Reducing unemployment – a simple blueprint
The UK’s Chancellor is forecasting unemployment will reach double digits (up from under 4% in March 2020), but what are his plans for reversing this social and economic catastrophe? Once we emerge from our shelters, it is entirely possible to help more people find jobs again more quickly (and speed recovery) and it is not … Continue reading
The time bomb of work distancing
The economic impact of Covid-19 will include a significant rise in unemployment. Recovery from the spike in unemployment will be slow, meaning the unemployment becomes long-term. One of the lessons from employment programmes around the world is that distance from work increases over time – the longer someone is unemployed, the harder it becomes to … Continue reading
The Kabul model
The Ministry of Labour Social Affairs Martyrs & Disabled (MoLSAMD) in Afghanistan (the equivalent of DWP in the UK or DEEWR in Australia), with technical assistance from the World Bank, are about to begin the contracting of two pilot employment programmes. One aims to open up a formal migration channel for thousands of Afghanistan workers … Continue reading
Incendiary Procurement
Whatever the enquiry finds, it is without doubt that Grenfell Tower went up like a dry stick because its refurbishment was procured at least in part on the basis of price. If the same fire had started in one of the gleaming new blocks in London’s docklands, it would not have spread. The people buying … Continue reading
They made their bed
The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) have just commenced buying the new Work and Health Programme. This will replace the existing Work Programme, which has run since the coalition government came to power. It will be the layer of services, contracted out mainly to private sector ‘welfare to work’ providers, that is intended to … Continue reading
Insights from Within
In this special guest blog, we hear from Bill Wells in response to Richard’s recent piece on changing the way children’s services are commissioned. Bill Wells worked in DWP, BIS, and its labour market predecessors, for over 35 years. As a labour market economist he has a national and international reputation. During this time he had … Continue reading
Dos and Don’ts from Down Under
In the late nineties, as Blair and co were rolling out the New Deals and experimenting with contestability at the edges of Jobcentre Plus, the Australians were outsourcing their Commonwealth Employment Service in its entirety. The two countries have watched each other closely ever since. With roughly similar welfare systems, we keep looking to the … Continue reading
Quality performance in refugee management???
The UK government will never accept an EU refugee quota. However, we have already seen how the public cry of horror at a drowning child can soften a political heart, and draw out a commitment to take more displaced people. This commitment includes targeting those with arguably the highest level of need, in camps closest … Continue reading
Against Fatalism
Can progressive policy be good politics? Last week the Centre for American Progress published a report, Creating Inclusive Prosperity, informally subtitled ‘Against Fatalism’. It is the culmination of a two-year long commission into the ‘defining issue of our generation’. That is that underwhelming growth, wage stagnation and increasing inequality is a toxic cocktail with profound … Continue reading
No worries mate! (As long as you don’t want to eat)
If people in the UK think the government aren’t tough enough on unemployed benefit claimants, they should look to Australia for ideas. But they should be very careful what they wish for. There is a virulent stream of political rhetoric in Australia, feeding and fed by public opinion, suggesting that benefit claimants are nothing but … Continue reading
Buying Quality Performance 