Colin Lindsay
Biographic Data
| ID | 262912 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Colin Lindsay |
| GIVEN NAMES | Colin |
| FAMILY NAME | Lindsay |
| SIGNATURE | LINDSAY C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Edinburgh Napier University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5087-3358 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 420 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Co‐Producing Employee Engagement Approaches in a Workplace Partnership
While employee engagement might enhance staff wellbeing alongside organisational performance, delivering mutual gains can be challenging. This article assesses co‐production as a route to engagement in a public health workplace, and finds that co‐produced engagement strategies and mutual gains outcomes are possible where underpinned by genuinely collaborative organisational governance arrangements
Status Precarity, Ontological Insecurity and the Wellbeing of Children in Families With Precarious Immigration Status in Scotland
Migration policy in the United Kingdom continues to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable forms of migration, using increasingly punitive policy provisions designed to make life unliveable for those outside narrowing frames of acceptability. Part of this policy involves broadening and deepening precarious forms of status while denying routes to permanence to those considered less desirable. This includes many families with children. Alt…
Fundamental causation and candidacy
This paper aims to better understand how structural determinants of health inequalities shape disengagement from healthcare for vulnerable groups across a range of social conditions. Using a sub-sample (N = 20) from a qualitative interview UK study of those missing from primary-care, it illuminates how structural drivers of health inequalities operate at organisational and practice levels to weaken engagement with primary-care. Finding ways of be…
Relational approaches to employability
As policymakers consider how best to respond to increased labour market volatility in post-Covid-19 economies, there is concern that vulnerable groups such as lone parents may be left behind, and consensus that we need to develop more responsive and person-centred approaches to employability. Drawing on Cottam’s (2011, 2018) work on ‘relational welfare’, and the principles of the capabilities approach that underly it, this article discusses the e…
Empowering Lone Parents to Progress towards Employability
Policymakers in liberal welfare states like the UK have prioritised extending the reach of compulsory activation to target vulnerable jobseeker groups, such as lone parents. However, such interventions - especially when combined with intensified welfare conditionality - appear to have had limited positive effects on lone parents' employability, while often negatively impacting wellbeing. This article argues that the problem is a disconnect betwee…
Collaborative innovation and activation in urban labour markets
Policymakers in the UK, having long supported centralised and marketised models of governance and delivery in the field of labour market activation, have recently begun to acknowledge the benefits of more localised, collaborative approaches to organising public services. Evidence from other European welfare states suggests that the case in favour of localised innovation may be particularly compelling in urban labour markets, where there can be po…
Collaborative Innovation in Labor Market Inclusion
This article deploys the concept of “collaborative innovation” to discuss key stakeholders’ and service users' experiences of innovative labor market inclusion services. We draw on work by Sørensen and Torfing (2011, 2016, 2017) to frame collaborative innovation as a distinctive approach to the coproduction of services that respond to user needs, and highlight the importance of governance and leadership practices that foster mutual learning and b…
Co‐production and social innovation in street‐level employability services
The United Kingdom, as an exemplar liberal welfare state, has been characterized as in the vanguard of “work‐first” activation – deploying high levels of compulsion and standardized employability services that seek to move people from welfare to work as quickly as possible. However, despite the extension of welfare conditionality to excluded groups such as lone parents, government‐led, work‐first employability programmes have often proved ineffec…
Street-level practice and the co-production of third sector-led employability services
Policymakers have promised a personalised approach to improving the employability of disadvantaged groups. The evidence suggests that contracted-out activation programmes in the UK and some other welfare states have instead sometimes delivered a standardised ‘work-first’ model. An alternative approach is exemplified in local employability services targeting lone parents in Scotland, led by third sector–public sector partnerships. Our research on …
Collaborative Innovation, New Technologies, and Work Redesign
