Following Labour's significant reforms to childcare policy, under the Coalition there has been a ... more Following Labour's significant reforms to childcare policy, under the Coalition there has been a combination of gains and losses for parents, with the implications of some impending changes not yet fully known. Ostensibly, more free childcare and early education (ECEC) offers an appealing solution and take-up of the universal entitlement is high. However, this demand-priming approach and its funding streams are too complex, inefficient and unsustainable. These has led to a shortage of supply of both pre-school and school-age care (with critically low provision for disabled children and those in rural areas), mismatch between service and work hours. The key failings of UK childcare policy are its prohibitively high costs (second highest in the OECD), equivalent to a regressive tax on mothers’ labour supply, reducing financial returns from their employment and increasing their reservation wage, and the linking of funding to parents being in paid work; these not only limit families’ choice and force parents to craft their own solutions, but also leave many families disadvantaged. It has been well established that the economic and social conditions of childhood frame the possibilities in later life and we argue that strategically investing in universal quality childcare will yield significant returns.
The increasing number of recipients of disability and long-term sickness benefits has resulted in... more The increasing number of recipients of disability and long-term sickness benefits has resulted in the introduction of specific employability programmes in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. In the UK Pathways to Work involved enabling and support measures for benefit recipients with long-term health conditions. In Denmark ‘flex-jobs’ are an integral occupational health intervention for both employed and unemployed people with reduced working capacity. Through a comparative analysis primarily based on stakeholder interviews in both countries, this paper argues that the concept of an inclusive labour market strategy is crucial to assisting these groups into work, underpinned by governance and a politics of representation. In Denmark both the role of the social partners and subsidized employment are significant. In the UK governance has been constrained and insufficient attention has been paid to income security. Comparing these two models highlights policy learning for the UK from the successes of and challenges to the Danish model.
Following Labour's significant reforms to childcare policy, under the Coalition there has been a ... more Following Labour's significant reforms to childcare policy, under the Coalition there has been a combination of gains and losses for parents, with the implications of some impending changes not yet fully known. Ostensibly, more free childcare and early education (ECEC) offers an appealing solution and take-up of the universal entitlement is high. However, this demand-priming approach and its funding streams are too complex, inefficient and unsustainable. These has led to a shortage of supply of both pre-school and school-age care (with critically low provision for disabled children and those in rural areas), mismatch between service and work hours. The key failings of UK childcare policy are its prohibitively high costs (second highest in the OECD), equivalent to a regressive tax on mothers’ labour supply, reducing financial returns from their employment and increasing their reservation wage, and the linking of funding to parents being in paid work; these not only limit families’ choice and force parents to craft their own solutions, but also leave many families disadvantaged. It has been well established that the economic and social conditions of childhood frame the possibilities in later life and we argue that strategically investing in universal quality childcare will yield significant returns.
The increasing number of recipients of disability and long-term sickness benefits has resulted in... more The increasing number of recipients of disability and long-term sickness benefits has resulted in the introduction of specific employability programmes in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. In the UK Pathways to Work involved enabling and support measures for benefit recipients with long-term health conditions. In Denmark ‘flex-jobs’ are an integral occupational health intervention for both employed and unemployed people with reduced working capacity. Through a comparative analysis primarily based on stakeholder interviews in both countries, this paper argues that the concept of an inclusive labour market strategy is crucial to assisting these groups into work, underpinned by governance and a politics of representation. In Denmark both the role of the social partners and subsidized employment are significant. In the UK governance has been constrained and insufficient attention has been paid to income security. Comparing these two models highlights policy learning for the UK from the successes of and challenges to the Danish model.
This article places the Labour Party's present post-Corbyn renewal in the context of previous per... more This article places the Labour Party's present post-Corbyn renewal in the context of previous periods of renewal in the party's recent history, associating with the new leadership of Keir Starmer a potential to rediscover the strategic project of the pluralist 'soft' left as an alternative to the 'programmatic' character of the hard left. After assessing the Corbynist hegemony established in the Labour Party between 2015 and 2019, it considers the current absence of any clearly defined set of principles or values underpinning 'Starmerism'. It then looks back to the Kinnockite ascendency in the 1980s, and the Blairite ascendency in the 1990s, as possible templates for how the party reassesses its positioning with reference to changing electoral, social and economic circumstances. A critique of Corbynism's left populism culminates in a consideration of the possible grounds for a new pluralist agenda attuned to the policy and electoral challenges Labour faces today.
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Ostensibly, more free childcare and early education (ECEC) offers an appealing solution and take-up of the universal entitlement is high. However, this demand-priming approach and its funding streams are too complex, inefficient and unsustainable. These has led to a shortage of supply of both pre-school and school-age care (with critically low provision for disabled children and those in rural areas), mismatch between service and work hours. The key failings of UK childcare policy are its prohibitively high costs (second highest in the OECD), equivalent to a regressive tax on mothers’ labour supply, reducing financial returns from their employment and increasing their reservation wage, and the linking of funding to parents being in paid work; these not only limit families’ choice and force parents to craft their own solutions, but also leave many families disadvantaged. It has been well established that the economic and social conditions of childhood frame the possibilities in later life and we argue that strategically investing in universal quality childcare will yield significant returns.
Ostensibly, more free childcare and early education (ECEC) offers an appealing solution and take-up of the universal entitlement is high. However, this demand-priming approach and its funding streams are too complex, inefficient and unsustainable. These has led to a shortage of supply of both pre-school and school-age care (with critically low provision for disabled children and those in rural areas), mismatch between service and work hours. The key failings of UK childcare policy are its prohibitively high costs (second highest in the OECD), equivalent to a regressive tax on mothers’ labour supply, reducing financial returns from their employment and increasing their reservation wage, and the linking of funding to parents being in paid work; these not only limit families’ choice and force parents to craft their own solutions, but also leave many families disadvantaged. It has been well established that the economic and social conditions of childhood frame the possibilities in later life and we argue that strategically investing in universal quality childcare will yield significant returns.