Joining up welfare and work: the role of private public partnerships in British and Australian welfare reform

Welfare reform has been at the top of the international policy agenda for nearly a decade. Many OECD countries have responded to high levels of long term unemployment and increased economic inactivity rates through major reforms aimed at creating work-based welfare systems. The new approaches have involved radical changes in traditional employment and welfare agency bureaucracies, usually coupled with decentralisation and the increased use of private and voluntary sector organisations for the delivery of active labour market programmes. This paper explores and contrasts the Australian mutual obligation welfare state with the British employment first approach to welfare reform, and assesses the ways in which the respective Governments are redefining the role played by the public and private sectors in delivering services and employment assistance for those without work.