Stakeholders agree on the need to promote innovation in work organization in public services. This article deploys the concept of collaborative innovation to discuss employees' and managers' experiences of a major technology‐driven work redesign project within National Health Service pharmacy services in Scotland. The authors draw on extant literature on New Public Management (NPM) and collaborative approaches to innovation to frame more than 40 …
Employer Choice and Job Quality
This article examines employer choice in relation to job quality (JQ). Acknowledging the important role of market, institutional, and technological constraints, the authors highlight the role of employer agency in shaping JQ by reporting on an employer-led service redesign initiative in hospital pharmacy services in Scotland. This redesign initiative aimed at upskilling employees and redirecting their work effort toward high value-added, patient-…
Assessing the Evidence Base on Health, Employability and the Labour Market – Lessons for Activation in the UK
This article draws on the research of authors participating in this Special Issue, as well as a broader evidence review on how health, disability, labour market inequalities and other factors contribute to high levels of disability benefit ( DB ) claiming among certain communities. We argue that the evidence points to a complex combination of factors feeding into high levels of DB claiming in the UK and beyond, namely: geographical concentrations…
Introduction
Employability, Poverty and the Spheres of Sociability – Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey
Policymakers in the UK and beyond have sought to promote interventions to encourage social capital‐building among disadvantaged groups. One specific concern is that those with limited access to social capital/social network relationships will be at greater risk of experiencing both unemployment and poverty. By analyzing longitudinal data from the B ritish H ousehold P anel S urvey ( BHPS ), we seek to identify significant relationships between po…
Personalization and Street‐level Practice in Activation
This article discusses factors shaping street‐level caseworkers' role in the ‘personalization’ of activation for people with employability and health‐related barriers to work. Rice's (2013) micro‐institutionalist framework understands street‐level bureaucracy as being defined across three levels: interactions between caseworkers and clients; the environment of the implementing organization that shapes, and is shaped by, these interactions; and th…
The ‘New Public Governance’ and Employability Services in an Era of Crisis
Third sector organizations ( TSOs ) have emerged as key players in the delivery of public services to assist jobless people to improve their employability and move from welfare to work. Drawing on in‐depth research with employability providers in Scotland, this article explores how TSOs have responded to the challenges of a rapidly changing public services environment. Specifically, we use the concept of the ‘New Public Governance’ to explore TSO…
Promoting healthy pathways to employability
The coalition government has implemented welfare-to-work policies strengthening the UK's Work First model of activating claimants of disability or incapacity benefits (IBs). These reforms abolished the Condition Management Programme (CMP) established under the preceding government's Pathways to Work (PtW) initiative to assist people on IBs to cope with health problems. We argue that IB claimants face complex health limitations, and a renewal of C…
Promoting Healthy Routes Back to Work? Boundary Spanning Health Professionals and Employability Programmes in Great Britain
Between 2003 and 2011, the Pathways to Work (PtW) initiative was established across Great Britain, as policymakers sought to address the ‘health‐related, personal and external barriers’ faced by people who were out of work and claiming incapacity benefits (IBs). In the first 18 districts that PtW was rolled‐out, the Public Employment Service (Jobcentre Plus) and National Health Service (NHS) organizations worked in partnership to deliver ‘conditi…
Ageing, skills and participation in work-related training in Britain
Policy makers have introduced a number of measures to encourage older workers to stay in the labour market, with improving access to training a particular priority. Policy action appeared justified by evidence that older workers are less likely to participate in training, and more likely to have never been offered training by employers - a key finding of Taylor and Urwin's (2001) review of Labour Force Survey (LFS) data from 1997. This article mo…
Fit for Purpose? Welfare Reform and Challenges for Health and Labour Market Policy in the UK
In the UK, as in some other EU states, the focus of recent welfare reforms has switched from those on unemployment benefits to those receiving sickness/incapacity benefits (IBs), reflecting concerns around the large numbers falling into the this last group. The Labour government elected in 1997 introduced a range of measures to activate those on IBs, setting a target of a one million reduction in the number of claimants by the end of 2015. The Co…
Employability through health? Partnership-based governance and the delivery of Pathways to Work condition management services
