An article examined the role of inter-agency co-operation in new approaches to employability. Successful partnerships needed a clear strategic focus based on a necessity for inter-agency co-operation, and institutional arrangements that allowed for shared ownership, trust and mutualism, and flexibility in resource-sharing. Although some of these factors were apparent in employability services, an over-reliance on 'contractualism' and centralized organizational structures might undermine partnership-based approaches.
Source: Colin Lindsay, Ronald McQuaid and Dutton Matthew, 'Inter-agency cooperation and new approaches to employability', Social Policy and Administration, Volume 42 Number 7
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Dec
The Department for Work and Pensions published its autumn 2008 performance report, showing progress against its public service agreement targets.
Source: Autumn Performance Report 2008, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7962 8176)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Dec
A report called on the government to use every means at its disposal monetary, fiscal, financial, and through assorted labour market interventions to boost the economy and protect employment. The package of measures it proposed included: a comprehensive programme to boost bank lending; a one-off tax credit targeted at low-income groups; higher benefit payments to stimulate demand; a public works programme; and an incentive scheme for employers to put workers on shorter hours rather than make them redundant.
Source: Ian Brinkley, Naomi Clayton, David Coats, Will Hutton and Stephen Overell, Hard Labour: Jobs, unemployment and the recession, Work Foundation (0870 165 6700)
Links: Report | Work Foundation press release
Date: 2008-Nov
A think-tank report examined the relationship between enterprise and employment. It examined levels of enterprise across England and assessed whether the changes observed were associated with fewer people claiming benefits. The key findings were that enterprise was becoming less equally distributed across England; that claimants were becoming more concentrated in deprived areas; that growth at the local authority level did not usually lead to growth in the most deprived areas; and that enterprise creation was only part of the solution to deprivation.
Source: Eil s Lawlor and Jeremy Nicholls, The Gap Years: Enterprise and inequality in England 2002-2006, New Economics Foundation (020 7820 6300)
Links: Report | NEF press release
Date: 2008-Nov
The government published a framework document setting out how the Department for Work and Pensions was organized and managed. It said that the governance arrangements set out in the framework provided for 'clarity of purpose, accountability and openness of decision-making'.
Source: Departmental Framework, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7962 8176)
Links: Framework
Date: 2008-Oct
The government published the 2008 annual progress report on its 'National Reform Programme' – implementing the European Union's 'Lisbon Strategy' for employment and economic growth.
Source: Lisbon Strategy for Jobs and Growth: UK National Reform Programme, HM Treasury (020 7270 4558)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Oct
A 'capability review' of the Department for Work and Pensions said that the Department needed to 'articulate the skills capability required to deliver its future business'. It also needed to clarify how best to communicate succinctly its overall aims and purpose.
Source: Department for Work and Pensions: Progress and Next Steps, Cabinet Office (020 7261 8527)
Links: Report | DWP press release | Cabinet Office press release
Date: 2008-Jul
A report said that a radical overhaul of employment and skills policy was needed to help the 7 million people who were economically inactive gain the skills they needed to 'break the hold of benefit dependency'. It called for greater local control and funding, and a move away from 'centralized bureaucratic structures'.
Source: The Integration Gap: Developing a devolved welfare and skills system, Local Government Association (020 7664 3000)
Links: Report | LGA press release
Date: 2008-Jun
A think-tank report said that the government would struggle to meet its aim of an 80 per cent national employment rate unless it granted cities greater freedom to get the workless into jobs. Although England's cities contained 59 per cent of the country's population, they were home to 68 per cent of those claiming benefits – and 64 per cent of the workless.
Source: Dave Simmonds and Paul Bivand, Worklessness: A city approach, Centre for Cities (020 7803 4300) and Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion
Links: Report | Centre for Cities press release
Date: 2008-Jun
The Department for Work and Pensions published its annual report for 2007-08.
Source: Departmental Report 2008, Cm 7401, Department for Children, Schools and Families, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-May
A paper examined the lessons which the United Kingdom should draw from the experience in the United States of America of welfare reform, and in particular the welfare-to-work programme known as 'Temporary Assistance for Needy Families' (introduced in 1996).
