The "Employment-first" Welfare State: Lessons from the New Deal for Young People

New Labour is constructing an “employment‐first” welfare state. It plans through Jobcentre Plus to transform the passive culture of the benefit system by creating more explicit links between individual behaviour and engagement with labour market programmes. The New Deal for Young People (NDYP) has been at the forefront of these changes. This paper reports on the findings from four case studies that explored how the NDYP has changed young people's experience of the welfare state. It establishes that NDYP offers a mixture of employment assistance and “pressure” and has made progress in developing front‐line services and helping young long‐term unemployed people into work. NDYP does not, however, work for all. In areas of high unemployment and for some disadvantaged groups intermediate labour markets could enhance the New Deal and make real the offer of “employment opportunities for all”.     

‘Work for others but none for us’: the economic and environmental inequalities of New Deal relief

This article calls for increased dialogue between social and environmental historians through an examination of the unintended inequalities caused by New Deal relief efforts in the United States during the Great Depression era. It does so not by exploring those directly involved in New Deal relief programmes, but rather by analysing the impact of such programmes on residents of local communities situated near New Deal work project sites. In particular, it traces how a dozen Civilian Conservation Corps camps in a state park thirty miles from New York City transformed the local environment, and in turn influenced the economies and political relationships of nearby local communities. The article argues that while working-class residents were unable to benefit financially from nearby New Deal relief work, middle- and upper-class business owners proved more successful. As a result of such economic inequalities, while working-class locals became increasingly critical of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, middle- and upper-class residents became grudgingly supportive. The article concludes by urging both social and environmental historians to undertake ‘histories from the ground up’ that pay as much attention to nature as they do to race, class, ethnicity and gender.     

Importing Workfare: Policy Transfer of Social and Labour Market Policies from the USA to Britain under New Labour

Britain's New Labour government has put welfare reform at the top of its political agenda. It has followed a radical “workfare” agenda in relation to labour and social market policies and no longer aims to secure full employment mainly through direct job creation or Keynesian demand management. Instead, it promotes equal opportunity for all based on a contract between benefits claimants and the employment service. The New Deal is at the heart of British activation programmes for the unemployed. American policy paradigms have influenced the design of the New Deal. Policy transfer in activation policies from the USA to Britain is due to institutional similarities in British and American welfare states on the one hand, and to the comparable structure of their labour markets on the other hand. The influence of the European social model on British labour market policies thus remains limited.     

The welfare politics of Charles Murray are alive and well in the UK

Prideaux SJ. The welfare politics of Charles Murray are alive and well in the UK
Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 293–302 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. This article takes a historical look at the ‘underclass’ debate that was prominently provoked and perpetuated in Britain by the American Charles Murray. It does so because the recent protestations about gun crime, welfare dependency and lone parenthood by David Cameron and the Conservative Party have not only echoed New Labour's New Deal logic, but have also reignited an argument that furiously raged in British policy debates during the 1980s and 1990s. Despite numerous criticisms and critics questioning Murray's selection of evidence, methodology and use of anecdotal vignettes, it is still apparent that the stereotypical assumptions about a section of British society who choose not to work, live a life of crime and produce inadequately socialised illegitimate children still persist. Consequently, the article revisits these arguments so that lessons from the past can now be brought to the fore and, hopefully, taken on board academically if not politically.     

Which Welfare States are Most Likely to Survive?

This paper considers the major shocks to which modern welfare systems are having to adapt. These include the growing inequalities of rewards for those in work, the growing scale of unemployment, global economic pressures, the ageing of populations and the combination of fiscal constraint with rising consumer expectations. It discusses how different kinds of welfare state are responding to these pressures and looks especially at the policies of the new Blair government. The paper concludes by suggesting that these issues are taking the UK to a distinctive welfare regime position.     

Combining Welfare-to-Work Measures with Tax credits: A New Hybrid Approach to Social Security in the United Kingdom

The changes described in this article reflect a shift in social security away from social insurance and towards a mixture of social assistance, occupational or private insurance and tax credits. It suggests that what is new and distinctive about UK social security policy is the way in which a new strategy has been forged by linking the New Deal, which provides job opportunities for people who are not in employment but can often only offer them low-paid jobs, with tax credit schemes, which provide in-work benefits and are designed to ensure that, if necessary, people accept poorly paid employment.     

