Welfare Reform on the Web (December 2003): Welfare State - UK

DEPENDENCY, RESPONSIBILITY AND RIGHTS

H. Dean and K. Ellis

2003

The paper reports research examining the effect of the Human Rights Act on the welfare state, specifically social security provision for working age people and social care provision for elderly and disabled people.

OVERCOMING THE DESIRE FOR MISUNDERSTANDING THROUGH DIALOGUE

P. Hoggett

Local Government Studies, Vol. 29, No. 3, Autumn 2003, p. 118-127

The article explores how different communities and teams relate to one another and the implications these relationships have on the government' "joined up" thinking policy. Two case studies, one from a housing estate in Bristol and the other of the interaction between a community mental health team and an in-patient ward team covering the same sector of a city, are used to demonstrate that conflict is necessary to create real social solidarity between communities and organisations. Often the only way teams can survive is push their own feelings of failure and inadequacy onto the other team. The article argues that this behaviour needs to be recognised and understood before changes can occur. Only then can dialogue take place between the "real" players.

POVERTY IN BRITAIN: THE IMPACT OF GOVERNMENT POLICY SINCE 1997

H. Sutherland, T. Sefton and D. Piachaud

Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2003

The government has moved on course to meet its short-term objective of reducing child poverty by a quarter by 2004 compared with 1997. However, achieving its longer-term targets of halving child poverty by 2010 and eradicating it within a generation will be more difficult to achieve. Pensioner poverty will be lower in 2003/4 than 1997 but the size of the fall is very sensitive to the measure of income used: a one million fall based on income after housing costs but only one quarter of this based on income before housing costs.

PRODUCING WELFARE: A MODERN AGENDA

C. Miller

Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003

This book focuses on some of the most significant changes in relation to the organisation and delivery of social welfare initiated by Labour. Such changes provide the initial agreement for progressive welfare practice. But there is still much to be done to refine and promote them. The book aims to explore some of the as yet unresolved dilemmas. It covers:

• Organising and delivering welfare
• Labour, modernisation and the Third Way
• A mixed economy of welfare
• The changing role of the non-profit sector
• Managing, leading or learning?
• Producing quality services
• Working collaboratively
• The engagement of service users
• Community focused approach
• Capacity building

TONY BLAIR 'S BRITAIN'S STILL BLIGHTED BY SOCIAL INEQUALITY

D. Macintyre

The Independent, November 24th 2003, p.6

Britain's strong economic performance is still marred by poor productivity, persistent poverty, glaring social inequality, low investment in research and development and a collapse of trust in government, according to a candid survey by the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit. The survey, which partly covers trends over several decades and is intended to inform long-term decision making in the run-up to the next general election, identifies deep inequalities between rich and poor that widened in the 1980s and are greater than in any other country European Union country.