SPA Policy Groups

May 31, 2021 S-P-A-Administrator News, SPA Blog 0

Photo by Thirdman from Pexels

The SPA exists to advance the teaching, research, and dissemination of knowledge in the field of social policy, and to represent the interests of our members. To help us achieve this purpose, in 2020 we commissioned and funded Policy Groups to operate from January 2021 to December 2022. Building on this successful experience, in July 2023 we issued a new call to invite members to apply for the opportunity to form new policy groups. We are delighted to now offer support to seven policy groups – our three original ones as well as four new groups.

Over 2024-2025 these groups will hold events, share research, engage with relevant audiences and produce resources for teachers and researchers in their policy area. Updates on the activities of the groups will be posted via the SPA website, e-bulletins and our social media channels.

Please contact policy group leads for more information or to get involved.

You can find information about our seven policy groups below:

  1. Citizenship, Immigration, and Social Policy
  2. Employment Policy
  3. Family Policy
  4. Housing Policy
  5. Pensions Policy
  6. Poverty Policy
  7. Social Harm
  8. Tax Policy

For further information about this initiative, you can contact the SPA’s Impact and Engagement Portfolio lead, Alessio D’Angelo: a.dangelo@derby.ac.uk.

 

Citizenship, Immigration, and Social Policy Group

Scope and aims of group

Immigration status is a key determinant of access to services and rights, further shaped by nationality, class, gender, race, and disability. Yet core areas of social policy, including housing, healthcare, education, and social protection, often assume citizenship as a starting point. This can overlook the differentiated entitlements of migrants or assume their exclusion, leaving critical questions about belonging, membership and welfare at the margins of debate. There is also a conceptual divide in social policy scholarship between the Global North and Global South, which limits understanding of global patterns of migration and the different entitlements associated with citizenship around the world. Access to mobility itself differs sharply between those with limited economic and human capital and those who are wealthy or highly skilled.

The Citizenship, Immigration and Social Policy (CISP) group provides a platform for SPA members to engage critically and collaboratively with growing research on and policy interest in the intersection between citizenship, migration, and welfare. The group aims to foster analysis of citizenship and migration regimes, and assess their consequences and their implications for policy, through scholarly activities, direct policy response and public engagement. We aim to inform debate with robust evidence at a time when questions about migrants’ access to services, benefits, settlement, and citizenship are central to immigration and welfare politics. While grounded in the British context, the group adopts a global perspective.

Contacts

The group is co-led by Idil Akıncı (Lecturer in Race and Social Policy, University of Edinburgh), Lucinda Platt (Professor of Social Policy and Sociology, LSE), and Ala Sirriyeh (Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Lancaster University). To get involved or find out more, contact Idil Akıncı (Idil.Akinci@ed.ac.uk).

Employment Policy Group

This group brings together two formerly separate groups (the Employment Policy in Context Group and the Employment and Social Security Policy Group).

This group, currently led by Levana Magnus and Sioned Pearce, focuses on:

  • Employment support and Active Labour Market Policy
  • Links between employment and social security
  • Gender and other social inequalities
  • Employment protection, regulation, and enforcement
  • Demand-side policies and employer perspectives;
  • Skills policy; and efforts to promote good work and in-work progression, particularly as a means of overcoming disadvantage;
  • Strategic approaches to economic recovery and addressing inequalities;
  • Setting employment policy in broader context (e.g. how other policy areas contribute, and considering how employment policies play out in particular types of place
  • UK employment policy in comparative and international perspective
image of red sign stating 'for hire'
Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Read employment and social security resources produced by the group:

If you are interested in joining the Employment Policy Group network, please contact Levana Magnus (levana.magnus@york.ac.uk) or Sioned Pearce (pearces11@cardiff.ac.uk).

People are also encouraged to share information through the group mailing list (via jiscmail) and to follow the Bluesky account @spaemploysocsec.bsky.social for updates.

 

Family Policy Group

Families have a vital role to play in supporting the welfare of societies. The Family Policy Group provides a unique, interdisciplinary space to explore and discuss the ever-evolving relationship and intersection between families and social policy, and the complexity of their roles in sustaining societal welfare. In recent years, the evolving relationship between the family and social policy has become ever more apparent. Within a context of increasing inequalities associated with encroaching neoliberal welfare and familial policies, a continued challenge is that the individuals that comprise families are being made increasingly responsible for their own welfare with limited and conditional support from social security.

Family policies also remain at the centre of social debates. More recently, there has been a significant increase of interest in the extent to which low-income families have been supported to weather multiple accumulating crises, not least the pandemic and cost of living crisis. The crisis of childcare provision and a push towards improved parental leave are also high on campaign and policy agendas and are galvanising commentators, policy makers and academics alike.

Bringing together shared expertise in this broad thematic area, our aim as a group is to establish a stronger platform from which to shape policy narratives and practice approaches in an empirically driven and collaborative way. Underpinned by an ethos of care, compassion and collaboration, the group will foster a collective approach with the shared goal of improving understanding of policy changes that are relevant to families. We also aim to collate evidence for the purposes of campaigning on and influencing policy decisions that impact on diverse experiences of family life.

