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Activating Employers presents at the SPA conference 2023

Wednesday 5th July 2023
Sean Vincent
Author
Sean Vincent
Research Fellow

Activating Employers team members Dr Anne Daguerre and Dr Sean Vincent, both of Brighton University, made the first public presentation of preliminary findings of the Activating Employers project at the Social Policy Association annual conference held at the University of Nottingham.

Amongst the first speakers at the event, which was attended by leading academics and practitioners within the social policy sector, the Activating Employers team helped to set the tone for 3 days of invaluable research collaboration by setting out the vision for the project – to provide a deep model of best practice for employers and commissioning authorities in public contracting which can deliver maximum social benefits for employees from traditionally disadvantaged groups.

Anne and Sean were also able to present early findings from an ongoing systematic review of literature in public contracting, specifically examining academic publications and government/think tank reports from 2010-2023 in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia. This review has identified 5 policy intervention mechanism which are currently used by commissioners to improve employment prospects for vulnerable groups:

  • Payment by results models
  • Increasing supplier diversity to increase employment participation of ethnic minority business owners
  • Community benefit agreements, commonly seen in local projects in the United States
  • The use of social procurement to promote, prescribe and regulate labour standards
  • Voluntary employer mechanisms, such as good employment charters


The presentation received positive feedback for the overall aims of the projects and questions to the project team from conference attendees provided some much-welcomed critical feedback which will help to inform the next stages of the project.

The Social Policy Association conference was a great success and shone a light on some of the fascinating research being done in social policy. Of particular note were findings from the Buying Social Justice project and a keynote speech given by Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon.

This was just the first step in outreach planned by the Activating Employers team. We are already looking forward to further conference presentations in the UK, Australia and around Europe, as well as networking and engagement events with stakeholders and policymakers in the coming months.

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