Contracting-out welfare services: comparing national policy designs for unemployment assistance
In: Broadening perspectives on social policy
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In: Broadening perspectives on social policy
In: Broadening perspectives on social policy
"Contracting-out Welfare Services: Comparing National Policy Designs for Unemployment Assistance is an edited collection focused on the design and re-design of welfare-to-work systems around the world"--
In: Social policy and administration, Band 48, Heft 2, S. 119-126
ISSN: 1467-9515
In: Social policy & administration: an international journal of policy and research, Band 48, Heft 2, S. 119-126
ISSN: 0037-7643, 0144-5596
In: Social policy & administration: an international journal of policy and research, Band 48, Heft 2, S. 119-277
ISSN: 0037-7643, 0144-5596
In: Routledge explorations in development studies
In: Routledge explorations in development studies
Scholars and policymakers have long known that there is a strong link between human development and spending on key areas such as education and health. However, many states still neglect these considerations in favour of competing priorities, such as expanding their armies. This book examines how states arrive at these decisions, analysing how democratic accountability influences public spending and impacts on human development. The book shows how the broader paradigm of democratic accountability - extending beyond political democracy to also include bureaucratic and judicial institutions as we.
In: Public and Social Policy Series
In: Social service review: SSR, Band 96, Heft 3, S. 435-464
ISSN: 1537-5404
In: Social policy and society: SPS ; a journal of the Social Policy Association, Band 18, Heft 4, S. 631-645
ISSN: 1475-3073
A key question concerning the marketisation of employment services is the interaction between performance management systems and frontline client-selection practices. While the internal sorting of clients for employability by agencies has received much attention, less is known about how performance management shapes official categorisation practices at the point of programme referral. Drawing on case studies of four Australian agencies, this study examines the ways in which frontline staff contest how jobseekers are officially classified by the benefit administration agency. With this assessment pivotal in determining payment levels and activity requirements, we find that reassessing jobseekers so they are moved to a more disadvantaged category, suspended, or removed from the system entirely have become major elements of casework. These category manoeuvres help to protect providers from adverse performance rankings. Yet, an additional consequence is that jobseekers are rendered fully or partially inactive, within the context of a system designed to activate.
In: Administration & society, Band 52, Heft 3, S. 466-494
ISSN: 1552-3039
Welfare recipients are increasingly subject to various forms of work-related conditionality that, critics argue, presuppose a "pathological" theory of unemployment that stigmatizes welfare recipients as de-motivated to work. Drawing on surveys of Australian frontline employment services staff, we examine the extent to which caseworkers attribute being on benefits to recipients' lack of motivation, and whether this problem figuration of unemployment is associated with a "harder edged" approach to activation. We find that it is, although it is diminishing. This reflects how frontline discretion has become more routinized from the application of more intensive forms of performance monitoring and compliance auditing.
In: Public management review, Band 20, Heft 8, S. 1186-1204
ISSN: 1471-9045
In: Social policy and administration, Band 52, Heft 1, S. 229-251
ISSN: 1467-9515
AbstractIn September 2009, the British Government launched a new employment assistance model called Flexible New Deal. It was soon replaced by Work Programme in 2011. Both prioritized what is often called a 'black box' approach to public employment assistance, whereby the government purchaser focuses predominantly on outcomes and does not seek to direct agency operations. Using a study of the orientations and strategies of frontline employment services staff in 2008 and 2012, we seek to enhance understanding of the impact of so‐called 'black box' commissioning on key aspects of service delivery. Black box advocates propose that it is a hands‐off approach that allows agencies to be innovative and to improve efficiency. These effects are thought to be due to improved local service quality and greater flexibility to tailor services to individual clients. Critics argue that this increased discretion facilitates under‐servicing of some jobseekers and agency profiteering. These practices are commonly referred to as 'parking' and 'creaming'. In this UK study, we provide evidence of both positive and negative activities associated with black box commissioning. We find some small improvements in flexibility at the frontline, but little to no evidence of increased efficiency as measured by the reported rates of jobseekers moving into work. We also observe an increase in practices associated with creaming and parking. We conclude that improving efficiency and maximizing innovation are not guaranteed by black box commissioning, and that the aim of facilitating increased frontline flexibility, while also minimizing risk, persists as a major policy design tension.
In: Social policy and administration, S. 23
ISSN: 1467-9515
In: The Asia Pacific journal of public administration, Band 38, Heft 4, S. 270-280
ISSN: 2327-6673