UK expert on National Action Plans for Social Inclusion

Researchers: Jonathan Bradshaw, Fran Bennett

Funder: European Union

Duration: 2003 - ongoing

At the Lisbon summit in 2000, the European Council agreed to adopt an 'open method of coordination' in order to make a decisive impact on the eradication of poverty and social exclusion by 2010. Member states adopted common objectives at the Nice European Council and all member states drew up National Action Plans against poverty and social exclusion (NAPs/inclusion). Member states have also produced National Action Plans on employment, and National Strategy Reports on pension provision. The first UK National Action Plan on Social Inclusion 2001-2003 was published in July 2001.

Early in 2003, the European Commission established a group of non-government experts responsible for providing an independent critical review of member states' NAPs/inclusion. The UK experts Jonathan Bradshaw and Fran Bennett (University of Oxford) have so far produced these reports:

A First Report in April 2003, reviewing developments since the 2001-2003 NAP/inclusion
Click here to view report - external site (276KB PDF)
A Second Report in August 2003, which updated the first report, and also reviewed the involvement of actors in the NAP/inclusion for 2003
A Third Report reviewed the 2003-2005 NAP/inclusion for the UK, which was published on 31 July 2003 together with eight annexes. This review was designed to help inform the Second Joint Report on Social Inclusion, which was published in December 2003 by the Commission, especially the UK chapter in Part II.
A Fourth Report in April 2004 was a review of the implementation of the UK National Action Plan from July 2003, when it was published, to mid April 2004, including policy changes and the mobilisation of actors.
Click here to view report - external site (276KB PDF)
A Fifth Report was a further update of the previous report containing a review of new policy measures. However, in this report we were asked especially to assess the implementation of the NAP/inclusion at local level on the basis of different geographical cases, taking into account six key priorities for the period 2003-2005.
Click here to view report - external site (391KB PDF)

Details of the network of non-governmental experts and some of the reports are available by clicking the link below:

http://www.peer-review-social-inclusion.eu/network-of-independent-experts

2006

Bradshaw, J. and Bennett, F. (2006) Trends, Recent Developments, Active Inclusion and Minimum Resources, European Commission, Directorate General of Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Luxembourg.

Link to 'Peer Review and Assessment in Social Inclusion' website - a PDF of the report is available at the bottom of the list as - United Kingdom_1_06
Bradshaw, J. and Bennett, F., with Maynard, M. (2006) “Feeding in” and “Feeding out”, and Integrating Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities: A study of national policies, European Commission, Directorate General of Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Luxembourg.

Link to 'Peer Review and Assessment in Social Inclusion' website - a PDF of the report is available at the bottom of the list as - United Kingdom_2_06

2007

Bradshaw, J. and Bennett, F. (2007) Tackling Child Poverty and Promoting the Social Inclusion of Children: A study of national policies, European Commission DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Luxembourg

Link to 'Peer Review and Assessment in Social Inclusion' website - a PDF of the report is available at the bottom of the list as - United Kingdom_1_07

Bradshaw, J. and Bennett, F. (2007) Trends, Recent Developments, “Feeding in” and “Feeding Out”: A study of national policies, European Commission DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Luxembourg.

PDF available via this link

2008

Bennett, F. and Bradshaw, J. (2008) Assessment of the 2008-2010 National Reform Programmes for Growth and Jobs from a social inclusion perspective: The extent of synergies between growth and jobs policies and social inclusion policies, European Commission DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Luxembourg.

PDF available via this link

2009

Bradshaw, J. and Bennett, F. (2009) Minimum Income Schemes in the United Kingdom: A Study of National Policy, Second Semester Report of the Network of Social Inclusion Experts, European Commission DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Luxembourg.

PDF available via this link

2010

Bradshaw, J., Bennett, F. and Mayhew, E. (2010) In-work Poverty and Labour Market Segmentation: A study of national policies, United Kingdom., European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Brussels.

PDF available via this link