Event: Work and welfare: employment policy in Britain and beyond

Britain’s labour market is under pressure. Insecure work is reshaping people’s lives, welfare reform is rewriting the rules of the safety net, and the experience of working — or seeking to work — can be look different if you’re self-employed, young, a woman, or have a disability. So where is employment policy heading, and what does the evidence actually tell us?

Join six leading social policy researchers as they draw on their newly published books to tackle these questions head on — covering everything from in-work benefits and the welfare-work nexus to lessons from the devolved nations and international comparisons. Together they bring some of the sharpest thinking in the field to bear on the challenges facing working-age people today.

Hosted by the Resolution Foundation and organised by the SPA Employment Policy Group.

Audience questions welcome, and refreshments provided.

 

Programme

14:30 – arrival, networking over tea and coffees

15:00 – welcome and short introduction to the event and the SPA Employment Policy Group (Nye Cominetti, Resolution Foundation)

15:05 – 15:35 – 5-minute presentations on each new book (see list below)

15:35 – 15:45 – comments/reflections by Nye Cominetti, plus questions for the authors

15:45-16:00 – reply from the authors

16:00 – 16:30 – open questions and discussion between audience and panellists

16:30-17:00 – close and informal networking

 

Books on the panel:

Sioned Pearce: Youth Unemployment and Devolution. Civil Society and Street-level Responses, https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/youth-unemployment-and-devolution

Helen Blakely: Women, Work and the Everyday Politics of Welfare. Work Care and Civil Society. https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/single-mothers-and-the-welfare-trap

Gaby Ramia, Zoë Irving, Elke Heins and Ricardo Velázquez Leyer (eds): Research Handbook on Social Policy and Employment, https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/research-handbook-on-social-policy-and-employment-9781035317936.html?srsltid=AfmBOorbWK4gcOygYpn8Kcn0sNPvbhkjHl8xsY7tc7fcdrP8g4JE1FYz

Wieteke Conen and Enrico Reuter (eds): Research Handbook on Self-Employment and Public Policy, https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/research-handbook-on-self-employment-and-public-policy-9781800881853.html

Ewan Robertson: Making work pay in mature welfare states, The Politics of In-Work Benefits in France and the United Kingdom, https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-11473-0

Andy Holroyde: Sheltered Employment and Disability in the British Welfare State, Remploy, 1944-1979, https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-87876-3

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Event image photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash