Dan Heap | University of Edinburgh (original) (raw)
BA Social & Political Science, University of Cambridge, 2006-2009
MSc Social Policy Research, University of Edinburgh, 2009-2010
1+3 ESRC CASE PhD, Social Policy, 2010-2014
My work looks at the provision of back-to-work support for people out of work for reasons of sickness and disability in Denmark and the UK. Specifically, it is seeking to build a framework for detecting and understanding changes in the extent and type of back-to-work support offered to this group of claimants. One of the key findings of the research is that active labour market policies (ALMP), particularly that for claimants historically seen as marginalised from the labour market, are much more changeable in quality and quantity than has hitherto been appreciated by academic studies. Services can become well-entrenched or sidelined depending on a number of factors, in particular, how well policymakers can construct and steer networks of service providers. The second main finding is the challenges governments face in providing better support for these groups are remarkably similar across national boundaries, despite very large differences in national policy and institutional arrangements. Both these findings challenge what has been the dominant approach to dealing with cross-national variation in many areas of social policy – producing regime ideal types by reading off from formal policy arrangements.
Supervisors: Dan Clegg and Jochen Clasen
Phone: [+44] 131 651 1743
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Papers by Dan Heap
Disability & Society, 2014
Journal of Contemporary European Studies
Disabled people, work and welfare, 2015
This paper examines the development of back-to-work support for non-employed sick and disabled pe... more This paper examines the development of back-to-work support for non-employed sick and disabled people of working age in two European welfare states. Most countries have sought to improve the quantity and quality of such support in order to match the increased expectations of claimants to actively seek work. However, few studies have sought to examine the extent to which they have been able to do this and see the provision of support in a static way, whereas there is good reason to believe it is a highly changeable process, with the quality and quantity of support varying over time and place, according to a range of factors. A significant part of the period in which this has been a policy aim has been characterised by economic crisis and subsequent austerity, conditions which existing theory and evidence suggest could pose a challenge to improving such support. Thus, drawing on findings from a broader study of the development of active labour market policy for sick and disabled people, a cross-nationally comparative analysis of these developments in the UK and Denmark is pursued, looking at the extent the welfare settlement between welfare authorities and sick and disabled claimants has been reconfigured in recent years and at the extent to which this can be attributed to recession and austerity.
Disability & Society, 2014
Journal of Contemporary European Studies
Disabled people, work and welfare, 2015
This paper examines the development of back-to-work support for non-employed sick and disabled pe... more This paper examines the development of back-to-work support for non-employed sick and disabled people of working age in two European welfare states. Most countries have sought to improve the quantity and quality of such support in order to match the increased expectations of claimants to actively seek work. However, few studies have sought to examine the extent to which they have been able to do this and see the provision of support in a static way, whereas there is good reason to believe it is a highly changeable process, with the quality and quantity of support varying over time and place, according to a range of factors. A significant part of the period in which this has been a policy aim has been characterised by economic crisis and subsequent austerity, conditions which existing theory and evidence suggest could pose a challenge to improving such support. Thus, drawing on findings from a broader study of the development of active labour market policy for sick and disabled people, a cross-nationally comparative analysis of these developments in the UK and Denmark is pursued, looking at the extent the welfare settlement between welfare authorities and sick and disabled claimants has been reconfigured in recent years and at the extent to which this can be attributed to recession and austerity.