Evaluating New Labour's Welfare Reforms

The New Labour Government has placed great emphasis on service delivery. It has provided performance information in the form of Annual Reports, Public Service Agreements, Performance Assessment Frameworks, and a host of other targets. But has New Labour delivered on its welfare reform?

Evaluating New Labour's welfare reforms:

provides the first detailed and comprehensive examination of the welfare reforms of New Labour's first term;

compares achievements with stated aims;

examines success in the wider context;

contributes to the debate on the problems of evaluating social policy.

It is essential reading for academics and students of social policy and provides important information for academics and students in a wide range of areas such as politics, sociology, public policy, public administration and public management interested in welfare reform and policy evaluation.

Martin Powell is a Professor of Health and Social Policy at the University of Birmingham. Martin’s main research interest is in the British welfare state, especially the NHS. He has written or edited some 19 books, including some being translated into Chinese, Korean, and Polish. He has written over 80 peer reviewed articles, and he is a former editor of the journal ‘Social Policy and Administration’.