This article explores interactions between the front-line officers and recipients of Oportunidades-Prospera, a conditional cash transfer (CCT) in Mexico. Like other CCTs, Oportunidades-Prospera provided monetary transfers to families with the requirement of following certain conditions, including receiving preventive healthcare and workshops. This produced constant and compulsory physician-recipient interactions. This article examines these through observations of programme delivery and interviews with physicians at health centres of two localities of Puebla. The results show that officers’ strategies of implementation and attitudes towards recipients were influenced by the programme’s use of health services as conditionalities, promoting a relationship of authority and obedience. This, however, was exacerbated by the officer’s job position. Those with a permanent contract systematically fostered authoritarian interactions compared to officers with temporary contracts. Ultimately, this study reveals factors that influence officer-recipient relationships in CCTs and their centrality for programme delivery and for the success of social policies more broadly.

Rural post office provision is becoming increasingly reliant on alternative delivery models. The effect of change could fall disproportionately on older people as a key customer group of the Post Office, overrepresented in rural areas. There are only very limited polices in this area. The existing literature has not yet examined where compulsory changes have taken place alongside the impact on older people living in the community. This research uses a mixed methods approach, exploring the example of the 2007–9 Post Office Network Change Programme in England and a case study of older people in a community affected by this change. Very rural areas were vulnerable to post office changes; 70 per cent of changes to post office delivery models occurred in these areas. It is important to consider the impacts of changes more broadly, including both direct and indirect outcomes.

The Finnish pension reform of 2005 introduced the concept of a flexible retirement age. Drawing upon a longitudinal study of older Finnish employees, this article examines the extent to which individual propensity to delay retirement is influenced by choice or by chance, and examines the effects of the interplay between chances and choices in affecting longevity of employment. The results suggest that the flexibility in the organisation of the end of the working life is biased towards the better off. They also show that the interplay of choice and chance in the retirement process is firmly tied to the existing age-arrangements and economic trends. The conclusions examine the implication of these findings for divergent routes towards late retirement.

People with cognitive impairments are regularly denied access to the vote in democratic nations. At the same time, the accuracy of legal regulations is uncertain due to the variety of legal classifications and the vague administrative procedures envisaged for their implementation. This article offers an extensive analysis of the accuracy of legal restrictions on the vote for people with cognitive impairments in all electoral democracies. The article argues that the prospect of ever regulating the vote accurately, in the sense of avoiding both misclassifications and arbitrary administration of restrictions, is difficult to envisage. In the face of the regulatory problems associated with the attempt to restrict the vote for people with cognitive impairment, it is concluded that enfranchisement of all adult citizens would constitute an improvement.

The England and Wales 2001 Census was the first to include ‘Mixed’ categories which have now been adopted across government. The four ‘cultural background’ options were highly prescriptive, specifying combinations of groups. This paper assesses how satisfactorily these analytical categories captured self-ascribed cultural affiliation based on the criteria of validity, reliability and utility of the data for public services. Finally, the paper asks whether we now need a census question on ethnic origin/ancestry in addition to – or instead of – ethnic group or whether multi-ticking or a focus on family origins might give more useful public policy data and better measure the population's ethnic diversity.

Performance measurement in social care is now considerably more advanced than previously. However, measurement is criticised on the basis of its presentation as neutral when, in the UK, it is part of the government's regulatory regime. However, measurement is important, especially when alternative methods may bring about different rankings of authorities to those endorsed by the recent system. This paper explores this issue through analyses of cost efficiency in English social services authorities. It concludes that the picture of authorities' performance depends on the method chosen which, it is argued, should stem from the stated aims of performance monitoring.

This article focuses attention on explaining and understanding state intervention into the lives of families deemed ‘troublesome’ with specific attention on the Troubled Families Programme. Launched in 2011, in part as a response to the London riots, the Troubled Families Programme represented an escalation and intensification of state intervention into the lives of families. Policy analyses have provided important perspectives on how we should explain and understand this government agenda as part of a process of neoliberal state crafting. This article offers a critical yet productive examination of these perspectives, arguing that their utility lies in how they can be employed, and therefore modified and adapted, in conjunction with studies of local practice which emphasise the messy realities of policy enactment and, with that, the possibility for contestation and challenge. Such an approach, based broadly on the tenets of critical realism, is founded on an alternative conception of state power, one that sees state power as having a more complex quality that is dependent on the agency of local actors.

