Apologies for cross-posting.
New Policy Brief by Asghar Zaidi, European Centre for Social Welfare
Policy and Research Vienna
"Welfare-to-Work Programmes in the UK and Lessons for Other Countries"
Abstract:
Welfare-to-work programmes have long been pursued in European countries,
and the so-called Nordic model of the active labour market policies had
served as a role model in the mid-1990s, offering policy learning to the
rest of Europe. The UK had shown more interest in learning from the US
workfare model than its European neighbours, and its policy design and
the experience of the past 10 years offer a number of insights for other
countries. This Policy Brief summarises the New Deal programmes pursued
in the UK since 1997/98 and draws some generic lessons for other countries.
Important features of these New Deal programmes are the personalised
employment services that are consistent with the needs of the groups in
question, their combination with the tax credit policy and, last but not
least, the learning obtained from the pilot programmes before rolling
them out at the national level. The contracting-out of service delivery
to the private and voluntary sector organizations is another important
feature which potentially draws upon the expertise of a variety of local
sources to engage with local client groups and meet their needs and,
also, result in cost savings for the government. There are mixed views
from the experience of other countries whether such involvement of the
private and voluntary sector can result in efficiency gains cost savings
or innovations in modes of service delivery.
More: http://www.euro.centre.org/detail.php?xml_id=1585
Please feel free to forward the Policy Brief to people who might be
interested.
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Best regards,
Annette Hexelschneider, Dipl.-Ing.
Head of Knowledge and Information Management Support Unit
European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research
Berggasse 17
A-1090 Vienna (Austria)
Tel: +43-1-319 45 05-23
Fax: +43-1-319 45 05-19
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