From Street‐level Bureaucrats to Street‐level Policy Entrepreneurs? Central Policy and Local Action in Lottery‐funded Community Cancer Care

Recent contributions to the policy implementation literature have applied Kingdon's model of ‘policy windows’ to the implementation of policy on health inequalities in the UK, and have identified the key role played by ‘policy entrepreneurs’ at local as well as national level. Despite this, the picture that emerges is of frustration of central policy intentions at the local level, alongside frustration of local aspirations by the centre. This article explores the relationship between central policy and local implementation in the context of a Lottery‐funded initiative to develop community cancer care in the UK. We examine the relationships: between the BIG Lottery Fund and central government; between BIG and the cancer care projects it funded; and between the projects and their local economy of cancer care. We found evidence of success both in vertical cascading of policy and in local policy innovation; 83 per cent of projects succeeded in obtaining continuation funding at the end of their Lottery funding. We suggest that this was due, in part, to two features of Lottery funding and accountability that combined to differentiate it from the other policy initiatives studied. They meant that projects were ‘buffered’ not just from national policy churn, but also from competing local priorities. In the ‘protected space’ that was thus formed, ‘street‐level policy entrepreneurs’ played a key role in developing cancer care innovations for adoption by mainstream funding agencies.     

Risk and Public Protection: Responding to Involuntary and ‘Taboo’ Risk

Growing media, political and public concern with high‐risk offenders in the community has focused policy attention on the concept of ‘public protection’. A notion that the public has the right to be protected, particularly from ‘monstrous’ offenders such as predatory paedophiles, has infiltrated much recent legislation and penal policy. This article will explore the critical factors in the ‘public protection’ trend and the framing of risk and risky offenders that has ensued. In particular, attention will be given to the new surveillance and intervention mechanisms under the Multi‐Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and whether these arrangements manage risk or displace it. To what extent are they driven by the ‘precautionary principle’ and defensive responses to risks that are over‐inflated? To what extent does this result in ‘perverse incentives’ to over‐manage certain risks and to over‐concentrate on restrictive risk management techniques such as electronic tagging, satellite surveillance and curfews rather than treatment? Does the system represent effective risk management or a system for dealing with risk anxiety – both of the public(s) and of politicians?     

Inter‐agency Cooperation and New Approaches to Employability

This article examines the role of inter‐agency cooperation, which is one form of ‘partnership’, in new approaches to employability in the UK. The article articulates a ‘model for effective partnership working’ on employability. This model is applied first in a general review of employability policy and then to discuss case study research on the recent ‘Pathways to Work’ and ‘Working Neighbourhoods’ pilots. It is argued that successful partnerships need a clear strategic focus based on a necessity for inter‐agency cooperation and institutional arrangements that allow for shared ownership, trust and mutualism, and flexibility in resource‐sharing. While some of these factors are apparent in UK employability services, an over‐reliance on contractualism and centralized organizational structures may undermine partnership‐based approaches. Many of the success factors associated with effective partnership working appeared to be in place, even though the role of the Public Employment Service was fundamentally different in each case (as a key actor in implementing the first pilot, but largely withdrawing from the implementation role in the second). The article concludes by outlining the relevance of this model and the case study findings to discussions of the future development of employability policies and related partnership working.     

Access, Choice and Travel: Implications for Health Policy

The UK National Health Service is introducing policies offering patients a choice of the hospital where they would like to be treated. ‘Patient choice’ policies form part of a wider debate about the access to health care and the interaction between providers (including information, provision, performance and reputation) and patients (including knowledge, resources and willingness to travel). As the hospital of ‘choice’ might not necessarily be the ‘local’ provider, such policy developments are predicated on an assumption that some patients will be willing to travel further. This will, in turn, affect patients’ access to services. In general, use of services decreases with distance but this is dependent on accessibility to services, the organization of those services, the socio‐economic characteristics of the patient, perceptions of the provider and the condition for which they are to be treated. This article reviews the evidence on patients’ willingness to travel in terms of access to health care and assesses the emerging implications of and for current UK policy on patient choice.     

‘The terrorist in my home’: teenagers' violence towards parents – constructions of parent experiences in public online message boards

Teenagers' violence towards parents is a hidden and underexplored problem, particularly within the UK, and the stigma attached to such experiences makes research access difficult. In this study, two online message boards which featured parents' posted accounts of their teenagers' violence towards them were analysed. Using discourse analysis, three consistent discursive themes were identified: the emotional terrain of such experiences, the psychologisation of the child‐as‐‘perpetrator’ and parental responses to these complex experiences. Overall, these three themes were weaved together to produce overarching narratives of powerlessness and loss of hope. The theoretical and practical implications of this analysis are discussed, including a consideration of how such online message boards enable and delimit parental agency.     

Attributing Outcomes to Social Policy Interventions – ‘Gold Standard’ or ‘Fool's Gold’ in Public Policy and Management?

In recent years there has been increased interest in outcome‐based social policy‐making and management. The UK has been in the forefront of this movement but similar movements have been identified internationally. This interest in outcome‐based decision‐making has been given particular impetus through the ‘results’‐based movement in evaluation and performance management since the 1980s, which has increased in scope over time, slowly changing its emphasis from cost reduction and measuring outputs to measuring outcomes. This change has been widely welcomed by policymakers, practitioners and academics. However, there is evidence that the reality is often rather less than the rhetoric. Moreover, the ‘attribution problem’ of attributing changes in outcomes to specific social policies has remained a major issue. The conceptual solution of constructing ‘cause‐and‐effect’ models, imported from the policy evaluation field, has only recently become common for operationalising these models. This article outlines the evolution of interest in outcome‐based social policy‐making up to recent times and the growing realization of the importance of the attribution problem. It then outlines both how the ‘cause‐and‐effect’ policy modelling approach can partially tackle the attribution problem, but also its inherent limitations. Lastly, the article uses several case studies in current UK social policy‐making to demonstrate the potential importance of the reasoning embedded within cause‐and‐effect models but also the dangers in policy‐making which adopts this approach without understanding its conceptual basis or in fields where it is inappropriate, given the current state of our knowledge of social policy systems.     

From New Labour to Rudd/Gillard – transferring social policy

ABSTRACT

From 2007 to 2010, there were national Labour governments in Britain and Australia, the longest and only third time this had occurred since the second World War. The period of New Labour was closing in the UK, and in Australia the Rudd government came to power after 11 years in opposition, directly influenced by the, at times, trailblazing UK Labour government. In the domain of social policy, New Labour was a source of policy inspiration and transfer. Specifically, the Rudd/Gillard governments borrowed heavily its ‘social exclusion’ agenda, and also the use of ‘compacts’ with the third sector. This article examines the policy diffusion and transfer between the UK and Australia, and in doing so offers critical insights into the policy transfer literature. The article examines the reasons for the Australian Labor Party's adoption of these policies, and links this to wider dilemmas and identity crisis that are afflicting centre-left governments across the globe.     

Dutch Women are Liberated, Migrant Women are a Problem: The Evolution of Policy Frames on Gender and Migration in the Netherlands, 1995–2005

Over the past decade, there has been a major shift in Dutch gender equality policy to an almost exclusive focus on migrant women. Simultaneously, the focus of ‘minority policies’ has shifted more and more towards gender relations. The appearance of migrant women at the top of the political agenda is remarkable. In this article we examine how this construction of migrant women as a political problem has come about, and consider its implications. As we argue, the dominant policy frames of emancipation and individual responsibility are reinforcing a dichotomy between the autochthonous ‘us’ and the allochthonous ‘them’. As the problem is increasingly defined as a cultural one, it is implicitly stated that there is no problem with the dominant culture and society. Barriers for participation are exclusively located in the migrant (Muslim) culture. In this view, Muslim migrants should first change their culture before they can fully integrate in Dutch society.     

What's in a Name? ‘Work and Family’ or ‘Work and Life’ Balance Policies in the UK since 1997 and the Implications for the Pursuit of Gender Equality

Since 1997, Labour has developed a wide range of policies on childcare services, care leaves and flexible working hours. In 2000, the term ‘work‐life balance’ was introduced and has been used by Government Departments and by the academic community with very little discussion of its meaning vis à vis the use of ‘family‐friendly’ policies, or the promotion of ‘work and family balance’. We explore the introduction of the term work‐life balance, the reasons for it, and its significance at the policy level, especially in terms of its implications for the pursuit of gender equality. We find that at the policy level, its use was more a matter of strategic framing than substantive change. Nevertheless, because of the UK Government's largely gender‐neutral approach to the whole policy field, it is important to make explicit the tensions in the continuing use of the term work‐life balance, particularly in relation to the achievement of gender equality.     

Social Policy beyond Fear: The Globalization of Strangeness,the ‘War on Terror’, and ‘Spaces of Wonder’

Fear has become central to social scientific understandings of contemporary insecurities. However, this article argues that a focus on fear is not sufficient, and that an exploration of ‘wonder’ is more productive, particularly when trying to understand modes of governance and policy regimes introduced as part of the ‘war on terror’. An appropriate starting point for such an exploration is the globalization of strangeness. The idea that globalization has undermined the familiar territoriality of a world of nation states has become accepted in the social science literature. However, the nature of the resulting unfamiliarity or strangeness of the world is rarely explored. This article focuses on the processes by means of which the world is rendered strange and examines the opportunities for new forms of governance opened up by a world designated as insecure, uncertain and unpredictable. The article pays particular attention to the ways in which this strangeness can generate ‘spaces of wonder’. Examples of such ‘spaces of wonder’ include ‘the world’, the UK's border, now offshore according to the Home Office, and ‘global borderlands’. The article advances a critical reading of contemporary political responses to ‘spaces of wonder’, particularly the ways in which the unknown and threatening are rendered in familiar and cosy terms.     

Women,trauma and substance abuse: Understanding the experiences of female survivors of childhood abuse in alcohol and drug treatment

Despite the available evidence suggesting gender should be considered in the provision of alcohol and/or drug (AOD) treatment, programmes are frequently offered in an apparent ‘gender vacuum’. This article argues that the generalist ‘one size fits all’ approach of many AOD services is not gender neutral but should be understood as implicitly gendered in that it neglects the specificity of women's needs in relation to abuse, mental illness and parenting. The discussion presented in this article is based on a qualitative study of the experiences of adult women with histories of childhood sexual abuse and/or domestic violence in AOD treatment. By examining the ways in which AOD treatments effectively ignore or minimise gender, this article uncovers intervention practices that efface the complexities underpinning AOD use among women and suggests ways in which alternative models of service delivery can create more validating and supportive environments. Key Practitioner Message: ● Some of the common assumptions underpinning alcohol and drug treatment do not adequately acknowledge the specific needs of female clients and so gender‐neutral service provision can be disenabling for women; ● Punitive service cultures or behaviour change strategies have a differential impact on female clients, many of whom have prior and ongoing experiences of abuse and violence; ● Service models that acknowledge the complex responsibilities and relational histories of female clients are more likely to engender a positive response and provide the opportunity to address the multiple and complex needs that can go unmet in non‐specialist services.     

Activation Reform and Inter‐Agency Co‐operation – Local Consequences of Mixed Modes of Governance in Sweden

Organizational reform has become a recurring solution to problems of social exclusion and unemployment. In Europe, and other parts of the world, there is a trend towards policies of ‘activation’ in employment and social policy. The idea of flexible, individualized and tailor‐made services is coupled with managerial and market‐based reforms as well as collaborative governance. In these complex structures of service provision, coordination and inter‐agency co‐operation have become key concerns. Based on a study of a recent reform of programmes for newly arrived refugees in Sweden (Etableringsreformen), this article seeks to contribute to the literature on governance of ‘activation’ by examining the consequences of mixed modes of governance (market and collaborative) on local inter‐agency co‐operation. Drawing on data from in‐depth case studies in two municipalities, it is demonstrated how the coupling of managerial practices and quasi‐markets with existing collaborative arrangements has created barriers for inter‐agency co‐operation. The results indicate that institutional tensions between governance forms represent an important factor for explaining governance failure in this policy area.     

Child Protection Social Work: Risks of Fears and Fears of Risks – Impossible Tasks from Impossible Goals?

This article examines the relationship between the causes and effects of fear in child protection social workers, and the effects of risk assessment and risk management policies on this area of work. The focus on risk assessment and risk management has become a major area of attention within practice, policy and management of child protection work in the UK in recent years. Concepts of risk as constructed by the media, government and the public are increasingly impacting upon professional practices. This article examines the basis and validity of risk assessments in the social professions field, and particularly within the child protection arena. The article goes on to examine the experiences of fear arising from the risk agenda, which affects frontline workers, managers and child protection agencies. This agenda arises from centrally produced risk assessment frameworks, alongside unrealistic expectations from central government of prediction of risk by the use of current risk assessment tools. Such controlling policies from central government can lead to fear and anxiety in social work professionals of not assessing and eliminating risk, as the government and their employing agencies are expecting them to do. The article also proposes that this risk agenda fails to address a key element in the assessment of risk – how social workers experience threats and stress in their work, and the pressures they can be subject to within it, particularly in relation to violence and threats from parent service users where their children are being investigated for possible child abuse.     

Elite,exclusive and elusive: transgovernmental policy networks and iterative policy transfer in the Anglosphere

ABSTRACT

The prominent corridor of bilateral policy transfer between Australia and the UK is underpinned by a long-standing cultural and political proximity. While ad hoc cases of transfer have in recent years been the subject to concerted attention from transfer theorists, much less attention has been given to the rise of multilateral, or transgovernmental, policy networks based on similar cultural and political amity amongst the ‘Anglosphere’ group of states including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US. Populated by policy elites and regularly interacting, these networks represent potentially important modes of policy transfer yet little is known about how they operate, with what purposes or what outcomes. This article therefore sets out research findings that offer an insight into 23 identified networks, suggesting that understanding the emergence of these networks are crucial to explaining any bilateral transfer between Anglosphere states in general, and specifically Australia and the UK. The article contends that a consideration of these networks provides insight into (i) the substantive landscape of Anglosphere policy learning and collaboration, (ii) the attendant dynamics of collaborative policy networks as elite, elusive and exclusive and (iii) iterative policy transfers.     

