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Governing pathways to work in Europe

Rik van Berkel, Utrecht School of Governance

ESPAnet/RECWOWE Summerschool ‘New Risks and New Governance in Europe’, Utrecht 2008.

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Governance and social policy

John Clarke: governance as “practices of managing populations and their conduct”.

Two types of governance practices:- The governance of citizens, i.e.

unemployed people;- The governance of institutions, i.e.

agencies involved in policy implementation.

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Active welfare states and the new governance of unemployed citizens

Main formal policy reforms:- More jobless people treated as ‘normal’

unemployed;- Income provision less generous;- Income provision conditional;- Activation programmes introduced and

changed

- Major consequences for public organisations: new ‘core business’; from people processing to people changing technologies and interventions

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Active welfare states and the new governance of institutions

• Public agencies not only do new things, they also operate in new ways and with new actors

• Operational policy reforms: new ways of implementing policies and delivering social services

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How are both types of reforms related?

• The governance of citizens and the governance of institutions are both base on an ‘incentive paradigm’ (Van der Veen)

• Operational policy reforms may influence formal policies, e.g. content of activation services

• Formal policy reforms created a need for operational policy reforms

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Summarising: studying active welfare state reforms involves:

• Studying formal policy reforms (social policy studies)

• Studying operational policy reforms (public administration studies)

• Studying processes of change in organizations involved in implementing these reforms ((public) organizational studies). Lipsky: “decisions of street-level bureaucrats become the public policies they carry out”.

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How this presentation will proceed from here

• A closer look at operational policy reforms in the areas of income protection and activation in European countries

• How are these operational policy reforms related to formal policy reforms? Formal policy reforms made operational policy reforms necessary

• What is the impact of welfare state reforms on public organizations involved in policy implementation?

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Operational policy reforms in four EU countries

• UK: Jobcentre Plus. One agency responsible for income provision and activation of all unemployed;

• Germany: Hartz reforms. A.o.: one stop shop for long term unemployed, jointly managed by FEA and municipalities;

• Denmark: Structural reform. A.o.: local Job Centres coordinating activation services of PES (insured) and municipalities (uninsured/SA)

• Netherlands: SUWI reform. A.o.: new public benefit agency, privatised activation, one stop shop for all unemployed

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Comparing operational policy reforms: one stop shops

Variety of tasks and responsibilities, depending, a.o., on nature social security system and administrative structure. UK: strongest integration (Jobcentre Plus). D: separate structures for short-term and long-term unemployed, in which income provision and activation integrated. DK: integration of activation services for all unemployed in local Jobcentre. NL: one gate keeper organisation (Centre for Work and Income), income provision/activation separate for benefit recipients and recipients of SA.

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Comparing operational policy reforms: decentralisation, quasi-markets

• Decentralisation. Various forms: a) more autonomy for regional/local offices of national agencies; b) devolution of policy authority to municipalities. Role of municipalities in income provision and activation different in four countries; c) promotion of local partnerships in service provision.

• Quasi markets and competition in activation. Mixed service provision models in all countries; most radical form of privatisation in NL (recently: demarketisation).

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Comparing operational policy reforms: social partners, NPM

• Marginalisation role social partners in administrating SI and in PES. Most radical in UK and NL; in DK limited to activation.

• Introduction of NPM styles of management in public organisations. E.g., decoupling agencies from ministries; contractualisation of relationships ministries – agency; and internally between national and regional/local offices.

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Comparing operational policy reforms: conclusion

• Bureaucracy has lost its dominance in governing benefit administration and activation. All 4 countries now have mixed, hybrid governance models, combining bureaucratic, corporate, market and network governance.

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Understanding operational policy reforms: 1

• These reforms are not only a reflection of broader processes of public sector reforms inspired by new public management thinking;

• But also responses to specific challenges and problems arising in the process of making welfare states more activating.

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Understanding operational policy reforms: first challenge

• To create an institutional arena that actually implements active welfare state reforms. Strategies: to reduce the role of social partners in policy implementation and restore ‘primacy of politics’ (management of benefit and public employment agencies); to introduce new public management instruments (devolving financial responsibilities, contractualisation, performance indicators).

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Understanding operational policy reforms: second challenge

• How to manage frontline workers’ discretion that is necessary for successful activation? Strategies: bureaucratic rules, marketisation of service provision, increasing frontline workers’ discretion and responsibility/accountability for outcomes (NPM)

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Understanding operational policy reforms: challenge three

• How to promote the integration of income provision and activation services? Strategy: the creation of one-stop shop agencies where co-location and coordination of services for the unemployed should take place. Core issue: coordinating national and local agencies.

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Understanding operational policy reforms: challenge four

• How to activate the long-term, most vulnerable groups of unemployed? Strategies: removal of dividing lines between activation of STU/insured and LTU/uninsured; local networks to organize and provide social services beyond the provision of income and activation.

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Understanding operational policy reforms: challenge five

• How to provide tailor-made activation services, adapted to individual and local needs? Strategies: decentralizing policy making and policy implementation authority; marketization and competition in order to promote responsiveness of service providers.

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Policy reforms and Dutch local welfare agencies: context

• Tasks: administration social assistance, activation, care/social participation

• Decentralization of policy making and financial responsibilities ->incentive to decrease SA dependency

• Activation service for SA recipients: provided by private providers or in-house

• Cooperation with benefit agency and PES (Centers for Work and Income), over which municipalities have no direct control

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Policy reforms and local welfare agencies: tasks and resources

• Initially: income provision core priority, little attention for activation and care

• After marketization of activation: frontline workers acted as referral agents

• Disappointing results + decentralization of financial responsibilities: activation became top priority, and organization of activation services was redesigned, increasing the role of frontline workers and decreasing the autonomy of private providers

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Policy reforms and local welfare agencies: increasing discretion

• No elimination, but increase of frontline workers’ discretion (content & provision of activation, selection of provider, monitoring): professionalisation of frontline work, but low level of institutionalised professionalism -> frontline workers as ‘professionals without a profession’

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Policy reforms and local welfare agencies: managing discretion

• Bureaucratic management (e.g. task specialisation combined with profiling procedures);

• Professional management (more discretion, training and education, coaching, consultation, case discussions);

• NPM management (performance agreements, performance pay, decentralising budget responsibilities).

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Conclusion

• We need to study formal policy reforms, operational policy reforms and processes of organisational change to find an answer to a core question of social policy research: what do active welfare state reforms mean for the lives of unemployed people?

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Thank you!