Top-down funded employment integration programmes: promoting bottom-up social innovation to empower the disadvantaged

Entrenched social disadvantage is one of society’s most wicked problems and manifests itself in numerous ways, one of which is long-term unemployment. The impacts of long-term unemployed are well-understood in the literature, with significant impacts on an individual’s psychological wellbeing, alongside the economic deprivation and familial problems that it can also cause (Karsten and Moser 2009). However, despite decades of policy support in this area, the issue of long-term unemployment is still prevalent in society today. The stubbornness of this social problem requires us to focus on socially innovative solutions to unemployment, to identify innovations that can empower individuals, improve their wellbeing and consequently gain them employment. However, the question of whether to drive these innovations through top-down funding and policy mechanisms, or whether they can be produced organically within communities themselves, remains unanswered. This is critical given that it can be argued that the most impactful social innovations are those that empower individuals and are cocreated with beneficiary groups (Mulgan, 2019).

This chapter will explore this question utilising data gathered in an employment integration programme delivered in England by a work-integration social enterprise. The research was mixed-methods in design, with survey data was gathered from 413 participants exploring demographic variables, self-efficacy and wellbeing, as well as employment outcomes. Qualitative data in the form of semi-structured interviews was also gathered from 32 participants exploring their experiences of the employment programme, specifically in relation to how they were empowered. The analysis reveals that whilst the participants experienced enhanced wellbeing and self-efficacy, this did not often translate to positive employment outcomes. The authors posit that this ‘failure’ is embedded in the top-down structures embedded by the funding body and entrenched policy around unemployment that seeks to ‘other’ disadvantaged individuals. This is framed within a theoretical approach that argues that impactful social innovation must be about place-based empowerment, rather than broad funding and policy mechanisms.