Read more on the Family Policy Group introductory blog here (November 2024).

Linked websites:

Following Young Fathers Further: https://followingyoungfathersfurther.org/

Thomas Coram Research Unit: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/departments-and-centres/centres/thomas-coram-research-unit

To enquire about the group please contact group leads Professor Anna Tarrant (atarrant@lincoln.ac.uk) and Dr Linzi Ladlow (lladlow@lincoln.ac.uk)

 

Housing Policy Group

We’re a wide-ranging group with interests in pretty much anything to do with housing policy – from community-led housing and queer housing to sustainability and ageing in place. We’re particularly keen to reintegrate housing into social policy debates – to remind academics, policy-makers and practitioners that discussions of welfare, health, inequality and the future of the welfare state are incomplete without understanding homes and housing.

In terms of activities, we’ve run workshops and symposia, produced introductory teaching materials and put together a themed section in Social Policy and Society. In January 2024, the Climate Justice and Housing Policy groups organised an event on tackling housing decarbonisation in a cost of living crisis. You can read and view a report of the event here. You can also read a related blog on a ‘radical sufficiency’ approach to inadequate housing here.

Image of housekeys in a wooden door

Photo by PhotoMIX Company from Pexels

And we’re always open to new members and new ideas – get in touch if you’d like to be involved, raise a question, or make a suggestion. We’re especially keen to hear from Early Career Researchers.

Contact Steve Rolfe: steve.rolfe@stir.ac.uk.

Twitter / X: @HousingSpa

Read the list of key housing policy teaching resources produced by the group here (word doc).

 

 

Pensions Policy Group

Image source: unsplashed

The Pensions Social Policy Group is currently led by Liam Foster, Hayley James and Ellie Suh.

The group’s overarching goal is to provide opportunities and support for researchers at all stages of their careers to engage in debates, activities and events regarding pensions policy in the UK and beyond. In doing so it aims to stimulate a better understanding of the role of pensions in social policy teaching and research.

This will be achieved through:

  • Organising activities to exchange ideas and foster collaborations regarding pensions, such as SPA conference symposia, workshops, and roundtable discussions.
  • Engaging with members of the broader pension policy and practice community.
  • Creating a diverse range of outputs such as blogs and podcasts on hot pension topics.
  • Building and sharing materials on pensions policy, including delivering a list of key resources for SPA members with an interest in the field of pensions.

Access the reading list on pensions policy and associated themes prepared by the SPA pensions policy group here (Word doc.).

If you are interested in joining the Pensions Policy Group network, please contact Liam Foster (l.foster@sheffield.ac.uk), Hayley James (h.james1@aston.ac.uk) and Ellie Suh (e.suh@bham.ac.uk).

Poverty Policy Group

The Poverty Policy Group provides a collaborative forum for examining the persistent and evolving challenges of poverty. It fosters informed discussion and supports the development of timely, evidence-based, and innovative approaches, while prioritising outreach, action, and meaningful engagement beyond traditional scholarly activity. Drawing on members’ distinctive expertise in community and public engagement, the group promotes cross-sector collaboration, contributes to public debate and ensuring that research insights reach decision-makers and the wider public.

The Group is committed to addressing the fragmented understanding of poverty in research, policy, and public debate. It emphasises the importance of centering the lived experiences of people in poverty as vital evidence that poverty is a holistic, interconnected experience. The Group highlights how poverty affects all aspects of daily life and household circumstances, influencing health and social well-being as economic, social, political, and environmental factors intersect and accumulate across the life course.

Led by Vicki Dabrowski and Natalija Atas, our Policy Group aims to:

1. Advance understanding of poverty and its evolving drivers, through collaborative analysis of issues such as the cost-of-living crisis, rising wealth concentration, devolution, and climate impacts.

2. Foster interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration, bringing together scholars, practitioners, policymakers, community groups, NGOs, and think-tanks to develop innovative, evidence-informed approaches to tackling poverty.

3. Develop high-quality pedagogical resources, including infographics, lesson plans, seminar debate cards, and short instructional videos, to support teaching and learning on poverty across HEIs, schools, and professional settings.

4. Enhance policy engagement and public understanding, by contributing research insights to key debates, informing stakeholders, and strengthening the interface between research and policy.

Beyond scholarly outputs, the group is action-focused and committed to wide-reaching knowledge exchange. Members bring extensive experience in community and public engagement, enabling meaningful collaboration with diverse audiences and ensuring research insights reach decision-makers, practitioners and the wider public.

Group members

The members of this group include Freya Cole Norton (DPhil Candidate in Socio-Legal Research, University of Oxford), Lee Gregory (Associate Professor of Social Policy, University of Nottingham), John McKendrick (Professor of Social Justice, Glasgow

Caledonian University), Stephen Sinclair (Professor of Social Policy, Glasgow Caledonian University), Prof Peter Taylor-Gooby (Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, University of Kent), Associate Professor Gideon Calder (Associate Professor of Social Philosophy and Policy, Swansea University), Remo Siza (Senior Consultant at Research Institutes, Italy).