Garbage‐can Policy‐making Meets Neo‐liberal Ideology: Twenty Five Years of Redundant Reform of the English National Health Service

The garbage‐can theory of decision‐making (Cohen et al. 1972), has been adapted into a perspective on policy‐making, with adaptations of the approach placing notable emphasis upon the health sector (Kingdon 2006; Paton 2006). This article creates an adapted ‘garbage‐can’ framework to help explain each stage of the reform of the English National Health Service (NHS) over the last 25 years. The emergence of the key idea and resultant policy at each stage of reform of the English NHS has been arational and indeed sometimes irrational. Policy has reflected advocacy by policy‐salesmen (Kingdon 2002), proffering ‘solutions’ to ill‐defined problems and answers to unasked questions, and politicians' short‐termist responses at each decision‐point. Yet the garbage‐can alone is not enough: if arationality rules in policy‐making day to day, this does not mean that there is not an overall ideological context, trend or bias in reform. The article also posits that ‘market reform’ has derived from the ideological hegemony of a naive anti‐statism (hostility to a misleadingly defined and often mythological ‘centralist state’) in public services and enthusiasm for market competition rather than any evidence‐based application of pro‐market ideas to health policy. A question arises: how are these two approaches (short‐term arationality and longer‐term ideological bias) combined in explanation of how policy over time is biased in a particular direction while seemingly arbitrary and directionless at each messy decision‐point. The article attempts to combine the insights of a garbage‐can approach with wider explanations of ideological hegemony.     

Middle‐Class Political Activism and Middle‐Class Advantage in Relation to Public Services: A Realist Synthesis of the Evidence Base

Since the late 1960s social policy scholarship has been concerned with the distribution of the resources or benefits across social gradients. This article presents a review of the literature on one mechanism by which inequity might be produced – activism by middle‐class service‐users enabling them to capture a disproportionate share of resources. The review used the methodology of realist synthesis to bring together evidence from the UK, the USA and Scandinavian countries over the past 30 years. The aim was to construct a ‘middle‐theory’ to understand how and in which contexts collective and individual activity by middle‐class service‐users might produce inequitable resource allocation or rationing decisions that disproportionately benefit middle‐class service‐users. The article identifies four causal theories which nuance the view that it is the ‘sharp elbows’ of the middle‐classes which confer advantage on this group. It shows how advantage accrues via the interplay between service‐users, providers and the broader policy and social context.     

EU Integration and the Transformation of Post‐communist Welfare: Traversing a ‘Quantum Leap’?

While many academic accounts treat post‐communist Europe as just another site of Europeanization with an emphasis on ‘adaptation’ and ‘learning’, this article argues that EU integration and the transformation of post‐communist Europe is a much more complex, volatile and uncertain process; not so much one of adaptation but more a ‘quantum leap’, apparently bypassing the stage of a Keynesian regime. Post‐communist Europe is asked to join an EU agenda that has many features of what Jessop calls the ‘Schumpeterian Workfare Postnational Regime’ (SWPR). In that sense, EU integration of post‐communist welfare is not simply a ‘catch‐up’, it is a complex transformation process whereby, rather than EU Enlargement and Eastern Europe being seen as a threat to ‘Social Europe’, the EU imposes its own ‘social deficit’ and economic hegemony onto Eastern Europe.     

Social Policy & Administration: Journal and Discipline

‘Social Policy & Administration’ is the oldest British social policy journal. This article charts its evolution over the last 40 years in the wider context of British social policy. It presents a timeline of the journal and discipline, an analysis of articles in the journal, and presents its most‐cited articles and most‐published authors. It uses this material to inform some impressions of the journal and discipline.     

The Search for Coordination: The Case of the Central Policy Review Staff and Social Policy Planning, 1971–77

The Central Policy Review Staff (CPRS) attempted to create an ambitious strategy for the horizontal coordination of social policy in the UK during the early 1970s. The attempt – inspired largely by planning, programming and budgeting systems – was a failure, and gave way to a much modified ‘joint framework for social policies’ in 1975. Recent research has compared the CPRS's joint framework approach to the Labour government's promotion of ‘joined‐up government’ (JUG) in the 2000s. This article provides a case study of the CPRS's work on social policy planning, using archival sources. The case study addresses themes that remain significant, particularly approaches to and the politics of horizontal coordination. Finally, the article makes a modest attempt to signal the differences between the 1970s' approach and ‘JUG’.