The Pathways to Work (PtW) initiative has been rolled out in 49 Jobcentre Plus districts across Great Britain as the government seeks to provide services to activate claimants of incapacity benefits and help them overcome health-related barriers to work. The recent expansion of PtW has seen a heavy reliance on the contracting-out of services to the private and third sectors, with ‘Lead Providers’ paid according to job outcomes achieved for client…
Fit for work? Health, employability and challenges for the UK welfare reform agenda
TEST 02 - Elsevier's Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities fields
Delivering Employability in a Vanguard ‘Active’ Welfare State
Denmark has been regularly cited as a leading example of the ‘active’ welfare state. Regional and local governance and delivery structures have been crucial to the implementation of Denmark's strategies to improve the employability of unemployed people. In this paper we trace the development, implementation, and effectiveness of regional and local labour-market structures in Denmark, particularly focusing on the country's largest region—Greater C…
In a Lonely Place? Social Networks, Job Seeking and the Experience of Long-Term Unemployment
Combating long-term unemployment remains a central strand of policies to promote social and labour market inclusion. One area of increasing concern is that the long-term unemployed (and especially those residing in disadvantaged communities) can find themselves isolated from the diverse social networks that can contribute to effective job seeking. This article draws on interviews conducted with 220 job seekers in two areas of high unemployment wi…
New Governance and the Case of Activation Policies
This article explores the importance of new forms of governance in active labour market policies (activation) in two countries: Denmark and the Netherlands. Drawing on research with key stakeholders in these countries, we analyse how new governance, and particularly processes of contracting‐out and localization, have found expression in recent reforms to activation. We conclude that localization and contracting‐out may have a future role to play …
The Concept of Employability
The concept of 'employability' plays a crucial role in informing labour market policy in the UK, the EU and beyond. This paper analyses current and previous applications of the term and discusses its value as an exploratory concept and a framework for policy analysis. It then traces the development of the concept, discusses its role in current labour market and training strategies (with particular reference to the UK) and seeks to identify an app…
Personalization and Street‐level Practice in Activation
This article discusses factors shaping street‐level caseworkers' role in the ‘personalization’ of activation for people with employability and health‐related barriers to work. Rice's (2013) micro‐institutionalist framework understands street‐level bureaucracy as being defined across three levels: interactions between caseworkers and clients; the environment of the implementing organization that shapes, and is shaped by, these interactions; and th…
New Approaches to Employability in the UK
This article analyses recent developments in policies to promote the employability of unemployed and economically inactive people in the UK. It discusses the extent to which these policies reflect the dominant approaches of 'Work First', where programmes focus mainly on compulsory job search and short-term interventions to facilitate a quick return to work, or human capital development (HCD), where programmes tailor services to promote longer-ter…
Avoiding the 'McJobs
Service employment plays an increasingly important role in the UK economy. However, it has been suggested that some forms of service work are unattractive for many unemployed job seekers, and particularly those formerly employed in 'traditional' sectors. The argument has been made that these job seekers and others may be reluctant to pursue the type of positions that have become known as 'McJobs' - de-skilled, entry-level service jobs which often…
The ‘New Public Governance’ and Employability Services in an Era of Crisis
Third sector organizations ( TSOs ) have emerged as key players in the delivery of public services to assist jobless people to improve their employability and move from welfare to work. Drawing on in‐depth research with employability providers in Scotland, this article explores how TSOs have responded to the challenges of a rapidly changing public services environment. Specifically, we use the concept of the ‘New Public Governance’ to explore TSO…
Unemployment duration and employability in remote rural labour markets
In a Lonely Place? Social Networks, Job Seeking and the Experience of Long-Term Unemployment
Combating long-term unemployment remains a central strand of policies to promote social and labour market inclusion. One area of increasing concern is that the long-term unemployed (and especially those residing in disadvantaged communities) can find themselves isolated from the diverse social networks that can contribute to effective job seeking. This article draws on interviews conducted with 220 job seekers in two areas of high unemployment wi…
