This article discusses reforms of the design of the organisational arena for policy implementation and service provision in European welfare states, focusing on the policy areas of income protection and activation. First, it discusses and compares recent reform programmes in four countries: the UK, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. The comparison shows that these reforms share some common characteristics: the establishment of one-stop agencies, decentralisation, the introduction of quasi-markets for the provision of activation services, a reduction of the role and influence of social partners and the use of new public management instruments in managing public agencies. Secondly, the article argues that these reforms are not merely reflecting new ways of thinking about organising the public sector and providing public services, but should also be interpreted as responses to policy administration and implementation problems arising in the process of making welfare states more activating.

This article focuses on the design of frontline work in public agencies involved in the delivery of activation programmes and services. More specifically, it raises the following questions: should we think of activation work as an administrative function or as a form of professional service provision? And does the design of activation work matter in terms of the effectiveness of activation services? In answering these questions, the article provides a meta-analysis of two strands of literature. First, we analyse the available literature reporting on studies of activation frontline work and its organisation and management in public agencies responsible for delivering activation programmes. Secondly, we look at those studies of the effectiveness of activation that focus on the impact of characteristics of frontline work and its organisation and management on activation policy outcomes. We conclude that although the desirability of a professional design of activation work meets relatively wide support among scholars, the feasibility of this professionalisation project is highly contested. In addition, the debate on the nature of the activation profession has only just started. Finally, evaluation studies show that activation work characteristics do affect the outcomes of activation programmes. Against this background, we conclude that a more prominent place of activation work on the research agenda of social policy scholars is recommendable.

Purpose -This article aims to discuss the individualisation trend in the provision of social services, focusing on activation services specifically. Design/methodology/approach -The individualisation trend in the provision of activation services is analysed against the background of public sector as well as social sector as well as social policy reforms: the introduction of new modes of governance and the rise of the active welfare state respectively. Findings -Concrete manifestations of individualised service provision are often based on various interpretations of individualisation and reflect different meanings of citizens' participation, and refer to different modes -or rather, mixes of different modes -of governance. The general argument of the article is illustrated and elaborated by analysing three national case studies of individualised service provision in the context of activation: the UK, The Netherlands and Finland. Originality/value -The trend that is analysed in the article -individualised service provision -is very clearly present in welfare state reforms, but has thus far not received much attention in academic literature.

No abstract

The introduction of market mechanisms is a crucial part of the new modes of governance emerging EU-wide in order to modernize the public sector. This article focuses on the introduction of marketization in the provision of activation services. The article draws on the Dutch experience, where activation services have been provided by private for-profit companies for several years now. In the first part, the emergence of new modes of governance is put in the context of welfare-state reforms aimed at making the welfare state more activating. Then, the marketization of activation services in the Netherlands is discussed as part of a wider institutional-reform process. Next, an assessment is made, based on several empirical sources, of the alleged advantages of the introduction of market mechanisms in the provision of social services. In the conclusion we argue that the effects of marketization strongly depend on the wider institutional and social-policy context in which it is embedded.