The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Mapping the New Deal: local disparities in the performance of Welfare-to-Work

Mapping the New Deal: local disparities in the performance of Welfare-to-Work
Mapping the New Deal: local disparities in the performance of Welfare-to-Work
In recent years, following the lead of the US, several OECD countries have introduced 'workfare' policies that link receipt of unemployment and related social benefits to compulsory participation on state-administered work and training schemes. The UK's New Deal (Welfare-to-Work) for Young People is one of the largest and most developed of these workfare programmes. Official evaluations of the UK's New Deal for Young People claim that it has been a national success, but overlook local variations in its results. This paper uses the Government's own performance measures, data on local unemployment flows, numbers of New Deal participants recycled through the scheme as second starts, and interviews with both local policy managers and participants, to demonstrate that these local variations have been substantial. These different indicators suggest that the programme has been noticeably less effective in many inner urban and depressed industrial labour markets. In such areas the 'recycling and churning' of participants through the programme are more significant, and suggest that local labour market structures play a significant role in shaping policy outcomes. The paper argues that recent additions to the New Deal to improve job search and matching fail to address this local variation, and that a longer-term approach is required that seeks to improve not only the employability of individuals, but also the local employment opportunities open to them. One key implication is clear: that local labour market conditions can exert a significant influence on the outcomes of national workfare type policies, not only in terms of geographical variations in the problem to be solved, but also in shaping and constraining the local nature of policy outcomes.
Britain, New Deal, youth unemployment, local labour markets, employability, workfare recycling
0020-2754
484-512
Sunley, Peter
a3efb579-965f-4f39-812e-9e07caf15afd
Martin, Ron
09d95774-40e0-4ec5-8510-b06968f58ec2
Nativel, Corinne
cc04cb0f-67e2-4012-9287-f81c4e79e586
Sunley, Peter
a3efb579-965f-4f39-812e-9e07caf15afd
Martin, Ron
09d95774-40e0-4ec5-8510-b06968f58ec2
Nativel, Corinne
cc04cb0f-67e2-4012-9287-f81c4e79e586

Sunley, Peter, Martin, Ron and Nativel, Corinne (2001) Mapping the New Deal: local disparities in the performance of Welfare-to-Work. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 26 (4), 484-512. (doi:10.1111/1475-5661.00036).

Record type: Article

Abstract

In recent years, following the lead of the US, several OECD countries have introduced 'workfare' policies that link receipt of unemployment and related social benefits to compulsory participation on state-administered work and training schemes. The UK's New Deal (Welfare-to-Work) for Young People is one of the largest and most developed of these workfare programmes. Official evaluations of the UK's New Deal for Young People claim that it has been a national success, but overlook local variations in its results. This paper uses the Government's own performance measures, data on local unemployment flows, numbers of New Deal participants recycled through the scheme as second starts, and interviews with both local policy managers and participants, to demonstrate that these local variations have been substantial. These different indicators suggest that the programme has been noticeably less effective in many inner urban and depressed industrial labour markets. In such areas the 'recycling and churning' of participants through the programme are more significant, and suggest that local labour market structures play a significant role in shaping policy outcomes. The paper argues that recent additions to the New Deal to improve job search and matching fail to address this local variation, and that a longer-term approach is required that seeks to improve not only the employability of individuals, but also the local employment opportunities open to them. One key implication is clear: that local labour market conditions can exert a significant influence on the outcomes of national workfare type policies, not only in terms of geographical variations in the problem to be solved, but also in shaping and constraining the local nature of policy outcomes.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: December 2001
Keywords: Britain, New Deal, youth unemployment, local labour markets, employability, workfare recycling

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 38407
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/38407
ISSN: 0020-2754
PURE UUID: e2a72eab-a4b7-4dae-9ed7-646093933843
ORCID for Peter Sunley: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4803-5299

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 08 Jun 2006
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:36

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Peter Sunley ORCID iD
Author: Ron Martin
Author: Corinne Nativel

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×