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The concept of the political settlement has risen to occupy a central place in British policy toward conflict-affected and fragile states. Yet, at around the turn of the millennium, the term was barely mentioned in official circles and the so-called ‘good governance’ approach held sway as the dominant operational mode. So, how had this transformation in policy approach come about and what was the role of research? In this article, we demonstrate that research played a central role in influencing the rhetoric of policymakers through a process we term ‘cumulative influence’. Indeed, the subject of political settlements represents an excellent case study for understanding the dynamics of research utilisation. It allows us to build on existing models and suggest useful ways forward in this important area of public policy analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper addresses the emergence of microvolunteering as a conceptual and practical phenomenon, as well as one which policy makers must engage with in a careful and critical fashion. Taking a lead from Smith et al. [2010. "Enlivened Geographies of Volunteering: Situated, Embodied and Emotional Practices of Voluntary Action." Scottish Geographical Journal 126: 258–274] who specify a need to extend our analyses beyond the formal organizational spaces of volunteering, we consider the potential impact of micro-volunteering on changing patterns of civic participation over the next decade or two. With particular reference to policy ambitions and transformations in the UK, but with reference to broader international trends also, we set out how microvolunteering is being variously defined and appropriated as a means of addressing structural barriers to "traditional" volunteering. Drawing on a range of practical examples we consider how microvolunteering potentially alters the relationship between volunteering, community and identity, as well as relates to the parallel notion of "slacktivism". Set against both positive and negative accounts of microvolunteering within the broader media, we advocate caution to policy makers looking to implement such activities, and particularly in respect to what microvolunteering can realistically achieve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As obesity constitutes a growing health concern over the world, it has also become an important part of public policy agendas. This paper critically analyses the development of the policy debate and measures around obesity in the UK. The paper contributes to the debate by challenging the current individualized nature of nudge policies as the most popular application of behavioural economics to policy. We argue that it may be possible to change the choice architecture of individuals through nudge, but the overall effectiveness of such policies would be limited because the broader social, economic and political architecture shaping individual choices is ignored. The case of the UK provides a good illustration where concrete policy measures are predominantly focused on choice despite growing recognition of the structural determinants of obesity, and the governments are thus able to avoid threatening free markets and existing economic interests. Whilst the recently introduced sugar tax constitutes a certain shift in policy, it clearly remains an exception within the whole policy package. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the scale and form of discretionary activity in Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs). Discretionary activity was a key aspect of TECs. In particular it underpinned their role to be flexible local agents offering leadership and finance to lever partnerships with other agents. The paper examines TEC discretionary activity at the peak of its development in 2000. This amounted to about #200m per annum. Their activity covered fields of economic development, business support, education and training, and workforce development. TECs were abolished from April 2001. The paper examines the challenges faced by successor bodies (the Learning and Skills Council, Regional Development Agencies, and the Small Business Service) in maintaining significant local initiatives. TEC projects chiefly depended on the TEC for both leadership and finance. Without a continuation of both, many local projects will disappear and employer commitment is endangered. Employer commitment is shown chiefly to have involved large national firms, or significant local and regional employers. Their commitments and the need for leadership appear to be the most fragile elements, which are hence most vulnerable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explanations documenting the development of UK social policy have been wide ranging in every way, barring one: no thorough-going explanation of the role of capital in the formation of welfare policy has yet been attempted. This paper is part of a broader study that attempts to bridge such gaps in current research. It does this by focusing on the Confederation of British Industry, the UK's largest employers' organisation, and its interest in and influence over social policy formation and delivery. Whilst previous studies on the CBI have revealed a largely ineffectual organisation, this study indicates growing influence in the area of broad social policy, based on changes in the opportunities for influence by central government and changes within the organisation itself. It also unveiled, however, a limited interest in certain social policy areas within the CBI. The subject of the paper is not a theoretical analysis of business power, but an attempt to provide a snapshot of business thinking and the potential influence of business over social policy formation and delivery over the 1980s, albeit on only one section of business. In doing this it provides a useful grounding on which future analysis can be built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the political geography of localism and reviews the insights of geographers regarding localism and locality. It identifies three main approaches to locality in Human Geography. Regional geographers, humanistic geographers and spatial scientists view localities as relatively natural phenomena. Marxist and political-economic geographers view localities as social phenomena produced by uneven capitalist development. Post-structuralist geographers view localities as characterist-ically open, plural and dynamic. The paper also distinguishes three sets of political localism to be found in human-geographical literatures. First, localism describes seemingly natural ways of life - organised to maximise authentic experiences of place in the case of Humanistic Geography and to minimise the friction of distance in the case of spatial science. Second, localism describes cultural-political expressions of spatial divisions of labour, including local political cultures, local proactivity in the context of large-scale economic restructuring, and actually existing, variegated, local neoliberalisations. Third, localism describes struggles to produce locally scaled action, including projects of local autonomy and self-sufficiency directed against the central state, movements to defend collective consumption from developers, coalitions to defend fixed capital against devaluation, and