Work,welfare, and wellbeing: The impacts of welfare conditionality on people with mental health impairments in the UK

The personal, economic, and social costs of mental ill health are increasingly acknowledged by many governments and international organisations. Simultaneously, in high-income nations, the reach of welfare conditionality has extended to encompass many people with mental health impairments as part of on-going welfare reforms. This is particularly the case in the UK where, especially since the introduction of Employment and Support Allowance in 2008, the rights and responsibilities of disabled people have been subject to contestation and redefinition. Following a review of the emergent international evidence on mental health and welfare conditionality, this paper explores two specific issues. First, the impacts of the application of welfare conditionality on benefit claimants with mental health impairments. Second, the effectiveness of welfare conditionality in supporting people with experience of mental ill health into paid work. In considering these questions, this paper presents original analysis of data generated in qualitative longitudinal interviews with 207 UK social security benefit recipients with experience of a range of mental health issues. The evidence suggests that welfare conditionality is largely ineffective in moving people with mental health impairments into, or closer to, paid work. Indeed, in many cases, it triggers negative health outcomes that make future employment less likely. It is concluded that the application of conditionality for people with mental health issues is inappropriate and should cease.     

Risk, Contingency and the Third Way: Evidence from the BHPS and Qualitative Studies

New Labour's "Third Way" in welfare derives its intellectual underpinning from "risk society" theory as developed in the UK by Anthony Giddens. The theory suggests that the crucial changes affecting citizens of modern societies are globalization, the post-traditional social order and social reflexivity. These changes lead people to question authority and to wish to take greater responsibility for meeting their needs. Applied to welfare, the analysis suggests a diminution in the role of government, greater proactivity by citizens and subsidiarity favouring community groups and also the private sector. It buttresses Third Way calls for "no rights without responsibility" and "equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome". This paper reports qualitative and quantitative research which indicates that the risks of modern social life are experienced differently by different social groups. Risk society theories assume value consensus. They understand social change to have a common impact across society, leading to a common response, and direct attention away from the particular needs and aspirations of more vulnerable groups. The risk society thesis is class ideology masquerading as social theory: it serves the interests of those already privileged in a more flexible society by obscuring the needs and aspirations of the more vulnerable, who already bear most of the burdens of social change.     

The End of the Welfare State?

This paper critically examines claims of a new consensus on welfare and the end of the welfare state. We first review the concept of welfare consensus, concentrating on the idea of welfare pluralism, in particular the relatively neglected distinction between national minimum (base) and extension ladder (superstructure). We then examine these concepts in the 1990s under Conservative and New Labour governments. Important changes to welfare pluralism are noted. There have been changes in the character of means-tests, with the national minimum replaced by a series of residual minima, which represent fundamental changes to structural incentives governing the social division of welfare and work. The line between state and non-state provision has been blurred and there have been moves to achieve universalism in the private sector. It is possible to tentatively classify Labour's principles and fledgling policies into three categories: essential continuity with the Conservatives, reversing Conservative policies and extending Conservative policies. However, it is difficult to detect the degree of consensus because a new flexible language is beginning to pervade social policy, with the result that the welfare state is being redefined, notably in areas of full employment, citizenship and conditionality. It is possible to detect, in our terms, moves towards turning Beveridge inside out and from the "Marshall" towards the "Beveridge" welfare state. It is clear that the welfare state is being redefined, but reports of its death have been much exaggerated.     

Adaptation to Labour Market Change in France and the UK: Convergent or Parallel Tracks?

France and the UK are markedly different welfare states, both in terms of regime type and in terms of the varying degree of state responsibility for reconciling work and family life. One recent theoretical strand suggests that welfare states will tend to grow more similar since they face broadly similar pressures. This paper discusses the policy responses in France and the UK to labour market pressures resulting from enhanced international competition, technological development and family change during the past decade. These responses are set in the context of European debates about the desirability of greater flexibility, up‐skilling and the activation of unemployed people, about the childcare needs of women workers and about the importance of paid work in reducing poverty and inequality. The analysis shows that trends to convergence are limited.     