Ageing, skills and participation in work-related training in Britain
Policy makers have introduced a number of measures to encourage older workers to stay in the labour market, with improving access to training a particular priority. Policy action appeared justified by evidence that older workers are less likely to participate in training, and more likely to have never been offered training by employers - a key finding of Taylor and Urwin's (2001) review of Labour Force Survey (LFS) data from 1997. This article mo…
Inter‐agency Cooperation and New Approaches to Employability
This article examines the role of inter‐agency cooperation, which is one form of ‘partnership’, in new approaches to employability in the UK. The article articulates a ‘model for effective partnership working’ on employability. This model is applied first in a general review of employability policy and then to discuss case study research on the recent ‘Pathways to Work’ and ‘Working Neighbourhoods’ pilots. It is argued that successful partnership…
Street-level practice and the co-production of third sector-led employability services
Policymakers have promised a personalised approach to improving the employability of disadvantaged groups. The evidence suggests that contracted-out activation programmes in the UK and some other welfare states have instead sometimes delivered a standardised ‘work-first’ model. An alternative approach is exemplified in local employability services targeting lone parents in Scotland, led by third sector–public sector partnerships. Our research on …
Collaborative Innovation, New Technologies, and Work Redesign
Stakeholders agree on the need to promote innovation in work organization in public services. This article deploys the concept of collaborative innovation to discuss employees' and managers' experiences of a major technology‐driven work redesign project within National Health Service pharmacy services in Scotland. The authors draw on extant literature on New Public Management (NPM) and collaborative approaches to innovation to frame more than 40 …
Different routes, common directions? Activation policies for young people in Denmark and the UK
This article analyses and compares the development of activation policies for young people in Denmark and the UK from the mid‐1990s. Despite their diverse welfare traditions and important differences in the organisation and delivery of benefits and services for the unemployed, both countries have recently introduced large‐scale compulsory activation programmes for young people. These programmes share a number of common features, especially a comb…
Co‐production and social innovation in street‐level employability services
The United Kingdom, as an exemplar liberal welfare state, has been characterized as in the vanguard of “work‐first” activation – deploying high levels of compulsion and standardized employability services that seek to move people from welfare to work as quickly as possible. However, despite the extension of welfare conditionality to excluded groups such as lone parents, government‐led, work‐first employability programmes have often proved ineffec…
Promoting healthy pathways to employability
The coalition government has implemented welfare-to-work policies strengthening the UK's Work First model of activating claimants of disability or incapacity benefits (IBs). These reforms abolished the Condition Management Programme (CMP) established under the preceding government's Pathways to Work (PtW) initiative to assist people on IBs to cope with health problems. We argue that IB claimants face complex health limitations, and a renewal of C…
Inter-agency Co-operation in Activation
New forms of inter-agency co-operation have gained increasing prominence in the development and delivery of activation strategies. This article compares different models of inter-agency co-operation, drawing on case study research in Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK. The different models have reported variations in performance when delivering on the key benefits often attributed to effective inter-agency co-operation. The article raises concer…
Employer Choice and Job Quality
This article examines employer choice in relation to job quality (JQ). Acknowledging the important role of market, institutional, and technological constraints, the authors highlight the role of employer agency in shaping JQ by reporting on an employer-led service redesign initiative in hospital pharmacy services in Scotland. This redesign initiative aimed at upskilling employees and redirecting their work effort toward high value-added, patient-…
New Governance and the Case of Activation Policies
This article explores the importance of new forms of governance in active labour market policies (activation) in two countries: Denmark and the Netherlands. Drawing on research with key stakeholders in these countries, we analyse how new governance, and particularly processes of contracting‐out and localization, have found expression in recent reforms to activation. We conclude that localization and contracting‐out may have a future role to play …
