Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 307-322
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bradbury
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
Constitutional Reform ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Social ◽  
Territorial Politics ◽  
The Uk

The book has provided four sets of conclusions. First, the examination of territorial strain, the nature of territorial problems and the characteristics of background conditions gives us a lens through which to evaluate critically the social, economic and cultural context to territorial politics. The second set of conclusions relate to the approaches used in the movements for territorial constitutional change in exploiting the support they did have and overcoming those weaknesses that still existed. As part of the reality of how territorial change happens it is to be expected that in the particular case of the UK that all territorial movements emerged out of party political contestation and self-interested party choices, and then had to define approaches heavily determined by party constraints. The third set of conclusions relate to UK central government. The UK centre was also in part defined by the pursuit of party power, and the key party at the UK level ready to address territorial constitutional reform — the Labour Party — faced large challenges and anxieties after 18 years out of office when they prepared for the 1997 general election. The final set of conclusions relate to the importance of constitutional policy processes to the resolution of conflicts in centre–periphery relations. Approaches to the development of devolution policy were followed which made the best efforts to achieve territorial balance under the constraints that they faced. The policy processes in Scotland and Northern Ireland achieved sometimes high, but at least sufficient, levels of inclusiveness in their mechanisms of negotiation.

scholarly journals Polityka społeczna w Szkocji po reformie dewolucyjnej. W stronę fragmentaryzacji brytyjskiego welfare state?

2021 ◽  
pp. 129-144
Author(s):  
Tomasz Mering
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Unemployment Benefits ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Regional Authorities

The article presents the origins and evolution of social policy programmes in Scotland since the referendum in 1997. Regional authorities in Scotland obtained significant prerogatives in payment of social benefits. They actively exercised the rights granted by the UK legislation, resulting in the partial decentralisation of the social security system in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has become a fact. This decentralisation is not complete, because the administration of pensions, and unemployment benefits remains the sole responsibility of London’s central government. One of the features of British social policy has become territorial asymmetry, consisting of partially different programs and social policy institutions in other parts of the UK. The most important effect of the reforms is the creation of institutions and draft social policy programs that can be put into effect, when the process of political emancipation in Scotland will lead to a new regional referendum.

Reconfiguring professional autonomy? The case of social work in the UK

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Chandler ◽  
Elisabeth Berg ◽  
Marion Ellison ◽  
Jim Barry
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Professional Autonomy ◽  
The Third ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Uk

This chapter discusses the contemporary position of social work in the United Kingdom, and in particular the challenges to what is seen as a managerial-technicist version of social work. The chapter begins with focus on the situation from the 1990s to the present day in which this version of social work takes root and flourishes. The discussion then concentrates on three different routes away from a managerial-technicist social work: the first, reconfiguring professional practice in the direction of evaluation in practice, the second ‘reclaiming social work’ on the Hackney relationship-based model and the third ‘reclaiming social work’ in a more radical, highly politicised way. Special attention is devoted to a discussion about how much autonomy the social workers have in different models, but also what kind of autonomy and for what purpose.

Territorial Politics, Regionalism and England

2021 ◽  
pp. 241-272
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bradbury
Keyword(s):  
Policy Process ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Entire Period ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Local Elite ◽  
British Labour ◽  
Territorial Politics ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Uk

This chapter addresses the reform of government in England over the entire period between 1997 and 2007. First, the chapter considers the nature of the territorial strain, problem and resources for change present in England. Second, the chapter considers peripheral elite leadership in England — whether through intermediate English elite or English regional elite leadership — and the codes, strategies and goals pursued. It explores further the thesis that movements for territorial change also in England adopted indirect instrumental cases for territorial reform rather than direct identity-based ones, emphasising functional arguments and the development of institutional mechanisms for gradual decentralisation, rather than major root and branch reform. Third, the chapter analyses the approach of UK central government, and in particular that of the British Labour leadership both in opposition before 1997 and in government afterwards. Here, we should note that Bulpitt suggested that the English governing code had tended to parallel the indirect local elite assimilation approach used territorially in the rest of the UK. Nevertheless, under modernisation projects since the 1960s, including those of the Thatcher–Major governments, the overall government strategy was a promotional one, often requiring direct central intervention in the short term to realise central governing projects. Finally, the chapter assesses the policy process by which English reform was developed, the extent to which it may be seen as effective and legitimate, and judged as successful or not in sustaining a new centre.