Despite ‘troubled lives’ increasingly coming under the gaze of (powerful) others, our understanding of the issues at hand seems somewhat detached from the experiences of those subject to policy intervention. Due to the deficit model that presents ‘problem families’ as pathological, the voices of those that experience multiple disadvantages and severe material hardship are rarely heard, or, at worst, silenced. Within the context of hardening public attitudes that increasingly vilify the poor, understanding the connection between the personal and public is both timely and valuable. Drawing upon qualitative research, this paper seeks to listen to the voices of young people who currently reside within a ‘troubled family’. Through an exploration of how young people perceive their biographies, their status as ‘troubled’ or troublesome’, their relationships with significant others and their thoughts and feelings towards the future, we are able to recapture and reclaim contemporary depictions of ‘troubled lives’. Uncovering such lived experiences can also act as a springboard through which to explore how young lives (are likely to) unfold when interpreted against the background of restricted opportunities and social censure.

This article is based on research set up to explore temporal dimensions of loneliness amongst older people in a northern town. As the study progressed, spatial considerations and confinements emerged as a related and equally important feature. The article suggests that the ‘social sphere’ of lived reality, especially reality lived out in one confined space, is a prime candidate for what has been termed ‘de-familiarisation’. Social policy discourses focussed on ‘ageing in place’ can sometimes neglect the realities of older people’s circumstances, daily life and social contact. Central arguments put forward in the article are: that loneliness increases as spatial prospects recede; that ‘home’ can become a source of frustration and negativity rather than a source of solace and comfort; and that expanding and facilitating the social horizons of older people currently ‘confined’ to home should be prioritised within a genuinely age-friendly approach to social policy.

This study examines a recent legislative change in New Zealand social policy that provides for the partners of people engaging in welfare fraud to be prosecuted for the crime and to be jointly liable for the debt generated from the crime. This situation applies where the partner knew, or ought to have known, of the fraud. This approach may be contrasted with the treatment of the partners of those who engage in tax evasion, or other forms of financial crime, who are not liable for prosecution or any debt resulting from the offence.

Discrimination of those on welfare is well-established. The article highlights the extent to which welfare beneficiaries are now targeted for greater punitive measures in New Zealand and the increasing criminalisation of welfare in the country. The practices outlined appear to contravene the New Zealand Human Rights Act. Moreover, these practices are not aligned with the basic provisions of criminal law: that a guilty mind and a positive act are present for a crime to be committed. The study draws attention to issues of equity, knowledge of crime, and the construction of crime and criminals in the New Zealand justice system.

This paper explores the strategies of service providers and the benefits reported by disabled children and their parents/carers in three Children's Fund programmes in England. Based on National Evaluation of the Children's Fund research, we discuss how different understandings of ‘inclusion’ informed the diverse strategies and approaches service providers adopted. While disabled children and families perceived the benefits of services predominantly in terms of building individual children's resilience and social networks, the paper highlights the need for holistic approaches which have a broad view of inclusion, support children's networks and tackle disabling barriers within all the spheres of children's lives.

The combination of population ageing, changing family structures and patterns of employment is having an increasing impact on intergenerational relations in Western societies. The ‘generational contract’ is being affected by women's growing labour market participation, especially among mothers with young children, the extension of the period spent in education and training and the curtailment of welfare expansion. Since women carry the main burden of care work, the organisation of social care is a key issue in understanding changing intergenerational relations. This article explores the perceptions that European families in different socio-political contexts have of changing intergenerational relations and their expectations of policy actors.

This review article explores the evidence on child poverty rates amongst different ethnic groups in the UK. The Labour Government aims to end child poverty by 2020. Its strategy rests on improving employability, making work pay and expanding childcare provision. But child poverty rates among ethnic minorities are higher than among white people, which suggests that policies to reduce these have been ineffectual. The factors underlying this differential include labour market disadvantage, insensitive mainstream services and the language barriers that may cause low take-up of services, benefits and tax credits. The article concludes by suggesting a number of policy strategies that government could take to reduce the levels of child poverty amongst ethnic minorities.

