Whilst philanthropy has long helped fund private initiatives for public good, governments are becoming more interested in expanding this income source as pressures on public spending increase. One outcome of multiple efforts to enhance philanthropy is the growth of giving circles, which involve individual donors collaborating to support causes of mutual interest. This research examines the degree to which giving circles are a good mechanism for enhancing philanthropy. Our overarching interest is to understand if giving circles in the UK and Ireland might serve to grow philanthropy as well as shift the logic of charity to meet the expectations of policy-makers.

Measurements of income at the household level have traditionally only recorded income received by household members. This has generally been reflected in qualitative research. However, using interview data from two studies of British mothers and children on low incomes, we find that for some, cash and in-kind transfers from family and friends outside the household form a significant proportion of household income. In some cases, income is doubled once gifts are included. Thus, gifts make a substantial contribution to living standards, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The implications of this finding for income measurement are discussed, and further research is recommended.

There is widespread scholarly recognition that migrant long-term care (LTC) workers experience relatively poorer work conditions than local LTC workers. We focus here on the ways in which migration and employment regulation intersect in formal LTC markets to produce working conditions for migrant workers. Drawing on cross-national comparisons between Australia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom we explore: firstly, the forms of employment regulation that can protect migrant LTC workers or expose them to additional risks; and secondly, how migration regulation can work to amplify employment protection gaps for certain groups of migrant workers. We find that while historically there have been better employment protections in Australia and the Netherlands, the reshaping of work in all three LTC systems creates a context within which migration regulation can exacerbate the risks of precarious work for migrant workers and for those on temporary visas in particular.

The youth foyer model was designed to provide a package of support, including accommodation to homeless or at-risk young people, based on participation in education, training and/or employment as a supported transition to independent living and a sustainable livelihood. Commencing in the early 1990s, the UK has developed a large number of foyers while Australia is a relative newcomer to this kind of supportive youth housing. Unlike in the UK, existing and proposed Australian foyer income generated from current benefits and subsidies is not sufficient to cover the cost of support. We highlight the need for an extensible source of funding specifically for supportive housing for homeless and at-risk youth in order to ensure the financial sustainability and therefore replicability of the foyer model in Australia. We also discuss some issues relating to the translation of the model from one national context to another.

Welfare states allocate and redistribute resources across different groups. For the social legitimacy of welfare states, public support of redistributive processes and outcomes is crucial. An important aspect in this context is the deservingness or non-deservingness of benefit recipients from the perspective of those who both financially contribute to the system and potentially benefit from it. We invited a random sample of the German labour force to participate in an online-survey. Using a factorial survey experiment, we described fictitious unemployed persons with different attributes and asked survey participants on the just maximum benefit duration for each particular case. Judgements regarding just benefit durations vary along the criteria of reciprocity, control, attitude and need: Respondents grant longer unemployment benefits to older jobseekers, as well as to jobseekers who became involuntarily unemployed, had stable employment careers, have to care for the elderly or are sole earners in the household.

The concern of this article is with the current debate about the reform of local taxation in the UK. In particular, the article examines the consideration given to issues of equity in the policy debate that has taken place through the government's ‘Balance of Funding Review’. It is argued that while the outcome of the reform process remains to be seen, the current debate indicates that decisions regarding local tax will serve as an illuminating example of the extent, and limits, of New Labour policy on tax and inequality more generally.

Governments often provide some form of social assistance to vulnerable groups. The right to social security is enshrined in the South African Constitution and the Social Assistance Act 13 of 2004. The country provides for a child support grant to single parents or caregivers who are low-income earners. The impact of the child support grant on teenage pregnancy in South Africa has aroused interest in the last couple of years, sparking debate that it may be encouraging teenage pregnancy. However, empirical evidence has been produced to confirm this relationship. This study examines the relationship between receiving the child support grant and being pregnant with another child in two national data sets using logistic regression analysis and empirical data. The results indicate that teenagers who receive the child support grant are significantly less likely to be pregnant with another child compared with teenagers who do not receive the child support grant.