The Role of Non‐profit Organizations in the Mixed Economy of Welfare‐to‐Work in the UK and Australia

This article charts the development of welfare‐to‐work policies and compares and contrasts the traditions of delivery in the UK and Australia. We find that in the UK, employment services and social security benefit administration have been dominated by the central state, traditionally affording a key role to civil servants as direct delivery agents. However, in federal Australia, mixed economies of welfare‐to‐work operate in the different states, there is a far greater role for social services and non‐profit organizations are firmly established as key providers of frontline employment services. Since the late 1990s, UK welfare reforms have been gradually following the Australian lead in contracting non‐state actors as delivery agents. As this trend seems set to continue and intensify, we examine the Australian experience in order to reflect on the role of non‐profits in policy reform.     

Practice Frameworks: Conceptual Maps to Guide Interventions in Child Welfare

This paper discusses the development of a practice frameworkfor child welfare in New Zealand. A practice framework is definedas a conceptual map that brings together, in an accessible design,an agency’s approach to social work practice with childrenand families. Designed as a tool for practitioners, the NewZealand practice framework integrates three perspectives: child-centred;family-led and culturally responsive; and strengths and evidence-based.The practice framework establishes a vision for New Zealandchild welfare work that is grounded in the realities of practice,supported by research and embedded in a set of principles andvalues that are essential to the work. As a concept, it providesa clear understanding of what underpins the work, and how thisinforms our interventions with children and families. As a toolfor practitioners, it provides a theoretically informed interventionlogic and a set of triggers to support best practice.     

New social risks in postindustrial society: Some evidence on responses to active labour market policies from Eurobarometer

One result of the complex economic and social changes currently impacting on state welfare is the emergence of what may be termed "new social risks" as part of the shift to a postindustrial society. These concern access to adequately paid employment, particularly for lower-skilled young people, in an increasingly flexible labour market, and managing work-life balance for women with family responsibilities engaged in full-time careers. They coexist with the old social risks that traditional welfare states developed to meet, which typically concern retirement from or interruption to paid work, in most cases for a male "breadwinner". New social risks offer policymakers the opportunity to transform vice into virtue by replacing costly passive benefits with policies which mobilize the workforce, arguably enhancing economic competitiveness, and reduce poverty among vulnerable groups. However, the political constituencies to support such policies are weak, since the risks affect people most strongly at particular life stages and among specific groups. This paper examines attitudes to new social risk labour market policies in four contrasting European countries. It shows that attitudes in this area are strongly embedded in overall beliefs about the appropriate scale, direction and role of state welfare interventions, so that the weakness of new social risk constituencies does not necessarily undermine the possibility of attracting support for such policies, provided they are developed in ways that do not contradict national traditions of welfare state values.     

State Social Work and Social Citizenship in Britain: From Clientelism to Consumerism

Correspondence to John Harris, University of Warwick, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. E-mail: J.Harris{at}warwick.ac.uk Summary Marshall's formulation of ‘social citizenship’ embodieda depoliticized understanding of what was seen as a given, progressiveand irreversible stage of societal development, which encompassedthe provision of state social work. A consequence of this approachwas the failure to situate social citizenship in a specificpolitical and policy context; in Marshall's case, the post-warBritish social democratic welfare state. Within this, a morecentral position was secured for state social work, throughits unification and incorporation into bureau-professional regimeswhich were made responsible for responding to citizens' socialneeds as clients of the state. The New Right's attack on theinstitutionalization of social citizenship in bureau-professionalregimes included the accusation that state social work had infringedservice users' rights and produced a passive, dependent clientele.The New Right's alternative formulation of the ‘consumer-citizen’led to the development of a new political consensus on socialcitizenship. Beginning from an acceptance of this consensus,procedural rights are seen as one way of extending social citizenshipin state social work and as a precursor to the possibility ofwider participation by service users in its provision.     

Beyond Continuity? Understanding Change in the UK Welfare State since 2010

One approach to identifying policy change stresses policy instruments, settings and policy paradigms, while another also considers the process and culmination of various shifts and consequent outcomes. This article illustrates the debate through an examination of how far developments in social security policy between the 1997–2010 New Labour and 2010–15 Coalition Governments in the UK constituted real policy shifts. It shows that, despite continuities in instruments and approach, there have been substantial changes in the impact of welfare state policies related to short‐term benefits, employment and housing. The article identifies new policy directions leading to a different kind of welfare state, concerned less with living standards and equality and more with individual responsibility and paid work. It suggests that this has been achieved without the need for radical changes in instruments and their settings.     