Get involved

We welcome expressions of interest from colleagues across disciplines, sectors, and career stages (including Early Career Researchers, PhD students, and partners from outside the UK). Please get in touch with us at V.Dabrowski@leedstrinity.ac.uk and atasn@hope.ac.uk

 

Social Harm Policy Group

Credit: Logan Weaver / Unsplash

Increased costs of living experienced by nine in ten adults in the UK, restrictions on protests and judicial reviews, and displacements of 110 million people because of war and political instability – with many countries, including the UK, tightening their borders against refugees from these communities: all of these trends exemplify social harm on a mass scale. These phenomena demonstrate the intensification of social and economic inequalities and injustice.

Social harm is both a conceptual tool and a meta-analytical approach that connects the examination of contemporary societal issues with underlying factors such as unfairness, injustice, discrimination, exploitation, repression, inequality, indifference, and exclusion. Scrutiny of these factors remain incomplete if they are not linked systematically to the power of political and economic elites who can influence how harm is acknowledged and responded to.

Led by Nasrul Ismail and Christina Pantazis, our Policy Group aims to:

  1. Advance knowledge of social harm about contemporary societal issues;
  2. Foster collaborative, interdisciplinary, and cross-cutting research activities by bringing scholars from interdisciplinary perspectives together around a range of common interests;
  3. Create pedagogical resources for teachers, researchers, and students across the UK, employing interactive, reflective, and experiential methods; and
  4. Provide opportunities to cascade research and knowledge beyond academia to enhance the effectiveness of governmental and non-governmental organisations in dealing with pressing social harms.

You can also find out more about our Social Harm Policy Group here.

We are always keen to hear suggestions and ideas for collaborations. We welcome new members, particularly Early Career Researchers, PhD students, and colleagues from outside of the UK. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us at Nasrul.Ismail@bristol.ac.uk and C.Pantazis@bristol.ac.uk.

 

Tax and Social Policy Group

Scope and aims of group

Image source: Flickr

Our overarching goal is to raise awareness of taxes as instruments of social policy and to stimulate analyses of the variety of ways in which taxes influence the welfare of society. The metaphor of ‘the tax system’ long served to insulate and protect its ‘agencies and experts’ from social science scrutiny outside economics and accounting although this has begun to change. We will open up discussion of the interaction of the whole range of taxes, direct and indirect, personal and corporate, locally, nationally and internationally, with other policies that serve to shape society and their impact on the lives of its members.

We wish to:

  1. Understand the connections between taxation and social policy and promoting wider appreciation of these in social policy research and teaching;
  2. Identify the quantity and quality of evidence and key gaps;
  3. Setting out a research and policy agenda;
  4. Develop teaching material at graduate and undergraduate level;
  5. Build interdisciplinary policy networks.

Links to blogs

A Sinfield (2021) Tackling Tax Policies That Reinforce Inequalities, The Social Policy Blog

https://socialpolicyblog.com/2021/02/09/tackling-tax-policies-that-reinforce-inequalities/

A Baker and R Murphy (2020) Rethinking Tax Systems for a Post-Covid Social Contract

https://socialpolicyblog.com/2020/05/01/rethinking-tax-systems-for-a-post-covid-social-contract/

S Ruane (2017) Taxation, inequality and post-industrial society

https://policypress.wordpress.com/2017/07/04/taxation-inequality-and-post-industrial-society/

Teaching resources

A Lymer, M May, and A Sinfield (eds) (2023) Taxation and Social Policy, Bristol: Policy Press

ML Collins, S Ruane and A Sinfield (2022) Taxation and Social Policy, in P. Alcock, T. Haux, M. May and V. McCall (eds) Student’s Companion to Social Policy, 6th edn, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell

Collins, M.L. (2021) ‘Taxation: Measures and Policy Issues’ in J. O’Hagan, F. O’Toole and C. Walsh (eds.) The Economy of Ireland: Policy Making in a Global Context (14th edition). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

S Ruane and D Byrne (2020) Paying for the welfare state and taxation in the UK, in H Bochel and G Daly (eds) Social Policy, London: Routledge.

D Byrne and S Ruane (2017) Paying for the Welfare State in the 21st Century: Tax and Spending in Post-Industrial Societies, Bristol: Policy Press.

Collins, M.L. (2016) ‘Ireland’s Income Taxation System: a social policy perspective’ in Tobin, G. and C. O’Brien (eds.) Irish Tax Policy in Perspective. Dublin, Institute of Taxation and Department of Finance.

Email addresses and welcome

If you are working in an area of relevance to taxation such as poverty, inequality, income support, housing, the third sector, pensions social care and public spending, even if tax is not your central focus, and would like to join the group or to receive further information, please contact Micheál or Sally:

Micheál Collins: ml.collins@ucd.ie

Sally Ruane: sruane@dmu.ac.uk

Teachers, researchers, officials in central, regional or local government and campaigners, from UK, other countries and international bodies are all welcome.