The issue of ‘joined up’ governance and partnership working (between statutory partners, between the state and the voluntary sector and between the state and the private sector) is one which currently occupies the attention of policy makers and academics across mixed-liberal welfare states such as the European Union, Nordic, Commonwealth and North American welfare regimes (Geddes and Benington, 2001; Considine and Lewis, 2003; Bradford, 2003; Ovretveit, 2003). Many of these states, the UK included, are attempting to tackle the issues of growing demands for services, the perceived ineffectiveness and inefficiency of governments in responding to welfare need and the ‘hollowing out’ of the state that is a feature of modern mixed-liberal welfare states, particularly those which are attempting to find a ‘Third Way’ between socialist bureaucracies and market-driven liberalism (Giddens, 1998). The policy response, both in the UK and internationally, has been to encourage ‘partnership’ working between the various arms of the state, and between the state and the private and voluntary sector, as well as emphasizing ‘partnership’ working between the state and local users and communities.

Qualitative data were deployed to explore the spatial needs of homeless drug users staying in hostels and night shelters. Findings indicated that Fitzpatrick and LaGory's four categories of spatial need (‘privacy’, ‘personal space’, ‘social interaction’, ‘safe and defensible spaces’) all had good analytical purchase. However, three further need categories (‘institutional support’, ‘amenities and standards’, ‘spatiotemporal structures and boundaries’) were identified. While hostels and night shelters met the spatial needs of some homeless drug users, there was considerable scope for improvement; indeed, failure to meet spatial needs could result in increased drug use, risky injecting practices, worsening health and a return to the streets. Our seven-fold categorisation of spatial needs requires further empirical study but could potentially inform other place-based approaches to health.

In Sweden, youth matters increasingly form a political field of their own. Youth politics may be related to governance and policy research on the one hand, and research on young people's lives on the other. Both have been influenced by similar questions, concerning the freedom of actors and the power of structures. Research specifically on youth politics is however scanty, in Sweden and internationally. The article analyses recent Swedish youth politics, based on interviews with local politicians and officials. Questions posed are: Which youth matters are prioritised at the local political agenda, and why? How is the division of responsibilities in youth matters between different actors perceived? Which importance and functions are attributed to local youth projects? To what extent do recent youth politics mirror late-modern assumptions of self-governance, individual choice and risk-taking? To what extent do they reflect assumptions of an earlier dominant social welfare paradigm? It is concluded that local youth politics in general contain elements of collectivist welfare thinking, and a neo-liberal or post-modern ideology is barely visible. Nevertheless, flexibility, autonomy and decentralisation assumptions about local authorities and young people become more prominent around youth projects. The municipality is also more likely to be identified as a strategic, risk-taking actor here.

Mental health is a good example of a field where imperatives for partnership or collaborative working can be in tension with those for client confidentiality. Both imperatives have been reinforced by additional regulation in recent years, in response to major inquiries. Professionals face the dilemma that either sharing clients' or patients' information or not sharing it could lead to outcomes for which they might be blamed; any rule adopted risks one or other type of error. This article examines two cases from a larger interview-based study of how local organisations are trying practically to reconcile these competing pressures.

Issues of diversity in elected bodies have been highlighted in recent years, both with regard to elected representatives themselves, and, more recently, in respect of the treatment of those working in such institutions, especially women. This article focuses on another aspect of diversity, inequality and representation, the voices heard by parliamentary committees in their scrutiny of government actions and legislation.

The article discusses the current position in the Scottish Parliament (and other UK legislatures) with, for example, around three-fifths of witnesses at Holyrood being male, and highlights both ‘demand’ and ‘supply’ factors that influence the make-up of committee witnesses. It also identifies a number of functions that witnesses can play for committees, and how these relate to diversity and representation, and suggests that there may be benefits to committees and legislatures in hearing from a wider range of voices.