Fit for Purpose? Welfare Reform and Challenges for Health and Labour Market Policy in the UK
In the UK, as in some other EU states, the focus of recent welfare reforms has switched from those on unemployment benefits to those receiving sickness/incapacity benefits (IBs), reflecting concerns around the large numbers falling into the this last group. The Labour government elected in 1997 introduced a range of measures to activate those on IBs, setting a target of a one million reduction in the number of claimants by the end of 2015. The Co…
Introduction
Fit for work? Health, employability and challenges for the UK welfare reform agenda
TEST 02 - Elsevier's Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities fields
Assessing the Evidence Base on Health, Employability and the Labour Market – Lessons for Activation in the UK
This article draws on the research of authors participating in this Special Issue, as well as a broader evidence review on how health, disability, labour market inequalities and other factors contribute to high levels of disability benefit ( DB ) claiming among certain communities. We argue that the evidence points to a complex combination of factors feeding into high levels of DB claiming in the UK and beyond, namely: geographical concentrations…
Employability, Poverty and the Spheres of Sociability – Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey
Policymakers in the UK and beyond have sought to promote interventions to encourage social capital‐building among disadvantaged groups. One specific concern is that those with limited access to social capital/social network relationships will be at greater risk of experiencing both unemployment and poverty. By analyzing longitudinal data from the B ritish H ousehold P anel S urvey ( BHPS ), we seek to identify significant relationships between po…
Alternative Job Search Strategies in Remote Rural and Peri-urban Labour Markets
This paper examines the importance of informal methods (especially social networking) to the job search strategies used by unemployed people. It compares three areas: a small rural town; a larger, more sparsely populated, remote rural area; and a centrally-located, peri-urban labour market. The analysis is based first on survey research undertaken with 490 job seekers across the study areas. Emerging issues were then followed up during a series o…
Empowering Lone Parents to Progress towards Employability
Policymakers in liberal welfare states like the UK have prioritised extending the reach of compulsory activation to target vulnerable jobseeker groups, such as lone parents. However, such interventions - especially when combined with intensified welfare conditionality - appear to have had limited positive effects on lone parents' employability, while often negatively impacting wellbeing. This article argues that the problem is a disconnect betwee…
Promoting Healthy Routes Back to Work? Boundary Spanning Health Professionals and Employability Programmes in Great Britain
Between 2003 and 2011, the Pathways to Work (PtW) initiative was established across Great Britain, as policymakers sought to address the ‘health‐related, personal and external barriers’ faced by people who were out of work and claiming incapacity benefits (IBs). In the first 18 districts that PtW was rolled‐out, the Public Employment Service (Jobcentre Plus) and National Health Service (NHS) organizations worked in partnership to deliver ‘conditi…
Unemployment duration and employability in remote rural labour markets
‘Reconnecting’ the Unemployed Information and communication technology and services for jobseekers in rural areas
This paper discusses the potential uses of the Internet and other forms of information and communication technology (ICT) as a tool for delivering information services for unemployed people, comparing the experiences and attitudes of jobseekers in peri-urban and remote rural labour markets. The analysis is based upon research carried out in two areas: the first combining a remote rural town with a much larger, more sparsely populated, rural ‘trav…
Different routes, common directions? Activation policies for young people in Denmark and the UK
This article analyses and compares the development of activation policies for young people in Denmark and the UK from the mid‐1990s. Despite their diverse welfare traditions and important differences in the organisation and delivery of benefits and services for the unemployed, both countries have recently introduced large‐scale compulsory activation programmes for young people. These programmes share a number of common features, especially a comb…
Avoiding the 'McJobs
Service employment plays an increasingly important role in the UK economy. However, it has been suggested that some forms of service work are unattractive for many unemployed job seekers, and particularly those formerly employed in 'traditional' sectors. The argument has been made that these job seekers and others may be reluctant to pursue the type of positions that have become known as 'McJobs' - de-skilled, entry-level service jobs which often…
Employability, Services for Unemployed Job Seekers and the Digital Divide