state downscaling to regulate capitalism. To illustrate their usefulness, some of these insights are applied to the localism agendas of recent British governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate on the potential of evidence-based policy is now in full flow, though opinions differ on whether we have reached zenith or nadir in our capacity to transform public data into public service. Clearly, we are not short of 'evidence'; there is a plethora of programme evaluators and policy analysts out there, and a surfeit of their publications – official, academic and grey. What is at issue is the method of synthesizing that evidence, a research strategy that goes by the name of 'systematic review'. In particular, there is considerable doubt about how to handle the variegated and contested evidence base that typifies most sectors of public policy. Can it ever be made to yield to the formal statistical techniques of meta-analysis? And if not, can evidence-based policy ever match the precision of the demanding blueprint represented by evidence-based medicine? This paper seeks to go beyond these old antagonisms by proposing a novel model of evidence synthesis based on the principles of realist evaluation. Under this approach, systematic review changes from a data-driven exercise to a process of theory development and refinement. The core of the paper is a demonstration project, consisting of an embryonic review of public disclosure initiatives, a policy better known as 'naming and shaming'. Six initiatives are examined in order to develop an elementary theory of the conditions under which shaming sanctions might work. The paper concludes with reflections on how such a process of 'realist synthesis' may feed into policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates critically the current UK policy approach that seeks to cultivate voluntary work through the 'third sector' route of developing voluntary groups. To do this, first, the results of recent nationwide surveys of volunteering are analysed. Revealing how informal volunteering (helping people on an individual basis) is not only of the same order of magnitude as formal volunteering (helping people via groups) but is also the predominant form of voluntary activity amongst deprived populations, this paper argues that the current third sector approach needs to be complemented by a 'fourth sector' approach that cultivates one-to-one aid. To reinforce this finding and to investigate how this can be achieved, case study evidence of the nature of volunteering amongst affluent and deprived populations in rural England is then reported. This reveals that while participation in voluntary groups in rural areas is heavily skewed towards the relatively affluent who use them as sociability vehicles, one-to-one aid is the principal type of voluntary work used by lower income populations to improve their material circumstances. The paper concludes by outlining possible policy initiatives that could be used to implement this fourth sector approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The title of this paper, borrowed from a government White Paper, is concerned to explore the viability of the proposed stance towards youth crime and disorder exemplified in the UK Crime and Disorder Act 1998. In that legislation, much is made of the notion of 'making amends' as a way of informing young people of both the nature and the impact of their offending behaviour, in the hope that this will prevent further re-offending and repair some of the damage experienced by the victim of crime. This principle of reparation has been available to public discourse on law and order for some time. Much has been made of the practical value of this principle in Australia and New Zealand translated as it has been in that context from Braithwaite's (1989) exposition of reintegrative shaming. In the UK various attempts have been made to introduce similar projects from the Home Office sponsored projects of the mid-1980s to the much publicised work currently being undertaken in the Thames Valley area. Such international and national 'successes' notwithstanding, the question remains as to what might work, how, when, and for whom, in relation to this general principle of making amends. In introducing the importance of the concept of trust, this paper will explore these questions both for the individuals involved in the process of making amends, for the communities in which such projects may be situated, and for the criminal justice process as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The view that regulatory provisions protecting the employment conditions of workers need to be minimised in order to protect the business needs of employers has been an ongoing theme in British governmental policy discourse over the past three decades. For the present Coalition government, the assumption that current levels of regulation are unduly burdensome on employers and hence harmful to the economy has continued to be enthusiastically voiced, most notably in respect of the regulation of workplace health and safety. Against this backcloth, this paper develops a critical examination of the conclusions of an ‘independent’ review of health and safety regulations commissioned by the present UK Government to shed light on the way in which a deregulatory policy agenda is being furthered. The paper commences by locating the recent review of health and safety regulations, the ‘Löfstedt review’, in the context of other recent government initiatives aimed at alleviating the burden of health and safety regulation from the shoulders of employers. It then moves on to outline the nature of this review and its main conclusions and recommendations, before considering in turn its use of evidence, deployment of the notion of ‘low risk’ and lack of attention to the issue of enforcement. Finally, a concluding section draws together the key points to emerge from the preceding analysis and highlights how the Löfstedt review can be seen to form an integral part of a misleading deregulatory discourse that threatens to engender the wholesale undermining of workplace health and safety protections. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper considers the lessons that UK policy makers might draw from Scandinavian programmes in the area of work re-organisation and job redesign. It takes as its point of departure the recent publication of the Cabinet Office Performance and Innovation Unit's report on workforce development which signalled the need to develop a new 'demand-led' approach to tackling Britain's 'skills problem'. Building on the PIU analysis, the paper asks how UK policy makers might go about developing programmes aimed at improving work organisation, as one element of a wider 'demand-side' strategy. It begins by asking why work re-organisation and job redesign have tended to be relatively neglected as policy issues in the UK. The paper then moves on to explore the problems and challenges that Norway and Finland have faced in developing programmes aimed at 'workplace development', and tries to assess what UK policy makers could learn from these experiences given their willingness to do so. Finally, the paper examines how the UK might approach initiating a publicly supported programme of workplace development, albeit from within a very different and perhaps less