) relatively accurate (e.g. the share of the population who currently claim out‐of‐work benefits). Yet overall, our evidence shows that the British public have low levels of understanding of the benefits system, primarily in ways that seem likely to undermine public support. People wildly overestimate unemployment benefits compared to pensions, the value of unemployment benefits, and misperceive trends in claims. While it is difficult to know the true level of benefit fraud exactly, the public overestimate fraud compared to any reasonable figure. We conclude by discussing the implications for both understanding and changing attitudes towards benefits.     

Meeting (or not) at the street level? A literature review on street‐level research in public management,social policy and social work

This literature review analyses the adoption and development of a street‐level perspective in public management, social policy and social work. The last years have seen a prominent revival of a perspective based on Michael Lipsky's street‐level bureaucracy approach in the debates conducted within all three disciplinary fields. Based on 71 key publications in public management, social policy and social work, the review analyses the adoption of the street‐level bureaucracy approach during the period 2005–2015, pointing out the main themes of the debate within, as well as overlaps and differences between, the three disciplines. The findings show the potential of better integrating the different perspectives and taking stock of the articulated debate. Lastly, the review discerns a common viewpoint for further street‐level research, emphasising its importance for the critical analysis and understanding of street‐level work as a vital dimension of responsive and accountable institutions and as a decisive moment to shape positive policy outcomes on the ground. Key Practitioner Message: ? The use of discretion by frontline practitioners and their role as policy actors on the ground has become an important focus of research; ? This literature review shows that the debate has gone far beyond discussing discretion as an all‐or‐nothing issue, pointing out both positive and negative aspects of discretion and developing comprehensive frameworks to explain the use of discretion at the street‐level; ? However, street‐level research has traditionally rather neglected the notion of professionalism. The social work literature brings in the perspective of professionalism; more research efforts are needed to better explore and explain how professionalism matters in relation to challenges and dilemmas of different policy and practice fields.     

Do securely and insecurely attached children derive well‐being from different forms of gender identity?

We examined whether attachment security moderates influences of two gender identity variables—felt gender typicality and felt pressure for gender differentiation—on preadolescents' well‐being. We tested two hypotheses. The first was that attachment security protects children from the distress that can stem from feeling gender atypical or from feeling pressure for gender conformity. The second was that secure children derive well‐being from believing they are similar to same‐gender peers whereas insecure children derive well‐being from believing it important to be different from other‐gender peers. We assessed children's attachment security, gender identity, and well‐being (self‐esteem, internalizing problems) in two successive years (N = 211, M initial age = 10.1 years). Results supported the second hypothesis. Attachment security may govern children's contingencies of well‐being.     

Being counted? Examining the prevalence of looked‐after disabled children and young people across the UK

Since the 1970s, there has been growing academic interest in children and young people living in state care and, more recently, in the lives of disabled children. However, there has been little attention on the lives of disabled children who are looked after by the state. This paper compares and critiques what is known about the numbers of disabled children who are looked after in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We discuss the conceptual and methodological limitations of systematically collecting data on disabled children in state care across the UK. We argue that to ensure that the rights of disabled children in state care are identified, acknowledged and upheld, ‘being counted’ is a fundamental first step.     

Who Participates,How and Why in Urban Regeneration Projects? The Case of the New ‘City’ of East Manchester

Participation is advocated by political leaders as crucial for enhancing social responsibility, building social capital, improving public services, qualifying for full citizenship and for enabling local democratic participation. Despite this increased commitment to encouraging public participation, however, there remains a lack of understanding of what motivates individuals to become community activists. This analysis of urban regeneration confirms that participation is a minority sport reflecting the reluctance and/or inability of the majority of community members to engage. The motives for that minority of local people who do engage are, therefore, important for policy-makers and academics to understand. This research project in east Manchester reveals that the motives of activists are varied and more nuanced than is proposed by existing social science theories such as rational choice, social network theory or the application of such concepts as citizen-consumers. A hybridized model which privileges social network theory without, however, entirely excluding ideas of the consumer-citizen and rational choice is advocated as a more effective way of explaining both community activism and also the varying levels and durability of individual participation. If participation is to increase, however, it is vital that the nuanced motives of participants are better appreciated.