a post by Hettie O'Brien for DEMOS
Government reports rarely become bestsellers. But large queues formed on the night before the publication of William Beveridge’s 300-page survey of social insurance. His report shaped the post-war consensus and laid the foundations for our modern welfare system. It invoked a simple premise: it was better to share risk across society.
The Beveridge report hastened a radical consensus around welfare provision for an age of male breadwinners, full employment and economic growth. Its designers could not foresee present-day challenges. Ageing populations, the rise in short-term employment contracts and in-work poverty have transfigured welfare needs. But modern governments have failed to deliver a radical agenda to parallel Beveridge’s vision.
The Conservative government and its predecessors promised transformation, yet their changes have amounted to little more than palliative tweaks. Universal credit and the replacement of incapacity benefit with ESA caused more harm than good. Poverty levels remain unacceptably high. The disability employment gap has not decreased. And a punitive regime of benefit conditionality has regularly left many people destitute.
Continue reading but I warn you that it is not comfortable reading.
Showing posts with label welfare_provision. Show all posts
Showing posts with label welfare_provision. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 January 2019
Sunday, 25 February 2018
Roots of social enterprise: entrepreneurial philanthropy, England 1600-1908
an article by Matthew MacDonald (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) and Carole Howorth (University of York, UK) published in Social Enterprise Journal Volume 14 Issue 1 (2018)
Abstract
Purpose
Insights into the roots of social enterprise from before the term was adopted are provided by examining histories of charitable service and comparing current understandings of social enterprise. Social enterprise models of welfare provision are evidenced from the seventeenth century onwards. Persistent themes are identified that provide insights for current practice and understanding.
Design/methodology/approach
This historiography examines interpretations from 1905 to the present day of examples of welfare provision between two watershed points: 1600, just prior to the Poor Laws and 1908, when the Old Age Pensions Act shifted emphasis in public sector provision.
Findings
Activities that would nowadays be termed social enterprise are evidenced in histories of charitable philanthropy covering each century since 1600. Prevailing attitudes uncritically demarcated deserving and undeserving poor. Histories contributed to a heroic narrative of social entrepreneurs, describing activities dependent on well-networked, politically active individuals that rarely continued beyond their involvement. The political environment was recognised to influence the types of organisations, governance and resourcing.
Research limitations/implications
The historiography takes examples from three centuries between 1600 and1908 but is not comprehensive. Recurrent themes are identified for further research.
Originality/value
Social enterprise is a twenty-first-century label but not a new phenomenon. Identification of prevailing themes provides insights for the understanding of social enterprises in the twenty-first century.
Abstract
Purpose
Insights into the roots of social enterprise from before the term was adopted are provided by examining histories of charitable service and comparing current understandings of social enterprise. Social enterprise models of welfare provision are evidenced from the seventeenth century onwards. Persistent themes are identified that provide insights for current practice and understanding.
Design/methodology/approach
This historiography examines interpretations from 1905 to the present day of examples of welfare provision between two watershed points: 1600, just prior to the Poor Laws and 1908, when the Old Age Pensions Act shifted emphasis in public sector provision.
Findings
Activities that would nowadays be termed social enterprise are evidenced in histories of charitable philanthropy covering each century since 1600. Prevailing attitudes uncritically demarcated deserving and undeserving poor. Histories contributed to a heroic narrative of social entrepreneurs, describing activities dependent on well-networked, politically active individuals that rarely continued beyond their involvement. The political environment was recognised to influence the types of organisations, governance and resourcing.
Research limitations/implications
The historiography takes examples from three centuries between 1600 and1908 but is not comprehensive. Recurrent themes are identified for further research.
Originality/value
Social enterprise is a twenty-first-century label but not a new phenomenon. Identification of prevailing themes provides insights for the understanding of social enterprises in the twenty-first century.
Sunday, 1 October 2017
The constraints on voluntary sector voice in a period of continued austerity
an article by Mike Hemmings (York St John University, UK)
published in
Voluntary Sector Review Volume 8 Number 1 (March 2017)
Abstract
This article explores how austerity has affected the ability of voluntary sector organisations in England to represent, advocate and lobby to ensure that the voice of disadvantaged people is heard by government. The core contribution of the article is its use of a qualitative longitudinal research methodology to analyse how people experience, interpret and respond to change.
The article supports neo-institutional and resource dependency theories, which argue that institutional incorporation, financial dependency and managerial isomorphism have a negative impact on the ability to express critical voice.
Austerity accelerates this tendency, creating fear and layering additional pressures on previous restructuring and reform tensions. This contrasts with quantitative empirical findings that involvement with government and financial dependency strengthen rather than reduce political advocacy.
The article argues for a nuanced view of advocacy that recognises the constraints on the ability of the sector to advocate for and empower disadvantaged people and communities.
Abstract
This article explores how austerity has affected the ability of voluntary sector organisations in England to represent, advocate and lobby to ensure that the voice of disadvantaged people is heard by government. The core contribution of the article is its use of a qualitative longitudinal research methodology to analyse how people experience, interpret and respond to change.
The article supports neo-institutional and resource dependency theories, which argue that institutional incorporation, financial dependency and managerial isomorphism have a negative impact on the ability to express critical voice.
Austerity accelerates this tendency, creating fear and layering additional pressures on previous restructuring and reform tensions. This contrasts with quantitative empirical findings that involvement with government and financial dependency strengthen rather than reduce political advocacy.
The article argues for a nuanced view of advocacy that recognises the constraints on the ability of the sector to advocate for and empower disadvantaged people and communities.
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