While the recent Coalition government committed to some initiatives supporting the role of parents, relationships and the early years, there remains a lack of focus on fathers as a distinct policy area. This is reflected at local government level, as lead professionals for young fathers are rare and data on the number of young fathers in each local area are not routinely collected. Barnardo's was funded by the Department for Education in 2012, as part of the Family Strategic Partnership, to highlight the needs and experiences of young fathers in England, and the joint role of statutory and voluntary services in supporting them (fully reported by Barnardo's in Cundy, 2012). Based on selected case studies drawn from research and a range of practice organisations, this article presents the journeys of five young fathers and their experience of maternity services, children's centres, schools, housing services and the secure estate.

The contributions in this issue serve as a timely reminder of the importance of choice and autonomy in later working life. As the UK embarks on legislation prohibiting age discrimination, this paper discusses international lessons which can be drawn from older worker experience and related policy in Japan, Australia and the United States. By exploring the integral role of social and cultural norms in the development of pension, retirement and anti-discrimination reform, it emphasizes the importance of taking a holistic approach to older worker opportunity which ensures that practice reflects the intentions behind policy.

In juxtaposition to the sizeable literature on workfare, there is a significant gap of research on the Learning, Earning, and Parenting (LEAP) policy of Ontario Works, a workfare program for teen parents in Canada. The purpose of this article is to discuss a qualitative study exploring the adequacy and efficacy of the program. Findings indicate that while some amendments are necessary for LEAP specifically, significant modifications are needed to the overall workfare policy. A paradigmatic shift in the characterisation of workfare recipients is also necessary to extricate mothers from the cycle of poverty associated with social assistance access.

From the 1960s onwards opportunities for employment for disabled people have been promoted by the South Korean government and recent research has focused on the achievements of policies in this area. However people with learning disabilities have largely been ignored in this research. The paper draws on a study which used research methods designed explicitly to enable people with learning disabilities to participate and their voices to be heard. The findings highlight the failure of current policies to provide suitable employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities and the paper concludes with some recommendations.

Mainstreaming equality involves integrating equality considerations from the outset into how an organization operates, its policies and practices. Whether this works to the advantage of disabled people depends critically on the quality of understanding of equality issues for different groups. This paper begins by clarifying goals for social justice, social inclusion and equality and then considers the salience of disabled people as a social category. It briefly reviews different equality strategies, before focusing on mainstreaming and its potential to promote cultural change and socially just distribution. An analytical framework to support mainstreaming is outlined. The paper concludes by stressing the importance of disabled people's involvement with mainstreaming equality if outcomes are to promote social justice.

Elder abuse is a ‘social problem’, as illustrated by the production of policy documents and legislation that define and revise the scope and nature of the problem. This article synthesises and discusses the policy documents and legal changes that have taken place in England since 2000, when the first policy guidance to address adult safeguarding as a whole was produced. The focus of this article is on particular locations, namely care home and hospital settings, and the applicable policy and legislation. The policy documents and legal changes identified are analysed using Blumer's five phases of policy implementation and Matland's ambiguity-conflict matrix to explore their implications for policy implementation and coherence. The analysis suggests that responses to elder abuse have created different kinds of ambiguity and conflict, requiring both top-down and bottom-up policy interventions.

In its proposals for achieving a better ‘work–life balance’ for Britain's working families, the New Labour government is also seeking to balance the interests of business against the needs of families. This article argues that the economic policy ‘trilemma’ resulting from economic globalisation is mirrored in a parallel family policy trilemma, with particular consequences for the poorest families. Drawing upon this argument and, partly, upon illustrative evidence from a small-scale qualitative study of low-income working families, it is suggested that promoting family friendly employment alongside a policy of welfare-to-work cannot reasonably be achieved without significant additional regulation of low-paying employers.

Data on the sex industry is notably hard to obtain. Existing evidence points towards an increase in the number of people selling sex, particularly through the online industry. The growing and increasingly diverse population poses challenges to service provision, as new groups are less visible and less likely to be in contact with specialist services. Simultaneously, there are increased calls for policies regulating the sex industry to be grounded in evidence. Relying on systematic literature and data reviews, this article provides a synthesis of the evidence on the prevalence of sex work and prostitution in England and Wales. It shows that no existing source allows producing reliable estimates of the size and characteristics of sex markets. As a result, policy is informed by partial pictures. The article proposes local mapping, an underused approach, to inform both policy development and service provision.