This chapter offers a descriptive, yet critical, overview of a holistic approach to managing health and wellbeing of employees that has been developed in Finland from the 1980s by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH). Known as the Work Ability model (Ilmarinen, 2010), it attempts to integrate all aspects of the health and wellbeing of individuals and should be seen as a preventative approach to the management of a broad range of health issues in the workplace. Thus it could extend the quality working life of all adults, but more especially (and its initial purpose) those over 50, generally described in the literature as ‘older workers’. It is offered here as an example of an integrated yet scientifically based approach to the improvement of health and wellbeing over the life-course that could be introduced into the United Kingdom (UK). It would build on the work of the Health, Work and Wellbeing strategy led by Dame Carol Black during the last Labour administration (see Black, 2008) (to be discussed later).

This chapter first provides a description of the Finnish approach and a brief background to its development as a method within what has been termed ‘age management’. It then considers how it might be applied in the UK context, given the policy shift of raising the state pension age, and thus (potentially) extending the time spent in employment. Fundamental to the method is the promotion of ‘active ageing’ (see Walker, 2002; WHO, 2002) and the productive and quality-led extension of working life. This assumes that all individuals want to, and indeed need to, extend their working lives and certainly this may not always be the case. However, for a substantial number, continuing to work may be a financial necessity, as well as a desirable goal in some cases (Smeaton et al, 2008). Additionally, it has been demonstrated through scientifically rigorous studies that the Work Ability approach can lead to a better quality of retirement over the longer term (Tuomi et al, 2001; Gould et al, 2008). Other research evidence has demonstrated that employees value work for a range of reasons, including intrinsic interest and sense of purpose, the ability to use skills and knowledge acquired over a lifetime, social status and self-respect, and social engagement with colleagues and workmates, customers and partners (McNair and Flynn, 2006; Waddell and Burton, 2006).

Overview

This year's Social Policy Review (SPR) follows the tried and tested structure of previous years. It is divided into three distinct parts, each edited by one of the three co-editors who provide below an introduction to their section. Part One, commissioned and edited by Tony Maltby, provides a review of some of the significant developments in social policy during 2007; Part Two, edited by Patricia Kennett, is a selection of papers from those delivered to the annual international Social Policy Association (SPA) conference held at the University of Birmingham in July 2007; and the final part, edited by Kirstein Rummery, focuses upon the important issue of gender inequality within the policy process and provides a selection of papers from a SPA-sponsored workshop.

Part One: Current developments – Tony Maltby

The first part differs slightly from previous years. The aim, as in previous editions of the Review, is to provide the reader with a review and analysis of the key developments in UK social policy during the previous year. However, my aim as lead editor was to broaden the perspective away from what I regard as a rather dated and somewhat narrow ‘five giants’ framework.

Hence, the chapters comprising this section also reflect the areas of policy that are now pertinent to the key challenges and debates within social policy in the 21st century. My view is that the ‘five giants’ framework is now more relevant to the 1940s and 1950s than to 2008. To suggest that we continue to operate within Beveridge's ‘five giants’ framework, at least for this review, seems to suggest that the discipline has failed to reflect the rapidly changing agenda of social policy as a 21st-century discipline. We no longer have central government Departments for (of) Education or Social Security or, for that matter, Housing. Would anyone argue that we should ignore the debate on the impact of sexuality, sexism or racism (for example) upon policy, as Beveridge did? Let us celebrate the vibrancy of our discipline, and allow the exploration of new avenues by building upon Beveridge's legacy.

The current debate about global environmental change and its impact upon the ‘social’, and indeed social policy issues (for example, work, lifestyle, leisure, housing, transport, poverty), and the participation of adults in learning and training are two such examples of debates that should be included.

Introduction

The everyday, localised experiences and perceptions of older people in accessing paid work, and their retention and progression in employment, are under-researched and under-documented. More often studies consider the implementation of policy at the national level and at the level of the firm, that is, at a macro level of analysis. This chapter1 provides something unique, since it reports on a participatory and empowering qualitative ‘action research’ project conducted and funded as part of the Equal Community Initiative's Forward Development Partnership, which was based in and focused on two communities in central England (Birmingham and Solihull). The Development Partnership was established to consider issues of access, retention and progression in employment and offer both practical localised policy implementation and research evidence to enhance the employability of people with disabilities, those requiring ‘basic skills’ and ‘older workers’. The main policy-focused output of the ‘older workers’ research was the derivation of a ‘What works?’ list of policy initiatives based on the key research findings (see Appendix), and the primary objective of the research was to enhance the employability of this age cohort. The research demonstrated that continuing institutional age discrimination by employers, unsatisfactory training provision and limited accommodation of health problems as they affect the ability to engage in paid work were the key limiting factors affecting access, retention and progression of ‘older workers’ (that is, those aged over 50 years). The chapter builds on this evidence to suggest that better progress might be achieved at the national level through the application of the more holistic ‘work ability’ approach. This has the overall aim of enhancing productivity and promoting the sustainability of the workforce. Conceptually, work ability considers the interplay between all the factors that enable a person to function well in a job. It aims to balance the personal factors, such as physical and mental health, skills and motivation, with the job itself; how it is managed, what the working environment is like and what the role actually entails. The work ability concept of age management aims to encourage employers to tailor work to individuals as they age – and also to improve those individuals’ health and skills or knowledge needed for the job (see Ilmarinen and Tuomi, 2004, for a comprehensive discussion).

As in previous years, this volume of Social Policy Review is organised into three sections. Part One reviews developments in key areas of social policy during 2006: education, health, housing, adult social care, children's services and social security. The introduction of a chapter on children's services for the first time this year reflects the substantial transformation that has taken place in recent years in the organisation of social services. The emphasis on partnership working has resulted in the reappearance of services organised around the characteristics of particular client groups, replacing the Seebohm vision in which local authority social services departments were responsible for providing a service that offered support to all vulnerable groups.

The chapters in Part Two are by authors who presented papers at the annual international conference of the Social Policy Association held at Birmingham University in July 2006. Because the conference produced a large number of papers on a wide range of topics, the selection criteria for the chapters in Part Two were not simply to fit them to some synthetically derived theme, but reflect an attempt to represent this breadth. The selection has been made primarily on the basis of the interest and topicality of the material presented, while equally demonstrating the vitality of the discipline of social policy. The chapters have in common a focus on the less often discussed and ‘difficult to research’ challenges encountered within empirical research.

The theme for the chapters in Part Three is migration and social policy. This is an issue that has provoked substantial debate and is high on the political agenda both nationally and internationally. The chapters in this section connect with, and expand on, key contemporary policy debates in the field of migration – recent enlargement of the European Union and the scale and impact of migration from new member states, in particular Eastern Europe; the challenges brought about by the migration of older people not only in terms of their ability to access adequate and appropriate welfare services, but also to the existing systems of welfare provision and the principles on which they were built; and finally migration processes as the management of complex and multiple life courses with a particular focus on children.

Part One: Current services

A number of common themes emerge from these reviews of developments in key social policy areas in 2006.