This article1 analyses whether and how social innovations can be implemented in a Conservative/Bismarckian welfare regime and society such as Germany. It examines the transferability and the relevance of this discourse and practice, and argues that, due to existing institutional structures and cultures, innovation by public sector intrapreneurship is more significant in Germany than through social entrepreneurship. The article challenges the assumption that social innovation emerges from entrepreneurship, and questions the level of attention and importance attached to this development

This paper explores issues of social and multiple identity and their implications for equality law and practice. The paper considers three principal dilemmas – passing, groupism and the limitations of participatory justice as a political strategy for the achievement of equality. The objective is to contribute a ‘thick’ understanding of issues of identity and identification with which to inform and situate the development of the UK's ‘single equality approach’. The paper argues that the negotiations of identity required of members of minority groups is a form of work.

Migration plays an important role in determining skills supply, and certain ethnic groups tend to be over-represented in low-paid work. This article considers the implications of the complex interplay of migration, ethnicity and workplace progression for skills policy by comparing and contrasting the opportunities faced by low-paid workers of diverse ethnicities in progressing to better paid work. This is done by drawing on a qualitative study of nine case study organisations in Scotland and England, including interviews with sixty-five workers and forty-three managers. We argue that while all low-paid workers face formidable barriers to progression, recent migrants and settled ethnic minorities face additional challenges that should be considered in skills and wider social policies related to low-paid work.

Universal Credit (UC) has been rolling out since 2013 to radically alter the UK welfare system. Several UC design features, and its changes to benefit generosity, can lead to claimants struggling to afford rent payments. This article uses fixed-effects panel modelling to investigate UC’s housing insecurity impacts within English local authorities (2014 Q1 - 2019 Q1) by bringing together official UC data and Citizens Advice ‘advice trends’ data on rent arrears/homelessness issues within the social/private rented sectors. The results suggest UC rollout is associated with increases in rent arrears advice issues (though not homelessness advice issues). This impact tended to be greater when UC had been rolled out for longer (and therefore reached more claimants), and was greatest in the social rented sector where people are more vulnerable to arrears. This highlights a need to increase the level of UC payments and address its long wait periods and harsh sanctions.

As the delivery of social services is increasingly carried out by contractors, it is no longer state officials alone who determine clients’ ‘deservingness’. This article draws attention to the interrelated notions of mixed services and mediated deservingness as they apply in the context of migrants’ access to housing in Athens, Greece, during the so-called ‘migration crisis’ of 2015-2017. It argues that non-state actors essentially act as intermediaries between the state and the migrant clients, making their own judgements on the migrants’ deservingness and using their discretionary power accordingly. The findings reveal distinct discretionary patterns among street-level actors who represent migrants, depending on how each interprets the notion of ‘vulnerability’ with regard to gender and age. Although these actors’ room for manoeuvre is framed by the policy framework and the structural conditions in which they operate, their individual normative assumptions play a critical role in shaping their discretionary behaviour towards migrants.

This article argues the case for the integration of a global perspective within social policy as a means of enriching teaching and learning methods and experiences. We review the various ways in which such a perspective is currently integrated into social policy degrees and address some of the opportunities and challenges for teaching and learning that it involves. We consider current thinking on curriculum development, which, we contend, can facilitate the integration of a global perspective into social policy analysis and the alignment of the various factors influencing student learning.

In the UK and many other European countries, there continue to be concerns about a range of social issues including the position of immigrants, the educational attainment of marginalised groups and the persistence of the gender pay gap. Increasingly, governments and NGOs assert that the promotion of equality and human rights policies are central to addressing these issues, with a view to creating societies which are both more equitable and more efficient. Over the past decade and a half, a period of economic growth followed recently by a major recession, the equality and human rights agenda enjoyed a high political profile. However, as we discuss in this review article, the social and economic optimism of the late nineties and early to mid noughties has been followed by economic retrenchment, a commitment to the shrinking of the state and the public sphere across Europe and a general move to the political right. In this article, we first review the political context which led to the rise of the equality and human rights agenda. Subsequently, we examine competing conceptualisations of equality and their operationalisation within British social policy. Finally, we assess the progress which has been made towards achieving a more equal society in the UK over recent years drawing on data gathered and analysed by the National Equality Panel (NEP, 2010).