Searching for best practice in welfare-to-work: The means, the method and the message

Abstract

English ‘Lessons from America’ have played an important role in shaping the British government’s approach to welfare-to-work. This article takes a critical look at the recent US welfare-to-work experience, concentrating on a comparative evaluation of ‘labour force attachment’ approaches and ‘human capital development’ methods. The current popularity of the ‘work first’ strategy of labour force attachment in the US must be seen in the context of the dynamism of the American labour market in recent years and a policy climate which has tended to favour ‘quick fix’ approaches. In contrast, the more broadly formulated welfare-to-work strategy developed in the UK must deal with problems of demand deficiency in many urban and regional labour markets. We conclude that the distinctly European objectives of social inclusion will not be well served by work first programming. In this field at least, seductive ‘lessons from America’ need to be interpreted with care.