4. How the UK is organised

2021 ◽  
pp. 71-99
Author(s):  
Anne Dennett
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
National Security ◽  
Central Government ◽  
State Legislature ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Government Power ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk

This chapter details how power is allocated in the UK, and its organisation in terms of devolution and regional and local government. Power in the UK is divided into three branches or arms of state: legislature (law-makers), executive (government and administration), and judiciary (courts and judges). Before devolution, the government’s (executive’s) administrative power was centralised and it extended to the whole of the UK, but devolution has made significant changes to the constitution and has brought a substantial rebalancing of power in the government of the UK. Since devolution’s introduction, the power of central government no longer extends to the growing areas of domestic policy that have been devolved to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The UK government’s remit therefore now covers England and the whole of the UK on non-devolved matters including the conduct of foreign affairs, defence, national security, and oversight of the Civil Service and government agencies.

scholarly journals The Social Union after the Coalition: Devolution, Divergence and Convergence

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARK SIMPSON
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Reform Agenda ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Scottish Independence ◽  
The Uk

AbstractIn 2009, the UK government emphasised that it was ‘deeply committed’ to the maintenance of the state's social union, embodied in a single social security system. Five years later, the future of this social union appeared less certain than at any time since the 1920s. Dissatisfaction with the ‘welfare reform’ agenda of the coalition government was a driver of support for Scottish independence in the 2014 referendum campaign. Meanwhile, the Northern Ireland Assembly failed to pass legislation to mirror the Welfare Reform Act 2012, normally a formality due to the convention of parity in social security. Despite Westminster's subsequent extension of the 2012 reforms to the region, divergence in secondary legislation and practice remains likely. This article draws on the findings of qualitative interviews with politicians and civil servants in both regions during a period covering the conclusion of the Smith Commission's work on the future of Scottish devolution and the height of a political impasse over Northern Ireland's Welfare Reform Bill that threatened a constitutional crisis. It considers the extent to which steps towards divergence in the two devolved regions have altered the UK's social union and to which the two processes have influenced one another.

Social Pedagogy: What Questions Can We Ask About Its Value and Effectiveness?

2011 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 187-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Public Care ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Social Pedagogy ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Cross National

Social pedagogy is a field of professional practice associated with the care and education of young children, support of young people, and with family support that has an established place in many continental European countries. It has attracted attention in the United Kingdom (UK) for its potential relevance to the policy ambition of improving the generally poor educational and social outcomes for young people in public care. In this article, I discuss some issues arising from the task of establishing the value, or effectiveness, of the social pedagogic approach. Using findings from cross-national studies, I argue that there are various problems with measuring the ‘effectiveness’ of social pedagogy, but that in countries where social pedagogy is well established and supported by a policy and cultural context, its role in supporting children and families is highly valued. I conclude by considering some implications for the introduction of social pedagogy into the UK.

Amending the constitution

Legal Studies ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-92
Author(s):  
Ian Cram
Keyword(s):  
Informed Consent ◽  
Constitutional Reform ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Civic Society ◽  
The People ◽  
The Face ◽  
Managed Change ◽  
Scottish Independence ◽  
The Uk

