Social Policies and Distributional Outcomes in a Changing Britain programme series

Wednesday 4th July 2018 Listen to the audio recording of the full event here

Country level devolution: Scotland

Mark Stephens Professor of Public Policy and Director, The Urban Institute, Heriot-Watt University
Suzanne Fitzpatrick Professor of Housing and Social Policy and Director, I-SPHERE, Heriot-Watt University Presentation slides here
Devolution is an increasingly important element of the landscape for social policy making in Britain and is resulting in increased divergence in social policies with potential implications for social inequalities within and across the four countries of the UK. This seminar brought together and examined recent research findings on both country-level devolution and city/region devolution and discussed the implications of the new and emerging devolved powers for social policies and distributional outcomes. Professor Mark Stephens and Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick draw on lessons from Scotland, where powers have been extended the furthest, with a particular focus on social security, tax, housing and homelessness.

City/region level devolution: Greater Manchester

Professor Ruth Lupton Head of Inclusive Growth Analysis Unit at the University of Manchester Presentation slides here
Ruth Lupton discussed emerging evidence from Greater Manchester in policy areas such as health and social care, employment and policing, in order to establish the nature and scope of devolution in these areas and the relationship of devolution to social policy change and addressing inequalities.

The findings are the first outputs from the new CASE research programme, Social Policies and Distributional outcomes in a Changing Britain (SPDO), which is funded by Nuffield Foundation and examines the relationship between social policy making and inequalities in 21st century Britain.