The recommendation in the Green Book to investigate policy approaches in other countries as part of the appraisal of any policy design is building on a long tradition of policy learning and transfer between countries (for example, Casey 2009). Policy learning is usually motivated by the perception of a ‘common problem’ and a similar approach more generally (among others Dwyer and Ellison 2009). Rose (1991; 3) argues that the ‘process of lesson drawing starts with scanning programmes in effect elsewhere, and ends with the prospective evaluation of what would happen if a programme already in effect elsewhere were transferred here in the future’. There are a number of constraints of the transfer of policies such as the ‘policy complexity, past policy, structural and institutional feasibility and language’ (Dolowitz and Marsh 1996) but also cultural orientation as is exemplified in the level of policy transfer from the United States to the UK in the past couple of decades (Dwyer and Ellison 2009,
Daguerre 2004 and Annesley 2003). Rose (1991; 22) suggests that there are five ways of lesson learning: ‘copying, emulation, hybridization, synthesis and inspiration’.
In this instance, examples from other countries are used as ‘inspiration’, which Rose defines as ‘programmes used elsewhere used as intellectual stimulus for developing a novel programme’. The main purpose of the policy alternatives identified in chapter six is to provide a comparison to the design adopted in the welfare-to-work reform rather than to be policy options in themselves. The latter is not envisaged in this design not least because it would require a thorough and comprehensive analysis of not only the specific part of the policy that is examined here but the wider policy, institutional and demographic context. Analysing examples of policy transfer failures, Dolowitz and Marsh (1996) argue that this occurs when transfers are either
‘uninformed, incomplete or inappropriate’. Chapter six aims to contextualise different policy approaches and not to assess their suitability for a potential policy transfer. In other words, the alternative approaches are used to cast into relief the suitability of the current design.
The third part of the PhD focuses on alternatives to the UK’s current approach to targeting in welfare to work reform, which is based on the selection criterion of age of youngest child. The aims of looking at alternative approaches in this thesis, i.e. the fourth part, are twofold: Firstly, to identify the range of alternatives that have been implemented in other countries and secondly, to examine whether the groups selected to be available for work under these alternative schemes are in practice likely to be able to work, through mapping the different approaches onto the British context using FACS. This part of the analysis is carried out in three steps: The first step is to identify different approaches based on a review of existing policies in other countries. Based on this I select one country case study to illustrate each different approach to show how the policy operates in that specific context (chapter six).
Finally, the size and composition of the groups targeted by the different approaches if mapped on the British context is compared to the current reform (chapter seven).
With regards to the strengths and weaknesses of the approach taken to identify alternative approaches, the following points should be made. The strength of this approach is that it looks across a wide range of countries and identifies conceptually different approaches as well as variations within those approaches and therefore provides a solid basis from which to choose the case studies later on. One drawback of focusing on the policy design is that it does not take into account variations in the administration of those approaches. However, this would be difficult to establish
given the lack of up-to-date and detailed literature on this aspect in many of the countries covered here. Nor was it possible to explore whether activation means full availability to work or whether a staggered approach is being taken, e.g. starting with requirements to carry out work-related activities. Thus the discussion (and table 6.1 in particular) focuses on a comparison of one key aspect of activation policies, namely the approach to selecting a particular group of lone parents for work activation in terms of the underlying rationale and actual criteria.
The selection criterion for lone parents in the current welfare-to-work reform is based on the age of the youngest child. As has been discussed in chapters two and three, this seems to be based on notions of child development and the role of maternal employment at different points in time. As a first step this approach will be appraised to answer the question of whether it would work and if so, for whom. However, as also discussed in the chapter two, there has been some criticism of taking age of child as the main selection criterion because it does not necessarily reflect the reality and complexity of lone parents’ lives and because the service infrastructure, particularly with regards to childcare, is not in place. Moreover, concerns have been raised regarding the belief that the age of the youngest child can be equated with
‘ability to work’ as it disregards the wider circumstances of lone parents, especially if activation and therefore ‘ability to work’ is meant to identify ability to obtain a job. To what extent ‘ability to work’ as defined by the current government and ‘ability to compete in the labour market’ overlap is one of the facets explored in this policy appraisal.
The guidance in the Green Book also suggests looking at other countries for examples of innovative and best practice. Therefore, the international policy review in chapter six focuses on identifying alternative ways of selecting lone parents for work activation. In order to illustrate how the different approaches operate in practice, country case studies are chosen for each different approach. The two main criteria for choosing the case studies are relatively recent welfare-to-work reforms and whether the country performs well against the objectives of the reform. The latter criterion is intended to identify best practice in terms of the employment and child poverty rates in those countries. However, as acknowledged elsewhere the lone parent employment and child poverty outcomes are determined by a whole range of policies and other factors and not solely or even predominantly by a particular work activation approach. Nevertheless, by choosing countries, which have carried out an activation reform in the past 20 years, it is hoped that subsequent changes in
employment rates can be linked to those activation reforms. This presupposes that extensive evaluations have been carried out and that these are available in English and, as will be seen in the international policy review in chapter six, this is not necessarily the case.
Based on the international review, six different approaches to selecting lone parents are identified. Three of these approaches will then be mapped onto the British case using data from the Families and Children Study. The same appraisal criteria will be applied to the alternative approaches as to the current reform in order to compare how the alternative approaches would work in terms of progress towards the lone parent employment and the child poverty target. The appraisal will be carried out using secondary analysis of the FACS data. Both the data set and the benefits and limitations of the approach will be discussed in the following section.