How easy ought it to be to enact constitutional amendment? In the absence of constitutionally prescribed procedures, fundamental reforms in the UK can often appear hurried, under-consultative and controlled by transient political majorities. In the recent referendum on Scottish independence, the NO campaign's promise of additional powers to Holyrood in the face of a possible ‘Yes’ vote appears to fit this pattern (even if, for reasons of political sensitivity, it was not driven directly by members of the Coalition government). A recent sample of concluded constitutional reforms, including the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 and the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, have drawn criticism from within Westminster on the grounds of defective process. Specific options to improve pre-parliamentary and parliamentary stages of constitutional reform have been proposed with a view to attaining principled procedures of constitutional reform removed from executive control that signal attachment to process values such as wide and effective consultation, deliberation outside and inside Parliament, and informed scrutiny. The foregoing prescriptions for remedying defective processes may, however, be said in the ultimate analysis to retain a normative preference for a more formal, elite-managed vision of constitutional change that is premised upon a limited conception of the citizens' ‘informed consent’. In any case, in purely descriptive terms, top-down managed change does not capture the totality of patterns of past constitutional reform in the UK. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, for example, radical grassroots campaigns for the extension of the franchise resulted ultimately in universal adult suffrage. More recently, the Scotland Act 1998 can be seen as the culmination of a civic society–led, deliberative engagement with ordinary voters over decades that offered an alternative vision of ‘bottom-up’ constitutional reform to that seen in more formal, elite-led processes of constitutional reform. The inclusive and participatory nature of the campaign for Scottish devolution marked out a radically different model of constitutional reform to that which has typified Westminster-style amendment and which is still largely directed by political elites. In such circumstances as prevail currently at Westminster, it is difficult to give much credence to claims that the outcomes of constitutional reform processes enjoy the ‘informed consent’ of the people.

scholarly journals Local government reform: Community planning and the quality of life in Northern Ireland

2015 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Knox ◽  
Paul Carmichael
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Community Planning ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Legal Power ◽  
The Uk

Abstract Local government in Northern Ireland has undergone a significant reform process in terms of both the number of councils (from twenty-six to eleven) and their functional responsibilities. Councils in Northern Ireland have always been regarded as the ‘poor relation’ of central government or non-departmental public bodies which deliver many of the services performed by local government in other parts of the UK (education, social services, housing). The reforms in Northern Ireland, while devolving relatively minor additional functions, offer councils a significant role in community planning – the legal power to hold central departments to account for services provided by them in local areas. This paper argues that councils can use this power to improve the quality of life of their inhabitants.

scholarly journals Brexit and Its Political Implications: the Cases of Scotland and Northern Ireland

2018 ◽  
pp. 17-25
Author(s):  
Kirill Petrov
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Government Relations ◽  
Conservative Government ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

The article describes the political process in the UK after the referendum on leaving the EU. Unsuccessful at least until February 2019 negotiations between the Conservative government and the EU are at the center of the process. Considerable attention is paid to the results of the general parliamentary elections of 2017, which brought the decline of multi-party politics. The article points to Brexit’s obvious connection with disruptions in the process of devolution and the emergence of new problems in the central government relations with the regions: Scotland and Northern Ireland.

scholarly journals The Imagination of the Other in a (Post-)Sectarian Society: Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the Divided City of Belfast

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrike M. Vieten ◽  
Fiona Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The City ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees ◽  
Do So

This article explores the ways a salient sectarian community division in Northern Ireland frames the imagination of newcomers and the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees. We examine the dominant ethno-national Christian communities and how their actions define the social-spatial landscape and challenges of manoeuvring everyday life in Northern Ireland as an ‘Other’. We argue all newcomers are impacted to some degree by sectarianism in Northern Ireland, adding a further complexified layer to the everyday and institutional racism so prevalent in different parts of the UK and elsewhere. First, we discuss the triangle of nation, gender and ethnicity in the context of Northern Ireland. We do so in order to problematise that in a society where two adversarial communities exist the ‘Other’ is positioned differently to other more cohesive national societies. This complication impacts how the Other is imagined as the persistence of binary communities shapes the way local civil society engages vulnerable newcomers, e.g. in the instance of our research, asylum seekers and refugees. This is followed by an examination of the situation of asylum seekers and refugees in Northern Ireland. We do so by contextualising the historical situation of newcomers and the socio-spatial landscape of the city of Belfast. In tandem with this, we discuss the role of NGO’s and civil support organisations in Belfast and contrast these views with the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees. This article is based on original empirical material from a study conducted in 2016 on the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees with living in Northern Ireland.

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