Providing accurate and accessible labour market information is a key priority for policies targeted at improving the employability of unemployed people. In an attempt to develop the quality and reach of such services, policy-makers are increasingly turning to ICT, and particularly the Internet. However, there are concerns that the expansion of services delivered through ICT risks leaving behind the most disadvantaged. This paper investigates the …
The Concept of Employability
The concept of 'employability' plays a crucial role in informing labour market policy in the UK, the EU and beyond. This paper analyses current and previous applications of the term and discusses its value as an exploratory concept and a framework for policy analysis. It then traces the development of the concept, discusses its role in current labour market and training strategies (with particular reference to the UK) and seeks to identify an app…
Alternative Job Search Strategies in Remote Rural and Peri-urban Labour Markets
This paper examines the importance of informal methods (especially social networking) to the job search strategies used by unemployed people. It compares three areas: a small rural town; a larger, more sparsely populated, remote rural area; and a centrally-located, peri-urban labour market. The analysis is based first on survey research undertaken with 490 job seekers across the study areas. Emerging issues were then followed up during a series o…
New Approaches to Employability in the UK
This article analyses recent developments in policies to promote the employability of unemployed and economically inactive people in the UK. It discusses the extent to which these policies reflect the dominant approaches of 'Work First', where programmes focus mainly on compulsory job search and short-term interventions to facilitate a quick return to work, or human capital development (HCD), where programmes tailor services to promote longer-ter…
Inter-agency Co-operation in Activation
New forms of inter-agency co-operation have gained increasing prominence in the development and delivery of activation strategies. This article compares different models of inter-agency co-operation, drawing on case study research in Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK. The different models have reported variations in performance when delivering on the key benefits often attributed to effective inter-agency co-operation. The article raises concer…
Inter‐agency Cooperation and New Approaches to Employability
This article examines the role of inter‐agency cooperation, which is one form of ‘partnership’, in new approaches to employability in the UK. The article articulates a ‘model for effective partnership working’ on employability. This model is applied first in a general review of employability policy and then to discuss case study research on the recent ‘Pathways to Work’ and ‘Working Neighbourhoods’ pilots. It is argued that successful partnership…
Delivering Employability in a Vanguard ‘Active’ Welfare State
Denmark has been regularly cited as a leading example of the ‘active’ welfare state. Regional and local governance and delivery structures have been crucial to the implementation of Denmark's strategies to improve the employability of unemployed people. In this paper we trace the development, implementation, and effectiveness of regional and local labour-market structures in Denmark, particularly focusing on the country's largest region—Greater C…
In a Lonely Place? Social Networks, Job Seeking and the Experience of Long-Term Unemployment
Combating long-term unemployment remains a central strand of policies to promote social and labour market inclusion. One area of increasing concern is that the long-term unemployed (and especially those residing in disadvantaged communities) can find themselves isolated from the diverse social networks that can contribute to effective job seeking. This article draws on interviews conducted with 220 job seekers in two areas of high unemployment wi…
New Governance and the Case of Activation Policies
This article explores the importance of new forms of governance in active labour market policies (activation) in two countries: Denmark and the Netherlands. Drawing on research with key stakeholders in these countries, we analyse how new governance, and particularly processes of contracting‐out and localization, have found expression in recent reforms to activation. We conclude that localization and contracting‐out may have a future role to play …
Employability through health? Partnership-based governance and the delivery of Pathways to Work condition management services
The Pathways to Work (PtW) initiative has been rolled out in 49 Jobcentre Plus districts across Great Britain as the government seeks to provide services to activate claimants of incapacity benefits and help them overcome health-related barriers to work. The recent expansion of PtW has seen a heavy reliance on the contracting-out of services to the private and third sectors, with ‘Lead Providers’ paid according to job outcomes achieved for client…
Fit for work? Health, employability and challenges for the UK welfare reform agenda