hospitable social, political and institutional environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central argument of this paper is that the policies developed by New Labour to tackle social exclusion amongst young people in particular are aligned with US workfare policies. In being so aligned they disclose the neo-liberal 'drivers' of reform which mark New Labour's understanding of social exclusion as a distinct rupture with the European social exclusion tradition. Considerable benefits of workfare that accrue to labour supply and to wage regulation are outlined to exemplify these 'drivers'. Through reviews of the effects of welfare-to-work programmes, and of independent evaluations of the New Deal for Young People (NDYP), the paper suggests that its impact upon exclusion, even in its narrower senses, is limited. It goes on to query some fundamental assumptions about how young people are understood to make 'transitions' into financial independence as employees, looking both at persistent inequalities, notably of race, class and disability, and at new forms of inequality that depend, in much more complex ways, on how young people are able (or unable) to use their powers as students, part-time workers and members of social groups, to adapt to changing and highly locally variable market conditions. These trends, it is argued, may explain take-up and outcome patterns in NDYP. The paper concludes that there is a serious question as to whether it can ever 'lift' the most marginalized groups out of exclusion, and that such schemes may be positively inimical to doing so, particularly if they become 'joined up' with policies that criminalize young people who are regarded as being at risk. In this sense, the (characteristically US) economic case for welfare-to-work schemes does not accord with the (characteristically European) social case for inclusion through relief of poverty and honouring rights of citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the policy community has been paying particular attention to Local Exchange and Trading Schemes (LETS) as potential bridges into work for the unemployed. Up until now, however, there has only been piecemeal evidence on whether LETS are effective in this regard. In this paper, therefore, the full results of the first comprehensive evaluation of LETS are reported. In order to feed into the 'evidence-based policy-making' process, we evaluate whether LETS are effective first, as bridges into employment, second, as bridges into self-employment and, third and finally, at building reciprocal exchange networks. Our finding is that although LETS provide an indirect bridge into employment by improving employability, they are most effective as seedbeds for the development of self-employed business ventures and as vehicles for facilitating exchange beyond employment. For LETS to become more effective bridges into work for a wider range of the unemployed, nevertheless, a number of barriers to participation need to be tackled. The paper concludes by outlining how this could be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper casts a deliberately critical eye over the government's 'community safety' proposals as outlined in the UK Crime and Disorder Act 1998, their philosophical origins, their ambiguities and their potential for social exclusion. After an evaluation of some specific proposals in the Act, the paper goes on to suggest that community safety elements within the Act and associated policy initiatives embody three principal dynamics, namely appeals to community, managerialism and inter-organisational partnerships. Within and between these dynamics lie deep ambiguities and conflicts, which may encourage, rather than hold back, the dynamics of social exclusion. It is argued that the government's proposals — under the influence of a certain brand of communitarian thought — display much confusion as to how 'communities' can contribute to the construction of social order. Moreover, the notion of community collides with existing social fragmentation and the commodification of security, which may fuel exclusionary elements of community safety practice. The paper goes on to consider the existence of important tensions between the managerialist preoccupations of policy and the rhetoric of partnerships', which pervade community safety. These can serve to undermine the intentions of legislators. Within the dynamics of crime prevention practice and appeals to 'community' there are dangers that 'security differentials' become increasingly significant characteristics of wealth and status. For community safety to hold back the dynamics of social exclusion, both government and local community salty practitioners will need to foster the conditions in which partnerships can flourish and to nurture forms of co-operation, rooted in mutual acceptance of difference and inter-organisational trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prison system which we have at present in England and Wales is less than perfect. It costs the taxpayer almost £2 billion each year. There is ambivalence about the extent to which it protects society and contributes to crime prevention. The conditions in which prisoners are held are frequently described as being either too austere or too luxurious. One has to ask to what extent the traditional model of imprisonment remains relevant at the end of the 20th century. Over the last 200 years, the stocks, public execution and transportation have been removed from our criminal justice system. To what extent does the notion of imprisonment remain relevant as we move towards the 21st Century? This paper considers possible options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In opposition the Labour Party flagged youth justice as the likely core of their criminal justice efforts should they be elected to government. The first 15 months of the Labour Government were a frenzy of activity in this area culminating in the passage of the UK Crime and Disorder Act. The Act represents the most radical overhaul of youth justice since the Second World War. This paper considers New Labour youth justice policy and examines its origins and the key influences on its development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to review, from a TEC perspective, the effect of changing Conservative Government policies in the 1990s, such as the introduction of Business Links, on local economic development strategies. The paper focuses on the effects of the Government's attempt to vest in TECs the role of local strategists; the subsequent imposition of a prescriptive funding regime; and how policy delivery has increasingly encompassed a networked approach. It is shown that the approach adopted by TECs, based on developing institutional networks with other partners, has suffered in many circumstances due to the Governmental restrictions placed on them, in particular the necessity to constrict activities to arenas that are often overly localised. A key outcome of the reduction in TEC budgets and the introduction of a funding regime based on a bidding process has been to limit the ability and capacity of TECs to tackle economic development on their own. This has resulted in the concept of networking, through the generation of local partnerships, becoming an even more important component within the economic development