Increasing User Choice or Privatizing Risk? The Antinomies of Personalization

Within a very short space of time, the concept of personalizationhas come to occupy a central place within dominant social workand adult care discourses within the UK. Through an analysisof one influential model of personalization, this paper willexplore the factors behind the concept’s current popularity.I shall argue that this popularity is due primarily to its congruencewith key themes of New Labour thought, including individualization,responsibilization and the transfer of risk from the state tothe individual. I shall conclude that, given its acceptanceof the marketization of social work and social care, its neglectof issues of poverty and inequality, its flawed conception ofthe people who use social work services, its potentially stigmatizingview of welfare dependency and its potential for promoting,rather than challenging, the deprofessionalization of socialwork, the philosophy of personalization is not one that socialworkers should accept uncritically.     

Welfare reforms and the Refugee Resettlement Strategy: an opportunity to achieve meaningful employment outcomes for New Zealanders from refugee backgrounds?

Despite employment being consistently identified as a key factor in successful refugee resettlement, people from refugee backgrounds in Aotearoa New Zealand are overrepresented in unemployment statistics. Of those who do gain employment, few secure work that is adequately remunerated and commensurate with the person's skills and qualifications. This paper explores whether the two recent government-driven initiatives, the welfare reforms and the New Zealand Refugee Resettlement Strategy, provide an opportunity to address these issues. Based on previous research, the authors identify the main employment barriers facing people from refugee backgrounds. They argue that while the welfare reforms and the Refugee Resettlement Strategy are underpinned by a desire to see more people in employment, for real change to occur, an integrated holistic approach is needed. This approach needs to include additional resourcing for government-funded specialist one-on-one employment programmes that are available in all regions where refugees are resettled. These programmes combined with access to fully funded English language tuition and work experience and internship opportunities would help reduce the barriers people from refugee backgrounds face when seeking employment.     

Social workers' attitudes towards family group conferences in Sweden and the UK

The New Zealand family group conference (FGC) approach to decision making in child welfare and protection has attracted strong interest among policy makers and professionals all over the world. While New Zealand’s legislation makes use of FGCs more or less mandatory in child protection, other countries permit social workers to refer families to an FGC at their own discretion. Knowledge about social workers’ attitudes towards the model is thus paramount if we want to understand implementation and evaluations of FGCs outside New Zealand. This study looks at attitudes towards and actual referrals to FGCs amongst 219 social workers from 18 local authorities in Sweden and the UK. Results reveal an overwhelmingly positive attitude towards FGCs in both countries. Given these attitudes it was striking that only 42% of the social workers had initiated at least one FGC over an 18‐month period. The number of implemented FGCs was almost exactly the same in Sweden and the UK, after adjusting for time and number of social workers. Possible explanations for this paradox are discussed, using data from the survey and child welfare literature.     

Doing The Right Thing: Labour's Attempt to Forge a New Welfare Deal Between the Individual and the State

This paper explores the rhetoric behind the Labour Government's welfare reforms. Recent publications and statements emanating from the new administration indicate the extent to which Labour feels comfortable with notions of communitarianism and stakeholding. The influence and (potential) impact of these two concepts upon welfare policy is explored through the works of Macmurray, Etzioni, Hutton and, in spite of his departure from Government, Field. The paper argues that in attempting to create a welfare system based largely on conditions of work, set firmly within a framework of self-help and individual responsibility, Labour's reform agenda is concerned with the establishment of a new moral order for welfare in which individuals are urged to "do the right thing": that is, to take control of their own welfare and ultimately to be responsible for meeting their own needs whenever possible. The Government presents this attempt to forge a welfare settlement between the individual and the state as both new and inclusive. However, it is concluded that such claims are contentious as the Government's "new" approach echoes old individualistic ideas about the causes and solutions to poverty, and may also result in the exclusion of some citizens from publicly financed welfare.