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New Labour Policy (new + labour_policy)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Autonomy and modernisation: the management of change in an English primary care trust

HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 3 2004
Ruth McDonald BA MSc PhD
Abstract Recent New Labour policy for the ,modernisation' of Government places a good deal of emphasis on decentralisation. This emphasis is particularly marked in relation to the organisation of primary care. However, like hospitals and other National Health Service institutions, primary care trusts (PCTs) are subject to a substantial raft of centrally established performance targets and indicators, including those which contribute to the public award of between zero and three performance ,stars'. This raises questions about the extent to which employees can exercise autonomy in the context of rigid top-down directives. This paper presents findings from a study using participant observation and interviews to examine the impact of a training course aimed ostensibly at increasing employee autonomy in an English PCT. The suggestion is that attempts to make employees more autonomous can be seen as a strategy for increasing central control based upon the internalisation by the employees of centrally promulgated values. The attraction of such strategies is that they may be potentially more effective and less costly than alternative strategies of direct control. However, the study suggests that the outcome of attempts by such methods as programmes to increase employee autonomy may be very different from those intended. [source]

A NEW EPOCH OF INDIVIDUALIZATION?

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 3 2007
PERSONALIZATION' OF PUBLIC SECTOR SERVICES, PROBLEMS WITH THE
The paper discusses the role of the concept of ,personalization' in New Labour policy on the reform of public sector services. The analysis points to the contradictory ways in which the concept has been used in both policy statements, in the work of various authors, and in the think tank Demos, which has been closely associated with the diffusion of the concept. The correlative uncertainties with respect to implementation are discussed and related to the use of ,epochal' forms of argument in the justification of this latest instalment of public sector reform in the United Kingdom. [source]

Social workers in multidisciplinary teams: issues and dilemmas for professional practice

CHILD & FAMILY SOCIAL WORK, Issue 3 2005
Nick Frost
ABSTRACT This paper draws on the findings of a project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, examining how child and family multidisciplinary teams learn and work together. It outlines the approach taken by the research team before going on to explore New Labour policy around ,joined-up thinking'. The paper focuses on the role of social workers in the teams and uses qualitative data to explore the experience of social workers in relation to four key issues: models of professional practice, status and power, confidentiality and information sharing, and relations with external agencies. We argue that these are complex and contested issues that are challenging for the workers concerned. We conclude that whilst joined-up working is complex and demanding, social work is well situated to meet the challenge, and that social workers in multidisciplinary teams are committed to making them work. [source]

Financialisation, Financial Literacy and Asset-Based Welfare

BRITISH JOURNAL OF POLITICS & INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Issue 3 2009
Alan Finlayson
This article examines New Labour's policies of asset-based welfare in the broader context of financialisation. It argues that these are indicative of a mode of government concerned to alter individual outlooks and aspirations, and that asset-based welfare, as developed by New Labour, is primarily a strategy for enhancing financial literacy. Exploring and identifying the general contours of New Labour's reform of welfare provision (particularly the rise of conditionality and personalisation), the article presents a case study of the Child Trust Fund, its development and marketing. The article closes with reflections on the fate of such policies after the sub-prime mortgage crisis. [source]

Ethics and Foreign Policy: the Antinomies of New Labour's ,Third Way' in Sub-Saharan Africa

POLITICAL STUDIES, Issue 2 2001
Rita Abrahamsen
This article explores how New Labour has attempted to implement its ideas about a ,third way' foreign policy in sub-Saharan Africa. Through an examination of British foreign policy practices, we explore whether New Labour has succeeded in finding a ,third way' between traditional views of socialism and capitalism in Africa. In particular, the article focuses on New Labour's attempts to build peace, prosperity and democracy on the African continent. We conclude that although New Labour's claims to add an ,ethical dimension' to foreign policy have succeeded in giving Britain a higher profile in the international arena, the implementation of such a policy is intrinsically difficult. These difficulties in turn arise from the antinomies embodied in New Labour's policy, or more specifically from the tension between the liberal internationalism of the third way and traditional concerns for the national interest, as well as the contradictions inherent in a commitment to both political and economic liberalism. [source]

New Labour and the enabling state

HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 6 2000
Ian Taylor BA (Leics) Msc, PhD (Econ)
Abstract The notion of the ,enabling state' gained currency in the UK during the 1990s as an alternative to the ,providing' or the welfare state. It reflected the process of contracting out in the NHS and compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) in local government during the 1980s, but was also associated with developments during the 1990s in health, social care and education in particular. The creation of an internal market in the NHS and the associated purchaser,provider split appeared to transfer ,ownership' of services increasingly to the providers , hospitals, General Practitioners (GPs) and schools. The mixed economy of care that was stimulated by the 1990 NHS and Community Care Act appeared to offer local authorities the opportunity to enable non state providers to offer care services in the community. The new service charters were part of the enablement process because they offered users more opportunity to influence provision. This article examines how far service providers were enabled and assesses the extent to which new Labour's policies enhance or reject the ,enabling state' in favour of more direct provision. [source]