landscape. It is argued that better co-ordination and closer collaboration within the bidding-related bureaucracy is required, in particular that surrounding the Single Regeneration Budget. Government should take greater responsibility for funding projects based on sound and long-term objectives, rather than an over fascination with prescribing funds towards short-term 'flavour of the month' initiatives. It is argued that there is a need to move away from satisfying the rigidities of national evaluation models and the accompanying arbitrary and short-sighted criteria as to what actually constitutes the success or failure of an initiative or project. It is concluded that if TECs and/or Business Links are to be sustainable there is a need for consolidating and introducing some transparency to the current system of local economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of established parliamentary contexts highlight institutional barriers to mainstreaming equality of opportunity in public policy-making. In contrast, this paper uses an actor-centred institutionalist perspective to explore the case of the new devolved legislatures in the UK purposively designed with mechanisms to broaden engagement in the policy process. It assesses progress in applying the participative-democratic model of mainstreaming to policy-making. The findings – based upon analysis of legislative proceedings and equality and human rights organisations' accounts – reveal that ‘system openness’ has afforded opportunities to engage in – and influence – policy work. Yet, problems and shortcomings are also identified – signifying a ‘disconnect’ between the rhetoric and reality of mainstreaming at the meso-level – and continuity with the pre-existing policy style in UK governance. The wider significance of this is that potential gains afforded by the adoption of mainstreaming in legislative settings purposively designed to foster the engagement of exogenous interests can be negated by leadership issues and government failure to secure the full range of pre-requisites prescribed by mainstreaming theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telework as a 'flexible work practice' is often mythologised as a revolutionary form of work. However, to varying degrees, teleworking opportunities have been undermined by policy instruments predicated on assumed equalities between economic actors. This research suggests that while the request-based policies in the UK are not a guaranteed right, they do provide an important basis for employees to internalise their 'rights' and initiate a process for flexible working arrangements. They also imbue a corresponding obligation of firms to consider delivering on those expectations. By contrast Australian privilege-based policy instruments particularly restrict access for those employed in precarious and unskilled areas of the economy. Drawing on international and national telework policy approaches, this paper reflects on tensions between what could be described as 'rights' and 'privilege' policy approaches to teleworking. It argues that if telework is to become a legitimate employee expectation, policy instruments in Australia must be based firmly on rights, rather than privileges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's services in England are undergoing the most radical transformation since 1948 following the Every Child Matters Green Paper and the subsequent Children Act of 2004. One of the new legislative requirements is for each locality to produce a Children and Young Person's Strategic Plan that will demonstrate how the new arrangements will be put into effect. This article explores this new obligation and assesses the extent to which it is likely to be effective. It looks at previous planning experiences in this field, examines the new context, and considers the extent to which a top-down implementation model can be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role that supplier diversity initiatives can play in opening up market opportunities for ethnic minority businesses (EMBs). EMBs have long been encouraged to diversify from inauspicious 'low value' niches; for some, the prospect of contracts with public and private sector organisations could serve as a means of facilitating this process. The advent of the Race Relations Amendment Act provides a legislative stimulus for diversity in public sector procurement. The 'corporate social responsibility' agenda, ostensibly embraced by many leading firms, provides a further impetus to re-assess diversity issues in respect of procurement. Case studies of two types of supplier diversity initiatives are drawn upon to inform this assessment: purchaser initiatives, from both the public and private sector; and intermediary or business-to-business brokerage type initiatives that attempt to facilitate the access of EMBs to potential contract opportunities. It is clear that such initiatives are at an early stage of development, and have to operate within legislative and political constraints. Nonetheless, there is still scope for the development of progressive measures; this is explored in the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK government has committed itself to building a high skills future for the UK. However, despite widespread use of terms such as the 'knowledge economy', 'the high skills society' and 'the learning society', there remains much confusion as to the kind of economy or society different commentators are actually aiming at. The paper seeks to add clarity to current debates by mapping the various visions to emerge from three key groupings: (i) government and 'social actors', (ii) those writing from an educationalist background and (iii) those coming from a broadly industrial relations tradition. By highlighting the confusion, tensions and contradictions that exist, it soon becomes clear that high skills are far from being the consensual policy option they initially appear. It is only by opening up these issues that we can appreciate the different aims that exist at the centre of the UK skills debate and begin to confront the real political choices available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most significant changes in the British family structure in the last few decades is the growth in the number of families headed by a lone parent. This paper begins exploring the singular growth and characteristics of lone-parent families in Britain within the European context. Secondly, it highlights the political and social debates resulting from the different interpretations of the figures. Finally, it reviews the evidence that supports the current public response to lone-parents' needs. New policy directions assume that the lack of jobs among lone parents is a matter of barriers to employment, and therefore they try to develop bridges to overcome them. This policy is not neutral, as it encourages lone parents to give priority to their responsibilities as income providers through paid work. The dilemmas and questions that this policy raises are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an analysis of conceptual and operational issues surrounding 'race'related positive action strategies in Britain and connects these with broader concerns about difference and universality. Two case studies - of developments in housing and in media representation - are examined to asses the extent, nature and impact of positive action strategies. Here limited success of 'old-style' positive action is shown in relation to programme goals. Our evaluation is exploratory and there is a need to develop further research and an effective evaluation methodology. The paper then looks beyond the immediate successes and limitations of positive action strategies, to consider the implications of increasing recognition of differentiation, and increasingly particularistic claims, in a context of ethnic and experiential diversity. Positive action strategies are by no means unproblematic in a climate where there are pressures to respond to differences of culture, gender, age, ethnicity, impairment or sexual orientation. Universalistic programmes and standards retain considerable merit in such a context, and the 'fit' between these and positive action strategies may be crucial. In addition, attention to organizational goals and needs, organizational change and the 'compelling interest' to actively respond to continuing patterns of discrimination are highlighted as key issues for the practice agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to assess advice and information support for firms provided by the Small Business Service (SBS) Business Link. It uses a new survey of client use, satisfaction and experience of service fees. The general level of satisfaction with and use of the service is high: 28 per cent of all respondents use the services and 82.6 per cent are satisfied or very satisfied. However, levels of use and satisfaction vary considerably between areas, with 13 Business Link local 'hubs' accounting for 40 per cent of the dissatisfied or very dissatisfied respondents. In addition, there is also strong variation in satisfaction between services, with grants, diagnostic assessment, financial and accounting advice having low ratings. Charging a fee has been claimed by the SBS to improve the client's sense of value of the services received. Fees are currently charged for services in 37.3 per cent of cases. However, there is little positive association of fee charging with satisfaction, whilst for four services charging a fee decreases satisfaction. It is concluded that the SBS has many strengths to build upon, but will need to introduce a step change in performance in some areas and some services, and should reconsider its commitment to using fees as a means of creating a sense of value among its clients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the sub-national diversity in activation quasi-markets in the United Kingdom (UK). Through comparison of four active labour market programmes in Great Britain and Northern Ireland between 2008 and 2014, the article clarifies and maps intra-UK diversity in employment service governance and unpacks the shifting configurations of market structures in each jurisdiction to reveal a temporally and spatially distinct patterning of marketisation. Drawing on Gingrich's approach to analysis and classification of quasi-market variation, the article proposes that between 2008 and 2014, Great Britain rapidly evolved a provider-directed activation market. In contrast, the activation market structure in Northern Ireland, up to late 2014, is better characterised as state directed. A recent reconfiguration of the activation market in Northern Ireland does however indicate some (modified) convergence on Great Britain's approach. One common and consistent feature of the configuration of activation markets in each jurisdiction is the few powers given to direct users of employment services to shape contracted out provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governance is a form of statecraft used to work through networks. A complementary perspective to governance is depoliticization which considers statecraft under neoliberalism. This article argues that depoliticization is a way of practicing governance. Depoliticization techniques can be understood as institutional, societal, or discursive and each technique is associated with a particular style of governance. Case studies of government efforts to revive nuclear power in Britain and the United States [US] through governance are used to consider the argument and extend the literature on depoliticization. Evidence is presented that a failure to realize policy goals through governance may be due to the use of inappropriate techniques of depoliticization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how "resilience" appeared and became embedded as a keyword in Arts Council England's (ACE) policy discourse from 2010, initially in response to the financial crisis in Britain and the government's call for austerity. The general dynamic of what we call policy keywords here is thereby exemplified, while throwing light on Arts policy making at a specific historical juncture in Britain. Some of the features of such policy keywords are considered here: in terms of connotative ambiguities and associations, definitions, and naming or branding practices. Their distinctive purchase in ACE's "resilience" policies is analysed in the process. The policies were designed to reduce public spending by appealing to normative agendas which, in this instance, seemed contingent on a larger and immediate impetus and were derived from the field of "ecological economics". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of policy termination is regaining currency as governments reassess policy commitments and budgets amidst the global financial and economic crisis. What factors affect the decision to terminate a specific policy? Are some policies more susceptible to termination than others? This article addresses these questions using a case study of regional policy in England where, following a change in UK government in 2010, the institutional and policy basis for regional economic policy has been overhauled. It assesses whether these changes amount to a case of policy termination and explores the factors that have influenced policy change. Based on one of the few non-US cases, it tests the validity of theoretical frameworks that have been employed for analysing, categorising and explaining policy termination and draws conclusions on the power of these frameworks to account sufficiently for the processes of policy change observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dangers associated with the use of tobacco products have been documented extensively in the literature on public health and tobacco control. As a result, various countries, including subcentral units in federations and other devolved political systems, have adopted policies to control tobacco consumption. This article examines the effects lesson-drawing had on the adoption of restrictive secondhand smoke policies in Scotland and England in 2006 and 2007. Using elite interviews and documentary sources, the study finds that in both countries secondhand smoke policies were influenced by the adoption of similar policies in other English-speaking jurisdictions, especially the nearby Republic of Ireland. In turn, the adoption of a non-smoking policy in Scotland influenced England. This confirms Castles' (1993) claim of similar policies developing in the English-speaking 'family of nations' even at different levels of government. Policy transfer from Ireland to the United Kingdom is highly