Source: James Midgley with commentaries by Kitty Stewart, David Piachaud and Howard Glennerster, Welfare Reform in the United States: Implications for British social policy, CASEpaper 131, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion/London School of Economics (020 7955 6679)
Links: Paper
Date: 2008-May
The government announced (in the draft Queen's Speech) plans to introduce a Welfare Reform Bill, designed to further reform the benefit system – by improving support and incentives for people to move from benefits into work, and providing greater choice and control for disabled people. A range of measures would strengthen the 'benefit contract' between the individual and society – the individual's right to support in exchange for clear personal responsibility for improving their own circumstances. Other measures were designed to strengthen the requirements of non-resident parents to contribute to their children's upbringing; and 'modernize and simplify' the benefit system. The Bill would be preceded by a Green Paper.
Source: Preparing Britain for the Future: The government's draft legislative programme, Cm 7372, Office of the Leader of the House of Commons, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Draft Queens Speech | Amendments | DWP press release | REC press release
Date: 2008-May
An article said that, in order to move towards full employment, cities needed local government to have more powers over the processes that drove economic competitiveness and social cohesion. These needs were reflected in the United Kingdom government's agenda for cities, employment, and skills governance: but the UK also needed to learn directly from best practice in other countries.
Source: 'The United Kingdom: boosting the role of cities in workforce development', OECD Employment, Volume 2008 Number 4 Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Apr
A think-tank report said that the government, in co-operation with the private sector, should provide a safety net for vulnerable middle-class workers facing increasing job insecurity. This would be achieved by significantly increasing access to insurance against the risks of unemployment among those facing the greatest financial fragility, in part through auto-enrolment in such insurance.
Source: Stephen Evans, Ann Rossiter, Kurt Mueller and Verena Menne, Angloflexicurity: A safety net for UK workers, Social Market Foundation (020 7222 7060)
Links: Report | SMF press release
Date: 2008-Apr
Researchers found that knowledge among employers about the roles and responsibilities of the Department for Work and Pensions was 'limited'. There was much confusion regarding what it was and was not responsible for, and how the work of DWP fitted in with that of other government departments.
Source: Suzanne Hall, Nick Pettigrew and Wendy Mousley, Building a Coherent Strategy for Engagement: Deliberative research with employers, Research Report 477, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Date: 2008-Mar
An article criticized the positing of (paid) work as the preferred or only solution to the problem of unemployment. An alternative solution could be a guaranteed income policy: this could both challenge the moral discourse of work and direct policy critique away from areas that 'teleologically inscribed' preferred lifestyles such as that of paid worker.
Source: Matthew Cole, 'Sociology contra government? The contest for the meaning of unemployment in UK policy debates', Work, Employment and Society, Volume 22 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Mar
A study found that using social inclusion clauses in public purchasing contracts (in five pilot areas) delivered new training, apprenticeships, and permanent jobs. New guidance was published by the Scottish Government to support public bodies in their use of community benefit clauses.
Source: Richard MacFarlane and Mark Cook, Community Benefits in Public Procurement: A report demonstrating the methodology for including targeted recruitment and training clauses in public sector contracts, Scottish Government, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283)
Links: Report | Guidance | SG press release
Date: 2008-Feb
The government announced plans to build a new 'employment and skills partnership' with employers. Employers would drive strategic change in the employment and skills infrastructure, to make sure that it provided simplified support and delivered the skills they needed. Simplified and demand-led government support would help employers to recruit and train staff in a way that met their needs. Firms would be awarded recognition for their own successful in-house training programmes through a new accreditation scheme – one of the first to be given accreditation was McDonald's, the fast-food multinational. The government promised an 'effective and growing market' for welfare-to-work services, together with a big increase in apprenticeships.
Source: Ready to Work, Skilled for Work: Unlocking Britain's Talent, Cm 7316, Department for Work and Pensions, TSO (0870 600 5522) and Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills
Links: Report | Hansard | Speech | DIUS press release | PCS press release | UCU press release | FT report | Community Care report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Jan
The Welsh Assembly Government began consultation on a strategy to raise skills levels and increase the economic activity rate in Wales.
Source: Skills That Work For Wales: A skills and employment strategy, Welsh Assembly Government (029 2082 5111)
Links: Consultation document | Consultation document (Welsh) | Summary | Summary (Welsh) | REC press release
Date: 2008-Jan
Researchers examined the views of members of the public about the major challenges facing the Department for Work and Pensions. Participants had limited knowledge of the challenges involved: but they shared the government's views on getting people off benefits and into work.
Source: Suzanne Hall and Nick Pettigrew, The Challenges Facing DWP in the Future: Deliberative research with the public, Research Report 476, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Jan