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Relationships Matter – The Impact of Working Alliances in Employment Services

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2020

Rasmus Lind Ravn  and
Thomas Bredgaard
Rasmus Lind Ravn
Affiliation:
Department of Politics and Society, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark E-mail: rr@dps.aau.dk
Thomas Bredgaard
Affiliation:
Department of Politics and Society, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark E-mail: thomas@dps.aau.dk
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Abstract

A central assumption in social policy research and practice is that a strong working alliance between caseworkers and clients produces the best outcomes. There is, however, limited empirical evidence to support this assumption. This is especially the case within Active Labour Market Policies, where existing research focuses on programme effects rather than relationship effects.

In this article, we examine whether strong working alliances produce higher employment and education outcomes for disadvantaged jobseekers. The case is a Danish municipality that invested in reducing the caseloads of caseworkers working with disadvantaged social assistance recipients. The data combine survey data on social assistance recipients with outcome data from national administrative registers. Based on linear regressions, the analysis indicates that strong working alliances are positively related to subsequent employment and education outcomes. We discuss the implications, limitations and generalisability of this finding and the conditions for providing stronger working alliances in employment services.

Keywords

Working alliancesocial assistanceactive labour market policysocial work
Type
Article
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , July 2021 , pp. 418 - 435
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2020

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