unusual, as is lesson-drawing from another jurisdiction within the United Kingdom to England. This may have occurred because the policy is fundamentally declaratory but with some need for compliance checks that are not resource-intensive. This path of lesson-drawing may be rare in the United Kingdom, but it may have broader implications for different types of lesson-drawing in multilevel governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The British government has placed the extension of school choice at the centre of its education reform programme for its third term in office. Those promoting choice make an appeal to a simple economic argument. Competitive pressure helps make private firms more efficient and consumer choice acts as a major drive for efficiency. Giving parents the ability to choose applies competitive pressure to schools and, analogously with private markets, it is assumed they will raise their game to attract business. This article subjects this assumption to the scrutiny provided by the theoretical and empirical economic evidence on school choice, and then uses the evidence to examine the potential impact of current policies to extend choice being proposed by the Labour government. The key question we address is whether policies that extend choice will improve educational outcomes and, if so, under what circumstances. We reach three main conclusions. First, increasing school choice will create losers as well as winners. Second, flexibility in the supply of school places is crucial to the success of a policy to extend school choice. Third, the role of peer groups partly determines the effects of school choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews national media ownership regulation in the UK. It places the UK's regime in an international context, showing it to be less onerous than some comparable countries and more onerous than others, and in a historical context, examining the changing configuration of UK media ownership and regulation. It assesses the economic and cultural effects of UK national media ownership regulation and identifies differences in and between some recent UK government policy documents on this subject (including the Draft Communications Bill of 2002). The article identifies national ownership regulation as applying only in the broadcasting sector and this sector is compared with others, notably film, newspapers and telecommunications. The dominant theme in UK government policy is identified as one of removal of national ownership regulation and, should government and parliament choose to frame the Communications Bill accordingly, an alternative method of promoting national cultural and economic goals in the broadcasting sector is identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successive UK governments have a long history of making statements on the 'women and science' issue. If their aim of increasing the number of women in science is to be realized, both overall and at different occupational and educational levels, there needs to be an understanding that the issue needs to be disaggregated into different phases. Women's representation in scientific employment comprises at least four phases: qualifying, entry/overall recruitment, retention and advancement. Focusing on the UK, evidence is presented of these four phases, and it is argued that each phase has different policy implications as well as different data requirements. Furthermore the case is put forward that an acceptance that retention and advancement are the key issues requiring change implies a research and policy focus on scientific institutions and structures, rather than just on agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New Labour government is committed to the piloting and evaluation of its welfare to work policies prior to full national implementation. An example is the Personal Adviser component of its New Deal for Disabled People, which aims to increase levels of paid employment and employability among disabled people of working age. Taking the Personal Adviser pilots as a case study, the article discusses issues that arise when designing policy evaluations to inform national policy decisions and implementation, including randomisation, discrepant timescales, and 'cherry picking'. Whether the new relationship between British politicians and policy evaluators can continue to blossom is debatable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence-based policy in relation to crime, as in other policy areas, is all the rage. It looks like plain common sense. Yet getting good evidence to policy and policy to good evidence faces an uphill struggle. Ideology is important in any consideration of crime and crime policy, limiting the potential of hard evidence. Common sense ideas about crime are also powerful influences on policy, and they are not easily overturned by research evidence, which may contradict them. Even where there is space for research to impact on policy and practice, it can easily mislead, if treated uncritically and unreflectively. Much research is technically weak. Single studies that appear to be methodologically sound can generate findings that subsequent investigations contradict. Programmes shown by evaluation studies to work in one context may not work in another. It is often not clear what it is about a programme which has worked and hence what needs to be replicated to produce the same effects. Yet, there are examples of studies, and series of studies, yielding valid and useable policy-relevant findings. Examples relating to property marking and to repeat victimization and its prevention are given. Ways in which members of the policy-making and research communities can facilitate the appropriate production and use of evidence in policy-development and practice are suggested. More generally, evidence-based policy calls for a more policy-literate research community, and a more research-literate policy community. Policy-making, however, can and should be informed by more than research evidence alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the provisions for the sentencing of dangerous offenders in the context of phenological justification and historical development in Great Britain. Impact of the absence of rationality on due process and human rights issues; Suggestion of improving structures and review procedures; Evaluation of phenological justifications and policy development.

Focuses on the impact of increasingly restrictionist policies for asylum seekers and refugees on social housing provision in Great Britain. Examination of the pragmatic restructuring of housing provision; Establishment of persecutory regime of social exclusion; Accounts on the standards of humanitarian response.

Presents the views of the Chief Executives of Self-Governing Trusts on the benefits and disadvantages of reforms in the National Health Service in Great Britain. Context of the Internal Market aspect of the reform; Reason for the care facility opting-out of health authority control; Factors to the perceived problems of the Internal Market.

