Best frontline blogs this week
Here’s our list of ten frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 14th October 2013 – from the new ‘social contract’ to welfare reform and the bedroom tax to the teachers strike and the Ofsted report on the Al-Madinah free school.
Can the unemployed be ‘nudged’ back into work?
“Unemployed people would be better served by welfare policies that take into account evidence about the reality of human behaviour. However, they would be much, much better served by policies that take into account evidence about the reality of the labour market.” Daniel Sage looks at the role ‘nudge’ could play in welfare to work.
Frontline Friday 11th October: Our favourite frontline blogs this week
Here’s our list of ten frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 7th October 2013 – from education, welfare reform to mental health and social care.
The politics of ivy
“It should go without saying that data and evidence can be interpreted differently, and there are certainly many and varied arguments to be had about the best ways to address entrenched social exclusion. But that is not what is currently happening.” Jane Mansour is concerned about the disregard of evidence when it comes to welfare to work policy.
The hidden costs of welfare reform
“However, for most participants – regardless of age, qualification level and gender – welfare-to-work appears to increase anxiety. This is a potent reminder that the costs of welfare reform cannot – and should not – be measured in economic terms.” Daniel Sage argues for a broader definition when considering the impact of welfare to work policies.
The path to the precipice
“We are blithely rushing along a path towards a fundamental change in our welfare system that will have far-reaching social and fiscal consequences. There is a perfect storm of a poorly contracted Work Programme, political rhetoric, and short-term accounting practice.” Richard Johnson looks at the debate on the next round of welfare reform.
Frontline Friday 20th September 2013: Our favourite frontline blogs this week
Here’s our list of ten frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 16th September 2013 – from the question of what are the Lib Dems for, to education and welfare reform, and the outsourcing of probation services.
Councils using zero hours, casual staff and the work programme
“This post lists the results of an FOI I recently sent to councils to get a rough idea of how many people councils employed on zero hours contracts or zero hours-type working arrangements and how many councils were using the work programme.” Kate Belgrave investigates the increasing use of zero-hours and casual work contracts in local authorities.
Does welfare-to-work boost well-being?
“Improving well-being through welfare-to-work is not straightforward. To make stronger and more widespread gains, it is likely that the government will have to try a much different approach.” Daniel Sage considers whether welfare to work programmes improve the well-being of unemployed people.
The human cost
“The future may look bleak for probation and probation staff, but not half as bleak as it does for many of our clients, and we’d do well to remember that.” Jim Brown is concerned about the impact on clients from outsourcing of probation services and welfare reform.
Here is how the UK Govt hid 1 million jobless from official unemployment figures
One of the purported achievements of the Coalition Government’s disastrous economic policy of austerity, has been the unemployment figures. Pundits say that at 7.8% (2.51m) they are nothing to shout about but not the disastrous rates seen in states such as Greece (26.9%) or Spain (26.3%). In reality, the unemployment rate is more than double this in […]
Welfare-to-work, in perspective
The image above illustrates the large network of what policy academics call ‘active labour market policies’ (ALMPs); or what politicians refer to, in the increasingly Americanised language of social security, ‘welfare-to-work’. ALMPs are big business. They are in large part carried out by huge private sector providers, such as A4E and G4S, as well as […]
Risky business
“[C]an the Work Programme work for all user groups? The short answer is: no, two years after launch, it is clearly failing the most disadvantaged jobseekers.” Richard Johnson explains why the Work Programme isn’t working - and why its failure holds important lessons for other areas of welfare reform.
Six months in… welfare
It’s six months since we launched this version of Guerilla Policy. Here’s a selection of some of our favourite posts we’ve published in welfare – from the Work Programme to the Bedroom Tax, ‘strivers vs skivers’ to the social impact of cuts.
Selling tomorrow
“Instead of cutting the cost of welfare by cutting the demand for it, the Chancellor may have found a different solution to runaway [social security spending] …a fundamental change in the way governments manage their finances was tucked away in the Budget.” Richard Johnson examines the implications of a decision that could have far-reaching consequences.
How does the Work Programme actually work….?
A client of BHT was put on the Work Programme. She said it prevented her from moving forward in her life. She was required to do newspaper and online searches for jobs, three hours a day. She said she received no training and could not talk about her support needs. She said she became increasingly stressed […]
The value of nothing
“If you are paying by results, spending less than you thought you would should not be cause for celebration. The implications of under-spending are far-reaching.” Jane Mansour argues that any ‘savings’ made by PbR initiatives such as the Work Programme in fact represent a direct cut for the people they are supposed to help, and could increase the welfare budget in the long-run.
Endemic ‘creaming and parking’ on the Work Programme
“On the basis of the modeling I undertook when tendering for these (Work Programme) contracts, given the discounts widely offered, about 30% of the jobseekers might find and keep jobs. For the other 70%, there will be little or no assistance.” Richard Johnson argues that the design of the Work Programme makes creaming and parking of clients by prime contractors inevitable.
From Popper to Poundland
A few days ago, I blogged about the Society for Evidence Based Policing. In response, another blogger (TonyOX3) wrote to me highlighting this report that came out a while back (June 2012): Test, Learn, Adapt: Developing Public Policy with Randomised Controlled Trials (by Laura Haynes, Owain Service, Ben Goldacre & David Torgerson). It is a good report and I commend it to […]
Accounting for the new self-employed
A report out today [6th February] from the ONS confirms the big increase in self-employment in the UK seen since the start of the Global Financial Crisis. As a result of the recessions that triggered, the number of employees fell by 434,000 between 2008 and 2012. In complete contrast, the number of self-employed people rose by 367,000 […]