TEST 02 - Elsevier's Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities fields
Fit for Purpose? Welfare Reform and Challenges for Health and Labour Market Policy in the UK
In the UK, as in some other EU states, the focus of recent welfare reforms has switched from those on unemployment benefits to those receiving sickness/incapacity benefits (IBs), reflecting concerns around the large numbers falling into the this last group. The Labour government elected in 1997 introduced a range of measures to activate those on IBs, setting a target of a one million reduction in the number of claimants by the end of 2015. The Co…
Promoting Healthy Routes Back to Work? Boundary Spanning Health Professionals and Employability Programmes in Great Britain
Between 2003 and 2011, the Pathways to Work (PtW) initiative was established across Great Britain, as policymakers sought to address the ‘health‐related, personal and external barriers’ faced by people who were out of work and claiming incapacity benefits (IBs). In the first 18 districts that PtW was rolled‐out, the Public Employment Service (Jobcentre Plus) and National Health Service (NHS) organizations worked in partnership to deliver ‘conditi…
Ageing, skills and participation in work-related training in Britain
Policy makers have introduced a number of measures to encourage older workers to stay in the labour market, with improving access to training a particular priority. Policy action appeared justified by evidence that older workers are less likely to participate in training, and more likely to have never been offered training by employers - a key finding of Taylor and Urwin's (2001) review of Labour Force Survey (LFS) data from 1997. This article mo…
The ‘New Public Governance’ and Employability Services in an Era of Crisis
Third sector organizations ( TSOs ) have emerged as key players in the delivery of public services to assist jobless people to improve their employability and move from welfare to work. Drawing on in‐depth research with employability providers in Scotland, this article explores how TSOs have responded to the challenges of a rapidly changing public services environment. Specifically, we use the concept of the ‘New Public Governance’ to explore TSO…
Promoting healthy pathways to employability
The coalition government has implemented welfare-to-work policies strengthening the UK's Work First model of activating claimants of disability or incapacity benefits (IBs). These reforms abolished the Condition Management Programme (CMP) established under the preceding government's Pathways to Work (PtW) initiative to assist people on IBs to cope with health problems. We argue that IB claimants face complex health limitations, and a renewal of C…
Assessing the Evidence Base on Health, Employability and the Labour Market – Lessons for Activation in the UK
This article draws on the research of authors participating in this Special Issue, as well as a broader evidence review on how health, disability, labour market inequalities and other factors contribute to high levels of disability benefit ( DB ) claiming among certain communities. We argue that the evidence points to a complex combination of factors feeding into high levels of DB claiming in the UK and beyond, namely: geographical concentrations…
Introduction
Employability, Poverty and the Spheres of Sociability – Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey
Policymakers in the UK and beyond have sought to promote interventions to encourage social capital‐building among disadvantaged groups. One specific concern is that those with limited access to social capital/social network relationships will be at greater risk of experiencing both unemployment and poverty. By analyzing longitudinal data from the B ritish H ousehold P anel S urvey ( BHPS ), we seek to identify significant relationships between po…
Personalization and Street‐level Practice in Activation
This article discusses factors shaping street‐level caseworkers' role in the ‘personalization’ of activation for people with employability and health‐related barriers to work. Rice's (2013) micro‐institutionalist framework understands street‐level bureaucracy as being defined across three levels: interactions between caseworkers and clients; the environment of the implementing organization that shapes, and is shaped by, these interactions; and th…
Collaborative Innovation, New Technologies, and Work Redesign
Stakeholders agree on the need to promote innovation in work organization in public services. This article deploys the concept of collaborative innovation to discuss employees' and managers' experiences of a major technology‐driven work redesign project within National Health Service pharmacy services in Scotland. The authors draw on extant literature on New Public Management (NPM) and collaborative approaches to innovation to frame more than 40 …
Political science (32 works) · Business (25 works) · Economics (25 works) · Economic growth (21 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (21 works) · Public relations (21 works) · Employability (18 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Engineering (13 works) · Marketing (13 works)