In recent years there has been much policy interest in the development of social investment initiatives. Many such proposals depend upon third sector organisations (TSOs) loaning working capital in order to bridge gaps in cash flow. Existing studies on the willingness of TSOs to borrow have tended to used selective samples, which may have led to an exaggeration of market demand. This article explores, with reference to robust evidence on the attitudes and behaviours of representative samples of TSOs from the Third Sector Trends Study in Northern England, the extent of interest in borrowing for a range of purposes including to buy or upgrade property, buy equipment or facilities, or borrow working capital. The article makes observations on current and future market demand for loans in light of the way that TSO leaders’ balance their dependence on given, earned and borrowed money. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study draws upon communicative processes in policy transfer to consider the ways in which policy may be adapted to context or distorted. The theoretical framework is used to investigate exactly what the South Korean government borrowed from UK social enterprise policy. Despite claims that the UK was the source of both the general policy direction and the particular regulatory device, the Korean government did not learn about the specific contexts of the British policy, nor attempt two-way communication with domestic stakeholders. Rather, the UK policy was interpreted in accordance with the Korean government’s own ideas about how to utilize social enterprise. Historical legacies of top-down decision-making played an important role in this process, as did the state’s role as a regulator which mobilizes the private sector to achieve policy goals. The consequences have been negative for those organizations refused social enterprise status under the Ministry of Labor’s strict approval system, as well as for the original target population: the socially disadvantaged and vulnerable. It is suggested that the model advanced may help to illuminate the reasons why some borrowed policies differ considerably from the originals, and the use of policy transfer as a means of legitimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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, ortransgovernmental, 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. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Better Regulation is a re-regulatory strategy that has unfolded in Britain (and, of course, beyond, through Europe and the OECD) across the past decade. This article beings by setting out some quantitative indicators of trends in national and local enforcement in three key areas of protective regulation – food hygiene and food safety, workers’ health and safety, and pollution control – from 2003/2004 to 2012/2013. It then goes on, in its main sections, to detail some of the ways Better Regulation under conditions of austerity has worked through at the level of local enforcement via a case study of four Merseyside Local Authorities; in so doing, it draws principally upon qualitative insights from a series of interviews, as well as data gleaned from a further series of Freedom of Information requests. In so doing, it considers how, on the ground, Better Regulation is made. It concludes that Better Regulation appears less about ‘better’ regulation, more about business-friendly regulation with diminishing law enforcement. There is good reason to suggest that regulatory functions will likely be increasingly re-cast as part ofgrowthinitiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a critical evaluation of recent ‘active labour market policy’ (ALMP) initiatives in the UK, focusing on the coalition government's Work Programme and its immediate antecedents. ALMP exemplifies a supply-side employment strategy, reorienting the state away from supporting labour demand and towards promoting the ‘employability’ of individuals within existing labour market structures. The article locates the rationale for this policy agenda within the wider politics of economic growth. Belying its status as a pioneer of ALMP, the UK spends very little on supply-side labour market interventions relative to other European countries. This can be explained with reference to the type of ALMP interventions prioritised in the UK, which in turn is explained by the growth model that ALMP is designed to sustain. The UK's growth model requires an abundance of low-paid jobs in the labour-intense and volatile services sector. Ostensibly, ALMP fulfils this requirement by ensuring that individuals are immediately available for work, marginalising concerns about pay and job quality. Moreover, ALMP also serves to inculcate the desirability of certain behaviours at the individual level. The coalition government's approach demonstrates an intensification rather than transformation of previous practice, indicative of its support for resurrecting the UK's pre-crisis growth model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, qualitative researchers are framing the relationship between qualitative case studies and quantitative evaluation research in positivist terms, seeking dialogue with quantitative researchers on the basis that qualitative case studies hold the potential to develop theory for evaluation programmes and to improve the quality of quantitative research. In the UK health policy literature, however, recent evaluations of major government programmes of reform have been conducted under largely quantitative and econometric strategies involving baskets of indicators, or routinely collected hospital statistics, set against the central stated aims of the programme: namely, to improve quality, efficiency, responsiveness, output and equity. For the wider evaluation literature, we detail the results of a qualitative case study of the impact of two key reforms, the 18 Week Patient Pathway and Payment by Results, on four English hospitals, demonstrating the value of the positivist frame to evaluation research based on its capacity to improve understandings of cause and effect and to direct quantitative researchers towards better measures and data sets. For the UK health policy literature, we demonstrate the value of qualitative case studies to the policy process in terms of their potential to reduce the risks for serious policy mistakes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article focuses on the UK's Coalition Government's plans to abolish the discretionary Social Fund and replace it, at least in part, with Local Welfare Assistance (LWA). The article examines this proposal by locating LWA in debates about localism, the idea of which in policy terms unites the two political parties that make up the Coalition government. The article explores the Coalition government's approach to localism and debates about it, and related issues concerning autonomy, freedom and democracy. It then goes on to examine the reasons for the abolition of the discretionary Social Fund and the Coalition government's plans for LWA. The article notes that LWA is framed by a discourse related to the Coalition government's view of the importance of localised solutions to entrenched economic and social problems. However, it is argued, that in the case of ‘exceptional expenses’ provision, localism is equally, if not more, problematic than the Social Fund administered by central government. This is because the most problematic aspects of the Social Fund are to continue when LWA is introduced and these problems will be augmented by the difficulties that local politics bring to the relief of poverty. The article concludes that while it is difficult to differentiate whether the Coalition government is planning to localise ‘exceptional expenses’ support because of ideology or pragmatism, such a move is likely to have a detrimental impact on income poor people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raising the basic standards of competence achieved by school children has become a primary objective of governments across Europe. A high performing educational system is taken to be fundamental in achieving European economic competitiveness. Children leaving primary schools with difficulty in reading, writing and arithmetic or a meagre understanding of science are unlikely to achieve the qualifications at secondary school required to secure jobs that will raise them above a poverty line. On one hand, in England, the government has pioneered a radical school reform programme over the last 20 years, including national testing of school children at regular intervals. On the other, high stakes testing was pursued only partially and briefly in Scotland and Wales and then largely abandoned after devolution. National testing in the UK has been associated with increasingly marked divergent outcomes in the UK. This article focuses on the following central question: how far the divergent reform policies in England, Scotland and Wales reflect differences in social policy objectives and how far a very different understanding in the means of achieving them? Empirical findings point to the widening gap in educational attainments across the UK countries and highlight the critical situation in Scotland where test results have stagnated in the last 10 years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite economic growth and extensive labour market interventions, the employment disadvantage faced by ethnic minorities and migrants in the UK changed little under the previous Labour Government. Ethnic minorities and migrants in the UK are still significantly less likely to be in employment and are more likely to be unemployed than the majority white population. The key explanatory factors are often inter-connected and include: geographical deprivation; deindustrialisation; education; limited social capital; large families; inaccessible childcare; ill-health; ethnic penalties and discrimination; and restrictive asylum policies. That such employment disadvantage still exists in the UK suggests that the previous Labour Government's policies were insufficiently effective. This demands a new approach that increases the opportunities available to ethnic minorities and migrants to enable them to achieve labour market success. With this in mind, the UK's new Coalition Government should consider interventions that aim to level up employment opportunities for these groups by recognising that some labour market disadvantages are common across all ethnic groups, while others are more relevant for particular ethnic groups. The article focuses on Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Black Caribbeans, as well as asylum seekers and refugees, because they are some of the most disadvantaged ethnic and migrant groups in the UK. In doing so, it is important to recognise that the majority white population, the ethnic minority and migrant populations cannot be treated as separate homogeneous entities because the reality is much more nuanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out a detailed and realistic strategy for achieving the diversity in financial services to which the UK Government's Coalition Agreement is committed. Diversity of ownership types and business models creates a corresponding diversity in forms of corporate governance; risk appetite and management; incentive structures; policies and practices; and behaviours and outcomes. It also offers wider choice for consumers through enhanced competition that derives in part from the juxtaposition of different business models. However, the UK financial services sector is dominated disproportionately by a single business model, namely the large, shareholder-owned plc. This domination of the shareholder ownership model - whose purpose is to maximise financial returns to the shareholders - proved a lethal combination with the financial deregulation, the creation of new financial instruments and the concomitant rising levels of debt over the past 20 years. In a situation of uncertainty and unpredictability, we cannot know which model will prove to be superior in all possible future circumstances, so we ought to be rather cautious before destroying any successful model. The global economy is a complex system, and an important point about complexity is that many complex systems are intrinsically unpredictable, even if we know everything else about them. Thus, the problem is not just that the economic future is uncertain, but that it is fundamentally unpredictable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a time when more workless people in the UK are being mandated into highly conditional welfare to work programmes, this article engages with critiques of neoliberalism to argue that such policies cannot be shown to have a major impact on outcomes but are pursued for political reasons. Through a systematic review of the assumptions underpinning current welfare to work programmes in the UK, it is suggested that policy has increasingly been driven by a desire to embed a new consensus in which it is accepted that life should be shaped by work and that the unemployed have responsibility for tackling their own unemployment. This consensus marginalises the voice of the workless and wider criticisms of neo-liberalism and reduces the scope for oppositional political organisation. The analysis indicates three areas where contestation and broader study will be important in the future to protect the well-being of the unemployed. They are: welfare reform and the attempt to shape the whole welfare system to embed a work ethic; the demand side of the labour market including requirements on employers; and the empowerment of the unemployed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based learning delivers a diverse range of learning opportunities in community venues across the UK to all sections of society. Its outreach is extensive yet the sector is often overlooked by employability policy-makers and practitioners. Following the Leitch Review of Skills and the UK government's policy announcement to integrate more closely employment and skills services, this article aims to overcome this lack of recognition by first generating a pragmatic definition of community-based learning before highlighting the potentially significant role that it can play in supporting people to enter, sustain and progress in employment. Set within the UK policy context, the article draws on the findings of two Glasgow research studies into community-based learning to give a balanced assessment of the sector's contribution to the employability agenda. In highlighting both the benefits and the limitations of community-based learning to achieve employment outcomes, the article concludes with recommendations and potential areas for future research into how employment and community-based learning services could be more closely integrated to achieve stronger employment outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]